cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/48166923
James Talarico has been found guilty of quoting Jesus. The sentence he uttered, according to right-wing media, was “demonic” and “blasphemous,” exposing him as a “fake Christian.” Talarico is running for the U.S. Senate in Texas on a platform The New Yorker recently described as basically the New Testament. One Newsmax host accused him of using fake Bible passages.
The passages in question are familiar ones, found in Matthew 22 and Matthew 25. Love God and love your neighbor. Feed the hungry, heal the sick, welcome the stranger. They are, in fact, in the Bible.
The right’s attacks on Talarico aren’t about him, or at least not entirely. They’re about a much older argument — one progressive Christianity has been losing in public for 50 years — about whose version of the faith gets to count as real. The answer to that question has consequences far beyond any Senate race. When Christianity becomes a tool of power rather than a challenge to it, it doesn’t just damage the church. It destabilizes democracy. We are watching that happen in real time.
iirc there are books from the bible that cover Jesus’s youth, but they are kept out to preserve the desired narrative.
Oh I know. That’s what I mean, the Bible is it stands is boring and isn’t engaging to anyone. That’s why both Christians and non-Christians both failed to read it.
At one point Jesus has a brother, who presumably wasn’t very successful which is why he’s never mentioned again. Oh and there’s also a dragon. At one point Jesus fights a dragon. Officially, Christians believe in dragons. Why are they hiding all of this, it’s good stuff. I’d worship a dragon.