American Christians are insane. All the churches where I live (Sweden) are pro immigration and were a huge help during the 2015 immigration crisis. They point to the parable of the good Samaritan where Jesus meets a Samaritan who is not just a foreigner, he believes in a blasphemous religion to boot. But nevertheless Jesus helps him. If Jesus helped a foreigner of a rivalling religion then why shouldn’t the modern day church help muslim syrians.
Christians in the US used to be this way. All the way through the first half of the 20th century the majority of protestants in the US were Socialist or Socialist adjacent as you describe. It was only through the state co-opting their movement and the radicals within it merging with the “America First” crowd around WWII that we got the current Christan nationalist movement…
The average American knows nothing about the middle east beyond Israel and what little they know of the bible. Trying to explain to them that every country in the region has an ancient and generally at least somewhat protected Christian population is gonna be really difficult.
You might be crossing some stories there’s the Samaritan woman at the well, which he has a conversation with a Samaritan woman and asks for help getting water from Jacob’s Well. There’s also the parable of the Good Samaritan, a story jesus created about a who stops and helps the person on the road beaten by robbers after 2 jewish people, a priest and a levite, pass the beaten man by, citing ritual cleanliness or thinking the guy is bait for more robbers.
Still your point stands about both being about treating everyone kindly regardless of nation or religion.
I initially started reading it because it’s the most read book in the world and I found it fascinating how old it is. Take into account I was 16-17 and atheist since birth so no religious baggage at all. Some parts were very boring like the one-two pages where it lists the name of every single worker who rebuilt the temple, or the genealogy of Jesus from Adam to himself. But most stories in there were actually quite good and a few made me emotional. I think the book is completely fine if you’re simply interested in reading some 2000-3000 year old stories. At the same time you learn to understand western society more as a lot of western morality, even secular morality, is based on things in the bible. A worthwhile read. Can’t say the moral of every story is any good though. Like I still think it’s insane how god just told the Israelites that they can genocide the whole promised land of the people already living there. It really reminds you of something else happening today… But if you read the bible as stories and not as morals then it’s totally fine!
A couple years later I tried reading the Quran but I sadly have to put that at 2/10 dugong skins. The chapters are out of order and Mohammeds personal war conquests and ramblings take up far too much of it and the classic old testament stories are all shortened down and changed. Can’t recommend that one too much, but reading another person’s summary of it can be enjoyable. Apparently the Quran is written in beautiful Arabic poetry but that’s all lost in translation.
It puts it even more into context when you realize the old testament was before the Romans had written laws etc - so it also acted as a standard what to do and what not.
A law book, if you will, but without the clear separation from other stuff, and the threat of a magical being being angry at you for not following it probably helped with a tribe of people being in remote places on behalf of being sheepherders etc.
Churches aren’t generally like that here in Australia. Although that is a generalisation.
I could really get behind a community group that practiced Jesus more socialist teachings, even though I’m not into the spiritual aspects.
Churches here do support local communities but it’s usually very targeted: we might give you some frozen meals provided that you play along with the spritual & religious stuff.
In Jesus’s parable it’s the Good Samaritan who helps out the Jewish man who’s been beaten and robbed and left for dead, after two supposedly-pious Jews walk on by. So where they weren’t even willing to help their “neighbor,” the Samaritan helps his “enemy.”
I suppose a nitpicking Evangelical could claim it only means they should have helped the person of their own religion, and that particular Samaritan was “one of the good ones” like the few people who are useful to you and semi-exempt from your general racism. They’d be wrong, of course.
The Catholic Church and several of the mainline Christian denominations (Episcopal, UCC, Presbyterian, plus Unitarian which isn’t 100% Christian) have been helpful to immigrants, including undocumented people, in these trying times. Not to say they don’t have their own problems, in history and the present.
American Christians are insane. All the churches where I live (Sweden) are pro immigration and were a huge help during the 2015 immigration crisis. They point to the parable of the good Samaritan where Jesus meets a Samaritan who is not just a foreigner, he believes in a blasphemous religion to boot. But nevertheless Jesus helps him. If Jesus helped a foreigner of a rivalling religion then why shouldn’t the modern day church help muslim syrians.
