Question about Christianity and Social Media

No, I definitely am not.

I am part of a spiritual movement in Europe that radically disagrees with "America's dominant religion", and that is also a very small minority in Europe.

Don't attribute to others your own prejudices about what they believe and why. You have no right to do so, and no basis for doing so.

Why?
What puts religion over political party, soda preference, favorite ball team, etc, etc?

Oh, and I also could have gotten all feather-ruffley and indignant over you getting the finer details of my family history wrong.
But I find such drama tiresome when others engage in in it, so I avoid it myself.
I calmly corrected where I needed to.
You, you went right for the drama.
And got patted on the back for it.
Isn't it interesting how society allows that pass?
Allows that double standard?
I find it interesting.
Something worth investigating.
Don't you?

What actions are you taking to keep religion out of government?

Most likely, same as every other American -attempts to anyway - by voting.

@Diacanu is perfectly capable of replying on his own.

This.

Answered.

Now, would you like to answer why religion gets a pass on being treated like other topics, like political party, soda preference, favorite ball team, etc, etc?
Or, would you prefer Async answer on his own?

He's doing fine.

*Checks watch*
I'm never going to get an answer to this, am I?

I'll get something, but it'll be another variation on "no, YOU are the doody head!", even though I didn't call anyone a doody head to start with.

Y'know what? I hope I'm wrong.
I'll be glad to be wrong.

Then maybe you can figure out that there's a life beyond WF, and also that it's not quite 5 a.m. in France right now?

Not to mention that you've gone around and around and around on this topic, and you can't even acknowledge that Async's "flavor" of Christianity is different.

Baby, bathwater.

It's a lovely story, but it's not what I asked about.
Nor did I level an accusation that he was a regressive theocratic maniac.
He was going after a point I wasn't making.

That seems to be something you have in common.

It has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with telling someone you know more about him than he knows about himself. That is pure arrogance. If you had replied, "Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you were a Frog at heart despite everything you've posted over the years" I would say, "Fine. Now you know."

But you simply don't know enough about me (obviously) to say that I am part of "America's dominant religion". I am actively opposed to "America's dominant religion". I preach against it, I write books against it, I teach pastors and other church workers in a number of countries an entirely different approach to Christianity.

For you to say I am "part of America's dominant religion" would be like for me to say that you are "part of America's political establishment". I know you are not, that you are in fact a rabble-rouser and not just a cheerleader for anyone with a "D" by their name. (And I respect you for it.) But that is basically what you are doing, simply to try to make a point. You come up with a simplistic explanation, telling others what they believe, and then you take offense when you are told that you don't have the right to do that.

Why do you think you have the right to tell others what they believe?

Never is a long time.
Some of us don't hang out on WF 24/7. Consider yourself fortunate already that I try to get to the board every day.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, and follow his teachings?
You're Christian.
That's America's dominant religion.
If you want to break it down into the sects you find issue with, that's a whole other thing.
A thing that dances pretty close to No True Scotsman for my tastes.

^ See, that's the kind of simplistic approach that shows why people don't take you seriously.

The way you use "No True Scotsman" is a major fallacy. It basically amounts to: "I will lump all these people together, no matter how different they are, and judge you on the basis of what others do, and if you say they aren't part of your group, I will just dismiss that with my little 'No True Scotsman' meme." Life doesn't work that way.

I bet you don't even have a clue how fundamentally different, on just about every level, what I believe and preach and teach is from what you call "America's dominant religion". You don't bother to learn the facts, because that would interfere with your simplistic explanations.

The mere fact of "believing in Jesus Christ" does not put one in the same category as everyone else who claims to do that.

As for "following his teachings", I would submit that in "America's dominant religion", a solid majority of people do not follow Jesus's teachings:
- Jesus never gave his disciples a mandate to try to force their teachings on others.
- Jesus never said or implied that laws should be passed to require people to conform to Christian morality.
- Jesus never taught anything remotely resembling the blatant racism that marks so much American "Christianity".
- Jesus never taught his followers to cheer on wars.
- Jesus never taught his followers to use military force to "defend their country's interests".

Do I need to go on? In order to "make your point", you have to pretend ignorance of the immense difference between what passes for "Christianity" in too many American churches, and what Jesus actually taught. If Americans actually did "follow the teachings of Jesus", things would be very, very different. For starters, you wouldn't have 70% of white Evangelicals supporting a man who is an arrogant, immoral, incompetent, lying bigot.

But you just have to lump it all together, without any consideration for the facts, because you find simplistic explanations sufficient. As I have said, that's a shame, because you would be capable of so much more.

