this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2026
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And I would contend that the bible is filled with so much random dogmatism, cruelty and insanity that it is literally impossible to follow it all faithfully. Saying "oh, no true Christian would do that" is literally a no true Scotsman fallacy. Christianity is a religious movement. It is defined by its members. Just because not everything every member does fits within the confines of a random text compiled by committee from apocryphal scraps of parchment and papyrus, that doesn't mean that those members are not "Christian". If I believe in any one tenet that Christ supposedly espoused, such as the weird eschatological shit, then I can call myself a Christian. Are you the ultimate arbiter of what makes a Christian, or are you just someone trying to make people fit neatly within or outside of a little box for the sake of argument? What do YOU think, oh oracle, makes someone a christian? The Nicene creed, or just those three scraps of text you quoted? The part about Babylon, mother of harlots, rising in the end times, as the seals open? Or perhaps following Leviticus, one of the greatest sources of strife, bigotry and cruelty in world history?
You seem pretty emotionally invested, so I will recommend that as I am not particularly invested, if it is easier for you, I give you total freedom to ignore my individual opinion. I'm just one man, feel free to ignore me. But what I've quoted is primarily direct quotes from Jesus (per the bible), or taken from Exodus, which is about as foundational as it gets Christianity wise.
I agree that the bible is a poor source of clarity. It is all over the map as far as rules, and not very consistent. But I'm not talking apocryphy here, I'm talking straight up 10 commandments shit. The core "do unto others", and "don't be greedy", and "be grateful", stuff that the whole thing is supposed to be based on.
I think ultimately we are arguing the same thing: That there is something to justify anything within the labyrinthian maze that is biblical logic. But where we diverge is that you are willing to call anyone who claims to be Christian, Christian. And I'm trying to highlight how an overwhelming majority of Christians are anything but.
My original point is that the brown shirt, class traitor, gestapo, murderer "christian" is just about as Christian as the king asshole there in the white house: ie, not at all. I'm attempting to call attention to the painfully paradoxical relationship between those who call themselves Christians and their estimation of the importance of things such as compassion, charity, humility, simplicity, community, and introspection.
But part of the issue is you are cherry picking WHAT JESUS SAID. You're literally justifying their actions by trying to pretend like their book doesn't give them justification.
Jesus said that you must continue the laws previously set by their god. His generic "be nice" message doesn't supersede the horrible treatment of others the rest of the book promotes. And the part you're missing is that all the shitty things people do now they can go back to the book and say "look, its says this is all ok. Even Jesus agrees" because it does say that.
This is what happens in all of the highly violent religions. There are good and bad parts and everyone wants to pretend like the bad parts aren't there. They want to say that people are manipulating the word to justify things when honestly they aren't. These books were created by people who wanted to justify their own actions, their own grabs for power. They invent gods and create stories to show that the horrible stuff they do is ok because their god says so.
The people you're saying aren't Christian are Christian. Sadly they most likely haven't read their own book, haven't actually studied it in depth. And the ironic part is that even then most of them still are following what the book says even when doing horrible things.