Christians in the US used to be this way. All the way through the first half of the 20th century the majority of protestants in the US were Socialist or Socialist adjacent as you describe. It was only through the state co-opting their movement and the radicals within it merging with the “America First” crowd around WWII that we got the current Christan nationalist movement…
A lot of Syrian immigrants in the US are christian…
The average american isn’t aware that arabic-speaking christian cultures have existed for well over a thousand years…
The average American knows nothing about the middle east beyond Israel and what little they know of the bible. Trying to explain to them that every country in the region has an ancient and generally at least somewhat protected Christian population is gonna be really difficult.
You might be crossing some stories there’s the Samaritan woman at the well, which he has a conversation with a Samaritan woman and asks for help getting water from Jacob’s Well. There’s also the parable of the Good Samaritan, a story jesus created about a who stops and helps the person on the road beaten by robbers after 2 jewish people, a priest and a levite, pass the beaten man by, citing ritual cleanliness or thinking the guy is bait for more robbers.
Still your point stands about both being about treating everyone kindly regardless of nation or religion.
A woman talking to a woman about a well? The Bible passes the bechdel test?
Ahahahaha no.
Jesus talks to the woman.
Admittedly, it’s not perfectly clear in the comment you answered to.
Thank you. I certainly mixed it up a bit. It was around 9-10 years ago that I read the bible for fun.
On a scale of your choosing, what level of fun did your project achieve?
7 out of 10 dugong skins.
I initially started reading it because it’s the most read book in the world and I found it fascinating how old it is. Take into account I was 16-17 and atheist since birth so no religious baggage at all. Some parts were very boring like the one-two pages where it lists the name of every single worker who rebuilt the temple, or the genealogy of Jesus from Adam to himself. But most stories in there were actually quite good and a few made me emotional. I think the book is completely fine if you’re simply interested in reading some 2000-3000 year old stories. At the same time you learn to understand western society more as a lot of western morality, even secular morality, is based on things in the bible. A worthwhile read. Can’t say the moral of every story is any good though. Like I still think it’s insane how god just told the Israelites that they can genocide the whole promised land of the people already living there. It really reminds you of something else happening today… But if you read the bible as stories and not as morals then it’s totally fine!
A couple years later I tried reading the Quran but I sadly have to put that at 2/10 dugong skins. The chapters are out of order and Mohammeds personal war conquests and ramblings take up far too much of it and the classic old testament stories are all shortened down and changed. Can’t recommend that one too much, but reading another person’s summary of it can be enjoyable. Apparently the Quran is written in beautiful Arabic poetry but that’s all lost in translation.
It puts it even more into context when you realize the old testament was before the Romans had written laws etc - so it also acted as a standard what to do and what not.
A law book, if you will, but without the clear separation from other stuff, and the threat of a magical being being angry at you for not following it probably helped with a tribe of people being in remote places on behalf of being sheepherders etc.
(Clapping emoji)
Banana
Churches aren’t generally like that here in Australia. Although that is a generalisation.
I could really get behind a community group that practiced Jesus more socialist teachings, even though I’m not into the spiritual aspects.
Churches here do support local communities but it’s usually very targeted: we might give you some frozen meals provided that you play along with the spritual & religious stuff.
In Jesus’s parable it’s the Good Samaritan who helps out the Jewish man who’s been beaten and robbed and left for dead, after two supposedly-pious Jews walk on by. So where they weren’t even willing to help their “neighbor,” the Samaritan helps his “enemy.”
I suppose a nitpicking Evangelical could claim it only means they should have helped the person of their own religion, and that particular Samaritan was “one of the good ones” like the few people who are useful to you and semi-exempt from your general racism. They’d be wrong, of course.
The Catholic Church and several of the mainline Christian denominations (Episcopal, UCC, Presbyterian, plus Unitarian which isn’t 100% Christian) have been helpful to immigrants, including undocumented people, in these trying times. Not to say they don’t have their own problems, in history and the present.
My daughter will learn the most scary fucker out there is a White Christian Conservative.
Let me know if they start accepting refugees from America, lol.