Newsflash, @Diacanu: The dominant and most dangerous religion in every capitalist country (but most egregiously in Murica) is Gekkoism: Greed Is Good.

Everybody squawks about "getting the money out of politics." Ever consider getting the money out of religion?

The Amish don't have lobbyists. Some little clapboard church in rural America isn't sucking up to Donnie-boy and the Congressional fatcats. Take a look at the - albeit nominal - Christian affiliations of most of the CEOs of the Fortune 100 corporations in this country.

That's your enemy, but - again (I'll keep repeating it as often as you keep repeating "they're all the same") - it's easy for you to sit back and pick on people on message boards. Makes you feel good; accomplishes nothing.

Whole lot of words to say "I believe in Jesus Christ, but I'm not a Christian".
(With "you're a doody head, Dickynoo", piled on for needless filler)

Okay, what do you call yourself then?

How is Async being picked on?
Have I accused him of anything untoward?
Except perhaps sloppy debate technique and a dash of vanity?

American, nominal cultural Christianity is extremely different from historical, orthodox Christianity.

It’s a challenge I face every day in every situation.

Just because “Christians” do not follow the teachings of Christ, does not stop them from calling themselves Christians.
This is why so many people are anti-christian.

What a way to put words in someone's mouth. Either you are deliberately obtuse, or your reading-comprehension skills are dismally lacking. That is not even close to what I wrote. And I suspect you know it.

As I have said, you do not debate. You just use Donald Trump's tactic of thinking that if you make fun of people and come up with cute little soundbites, you have somehow "made a point". That's a shame, because you are smart enough you could do much better, if you cared to try.

I call myself a disciple of Jesus Christ. An unashamed disciple of Jesus Christ.

Religion didn't give me answers. Church didn't give me answers. Jesus Christ gave me answers. That's why, no matter how much you twist what I write in order to try to make fun of me, you have no chance of ever turning me away from Jesus.

It would have been possible to turn me away from religion; all it did was make me feel afraid and guilty anyway. But turn me away from Jesus? When all I knew about Jesus was "he died to save me from hell" (which isn't even all that precise a statement of the gospel, but I didn't know that back then), you would have had a chance. But the more I discover the true person of Jesus, the more I say: He is my Lord, my Savior, my Friend, my reason for living. What do you have to offer in place of all that? Nihilism and mockery. Are you really surprised I'm not buying what you're selling?

I will never, ever, ever go back to being a simple "church-goer" who was only interested in God helping me out with my problems, now and especially in eternity. Knowing God is so much better there is no comparison.

And the solution for that would be to discover what Jesus really taught. Otherwise, "anti-christians" are operating on the basis of an error. They should be opposed to Christianity, not to Jesus Christ.

Christianity is a religion. Jesus Christ is a person. Not at all the same thing.

I can explain that all day and all night. So can Diacanu. So can every other person who has an understanding of Christ’s teaching. That will not stop them from continuing to claim the name and disparage what Christ actually taught.

Okay, then how was I wrong in saying you're not a Christian?
You're rejecting the brand name, aren't you?
And the corporation that goes with it.

Nah. I'm not doing the conversion thing anymore.
After "the atheist movement", got mutated into an anti-SJW incel Trumper shit-show, I had to re-assess some things.

This bit I object to.
First, that's BS, but even if it weren't, "the alternative would give me a case of the sads", doesn't make a claim true or not.
If the horrible Old Testament God were real, and he smiled on Donald Trump, that would really bum me the fuck out, but it would be true.
Thankfully it isn't, but its not being true has nothing to do with my emotional well being.

Second, there are lots of happy atheists that derive the feeling of transcendence from nature, and don't need supernaturalism.
A garden is beautiful on its own without the need for fairies to be living in it.

Third, it's not my job to sell you on a damned thing.
It doesn't rest on my shoulders.
I'm not atheism's pope, even if it had one.
Which it doesn't.

So, insult on three levels there.
You're engaging in exactly the behavior you accuse me of.
Your self-righteous honey-dripping language doesn't conceal it a bit.

Good thing I've developed a thick skin.
Early 2000's me would have come after you with a rusty razor.

You are a Christian because your parents where, your relatives where, almost everybody in you environment was...
And sometimes people start to wonder and ask questions about it and realise that that whole religion thing is a load of bollocks and they become atheists...
THe Netherlands is a predominantly Christian country, i went to schools with a religious background, but when i was 8 or so i thought it was a ll a bit fishy...
This was also after i discovered Sinterklaas/Santa was not real and i thought to myself ""Well then, God is not real either"...
This was the early 80s, a time with lots of people doing bad thing in the name of religion...
So yeah, thats when i became an atheist...