• Zloubida@lemmy.world
    173·
    11 days ago

    There are many possible points of disagreement within Christianity because, like it or not, the Bible is unclear and even contradicts itself on many subjects (and this is a Christian saying this). But prosperity theology is so clearly the opposite of everything in the Bible that any self-respecting evangelical should ostracize it. That they don’t is the proof that the gospel is not what many evangelicals are interested in.

    • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
      77·
      11 days ago

      What she cites the bible for

      Though she clarified that donations wouldn’t actually go to help those infected, White used medical imagery to add urgency to her fundraising plea during a pandemic. “Every single day we are a hospital to the sick, not necessarily the physically sick,” she said. “But we are a hospital for those who are soul sick, those who are spiritually sick.” White went on to suggest that contributors offer a $91 donation, citing Psalm 91, or “maybe $9 or whatever God tells you to do.”

      What I cite the bible for

      Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
      18·
      11 days ago

      You might enjoy reading some of the works of Bart Ehrman. I’m an atheist who has been reading a lot about Jesus and the early church (first three centuries). I would recommend, How Jesus Became God.

      Anyway, good for you for recognizing prosperity bs for what it is.

      • ChromaticSnail@piefed.socialEnglish
        14·
        11 days ago

        Ehrman is great, as are his books and his podcast (which is called “Misquoting Jesus”). He’s one of the most objective mainstream New Testament scholars (in the field of textual criticism), and he doesn’t try to advance any agenda. He states clearly whether his points are the consensus of non-evangelical scholars, or whether he’s in the minority (which is rarely); whether other scholars disagree with him (and why); what the evangelical scholars say, etc. He doesn’t encourage either atheism or religion; he’s simply a textual criticism scholar.

      • Snowclone@lemmy.world
        9·
        11 days ago

        It’s literally a sin in many sects, not to say those sects aren’t entirely hypocritical on the matter, but trading priestly duties for money is explicitly a sin in a lot of Abrahamic religions.

        • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
          6·
          11 days ago

          Gestures broadly at the pastors with their AMG Mercedes/M BMWs, mansions, private planes, helicopters, beach/mountain vacation houses, etc…"

      • Zloubida@lemmy.world
        11·
        11 days ago

        I like Ehrman. I think Jesus had, before the Resurrection, no clear idea of who/what he was and that what Ehrman shows is how the early church not invented but discovered the divinity of Jesus.

        • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
          1·
          9 days ago

          I’m convinced that he believed he was the Messiah. I don’t think he considered himself divine. I think that was invented later.

          • Zloubida@lemmy.world
            1·
            9 days ago

            Yes, but:

            • that doesn’t mean he had an idea of the Trinity and his place in it;
            • it’s probably something the Evangelist added anyway.
    • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
      10·
      11 days ago

      To reinforce this, Jesus didn’t just say it was hard for a rich person to get into heaven, he said “And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich [person] to enter into the kingdom of God.” --Matthew 19:23-26

      Personally, I think this is specifically referring to the level of greed that it requires to hoard enough wealth to become (and stay) a billionaire while the world suffers. It’s important to understand that this is our Bible, the foundation of everything Christianity is supposed to be about. These freaks have twisted it so much, it’s unrecognizable…

      • clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world
        8·
        11 days ago

        No issues with you comment, but I find it disheartening that leadership in churches around the country do not condemn what is happening

        • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
          4·
          11 days ago

          That’s how far we’ve come. I know many here are vehemently opposed to any faith-based belief system, and that’s 100% your right. But churches and religious leadership promoting Trump and hate are shitting on everything God said in the one book he gave us. Modern Christians should read the Bible and find a church that follows it. If possible. Not the other way around…

          • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
            3·
            9 days ago

            I try to tell Christians to just read the words of Jesus if they don’t have time to read their whole book. Some bibles have them helpfully marked with red ink.

      • Klear@lemmy.world
        31·
        10 days ago

        It goes on though:

        When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

        But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

        So what I’m getting is “everyone goes to heaven, but don’t say that too loud or people will be dicks to each other”.

      • rami@ani.socialEnglish
        13·
        10 days ago

        fun fact, the “eye of the needle” isn’t referring to a needle. they’re small gaps in the big stone walls just big enough for a person to squeeze through but intentionally designed so that a camel cannot get in. he’s not even saying it’s metaphorically impossible he’s saying it’s literally impossible, and by design.

          • rami@ani.socialEnglish
            1·
            9 days ago

            how is that a cope? doesn’t it make the comment more scathing? and idfk entirely possible someone made that up, just Google it, I got pictures and shit when I checked briefly before posting

      • Zloubida@lemmy.world
        6·
        11 days ago

        Calvin was totally opposed to this kind of theology. I presume you’re referencing to Weber; but if you read The Protestant Ethic closely, he didn’t speak about mainstream Calvinism of his time, but German puritanism, which was opposed by mainstream Calvinism.

