Originally posted by Torque
when lynchings was a cultural event for family portraits and postcards, was the christian outcry deafening?
I'm new to the thread, so I just pulled this quote out as representative of many. Couple thoughts.
First, yes it was -- amoung people who really searched for "knowing God." A disturbingly high percentage of Christians down thru the ages have followed the forms of religion without letting it seep into their lives. Some then let the same selfish, desire driven behaviors present in the worst of us run rampant -- but under the banner of chrisitanity. They no more deserve to represent the faith than the Oklahoma City bombers represented American values (which they claimed as their motivation, BTW).
Most of the abolitionists during the 1800s were fervent Christians, who used Christian doctrine and principles to jsutify their passion. William Wilberforce, who led the drive for abolition in England, was a minister. Martin Luther King was a minister, and in pictures of his marches you'll see white ministers walking with him. They were motivated by desire for justice for a people not their own, at least in the worlds eyes.
Now about the Old Testament -- think about the seasons of life. What works well to teach a 12 year old, doesnt work as well when life develops further. Same as the Testaments.
Christians doctrine does not repudiate the Old Testament. The violence in the book was part of the context of ancient times, no doubt. In the specific instances cited -- about stoning guys -- the emphasis was on not compromising with paganism, which God told his people would generally mess up their lives. And realistically -- the dominant regional religions involved human and child sacrifice -- those compromises, like doing both religions as insurance, would have made things far worse for the people. Consequently, penalties matched the cultural norm for severe punishment. The point, even in the old testament, was on the internal realtionship with God -- Psalms says "you dont desire sacrifice; the sacrifices you want are a contrite heart"
In the New Testament, Jesus first upped the ante -- "You've heard it said, dont commit adultery. I now say, dont think about committing adultery -- its the same thing as doing it." He took the internal changes the law was about to their next level. He also took the emphasis off the law, and put it on the heart.
He said "put away your sword, peter." He said -- to a woman who earned death under law -- "I dont accuse you either -- jsut go, and sin no more."
No contradiction, further development.
Most anti- religion jabs on thiss board are jsut cheap shots, where someone who has made up his mind grabs any bit of evidence to "prove" what he already knows. Crusades were abused by men who demonstrably didnt live by Christian doctrine -- most basically, "do unto others." So why are they the #1 cited evidence how how bad christian religion is? The fact that the church bureacracy got behind them is irrelevant as a reflection of what Christianity teaches, because the actions that you guys deplore were not true reflections of what's in the book.
And some have set up parameters that guarantee no evidence for faith will be considered. In particular, by praising good deeds but hating what motivates many people to do them, Hang, you get the best of both cynical worlds, eh?