  • Starb3an@lemmy.world
    93·
    10 days ago

    I remember watching a skit where someone time travels like 50-100 years into the future to see if all the problems get solved, war, climate change, etc. the guy assures everything fine and reveals the solution. The rapture came and took all of the religious people away. Everyone left was easily able to work together to solve all the issues.

  • Wispy2891@lemmy.world
    841·
    11 days ago

    What? I searched for it and it’s not a joke? There’s an actual Faith office in the USA? That’s something you would expect in Iran, not the USA

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      313·
      10 days ago

      We talking Iran, the secular democracy prior to 1953? Or Iran, the US backed military dictatorship that lasted until 1979? Or Iran, the Revolutionary Socialist Government that imploded in the run up to the US instigated Iran-Iraq War?

      Oh oh oh. I gotcha. We’re talking about the modern theocratically controlled Kingdom of Saud uh… Hinduvista Federal government of India um… Revanchist Anti-Communist Christian Cult of the Park/Yoon government er… Apartheid State of Israel oh, here it is, Ayatollah’s Iran.

      Damn, can’t believe America would end up like Evil Foreign Country, instead of a model liberal secular government we traditionally support.

    • VerdantSporeSeasoning@lemmy.ca
      17·
      10 days ago

      I follow a guy (Matt Taylor) who studies a branch of Christianity called the New Apostolic Reformation, a branch that’s like if Evangelical theology, prosperity gospel, and morals merged with traditional charismatics. Lots of prophecies. These are also the Seven Mountains Mandate people–the people who believe they should be in charge of the 7 pillars of culture, like media and education. He posted a a zoomed out version of the above picture, labeling everyone he recognizes from NAR. The NAR has been courting Trump since his first term. Trump is delivering for them.

    • UncleGrandPa@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      10 days ago

      trump established a White House Faith Office on Friday, February 7, 2025.

      she’s the first one.

      no one knows exactly what she plans to do…or even what she could or might do.

      • thermal_shock@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        9 days ago

        She did that for trumps last administration too I believe, without the dept name maybe. But this definitely isnt the first time I’ve heard her name in relation to Trump

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      5·
      10 days ago

      Faith office in the USA? That’s something you would expect in Iran, not the USA

      Iran… Or Saudi Arabia… Imperial drones always choose to attack one but not the other.

      Personally I’m not at all surprised to see it here.

  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.orgEnglish
    523·
    11 days ago

    100s of 1000s of $$

    This is cursed and looks like “hundreds or thousands of dollars” at a glance. Just say “100,000s of dollars” or “$200,000+”.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
    381·
    11 days ago

    The religion they are alluding to is not Christianity … it’s the holy all powerful and all consuming religion of MONEY

      • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
        6·
        11 days ago

        Nah, it was originally about making sure your population had good morals, then about controlling your population more generally, then about making money, then about banning fun for some reason, then about making money again

        It’s been quite the wild ride

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
          11·
          11 days ago

          A lot of old testament stuff had to do with hygiene. Look at all the kosher rules regarding food. Deut. 22:9 also forbids growing mixed crops, which likely had to do with the chance of crossbreeds being infertile and the inability for Bronze/Iron Age tribes being able to replace seed stock quickly enough.

          • SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works
            13·
            11 days ago

            Or some priest or political leader took revenge against a pig farmer who slept with his daughter.

            And the mixed crops this was more likely to make sure farmers are not self sufficient.

            • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
              6·
              10 days ago

              No. The seed thing is explicitly so the farmers could grow the same crop from year to year. If you grow a cucumber in the same plot as squash, the seeds from both will be a hybrid and not give you anything useful. Cucurbits are notoriously easy to hybridize and create useless offspring. The genetic mechanics wouldn’t have been know, but you would still see the results. People needed to live in groups then and now. No farmer would ever be able to be completely self sufficient regardless, especially then.

              I was thinking more along the lines of shellfish for a primarily desert people or the Rabbi being the defacto food inspector.

              • SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works
                1·
                10 days ago

                I would think that farmers were experienced and smart enough to know which crops would hybridize and which don’t. They would not need the clergy to tell them that.

                We don’t see farmers today getting farming advice from the church. They get it from other farmers. I don’t see any reason for it to be different back then.

                I do see however that the church wanted to sound important and wise. So they wrote things down, but without having a full understanding, so a lot of the advice they wrote down is too simplistic.

                • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  10 days ago

                  We don’t see farmers today getting farming advice from the church. They get it from other farmers.

                  uh, they get it from the ag departments from their state/local universities. They didn’t have universities back then.

                  Also, while most farmers probably knew not to do hybrids back then, the consequences of loosing an entire year’s harvest of a stable crop would mean famine for the tribe. You can’t just ask for half of a neighboring village’s seed stock. It was important enough to make it a sin.

        • Cypher@lemmy.world
          6·
          11 days ago

          I don’t for a second believe that religion was required for people to have good morals. It was required for control.

          • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
            1·
            11 days ago

            By good morals I mean it came up about the time that people were moving from tribes where they knew everyone personally to settlements where it was impossible to… it sounds weird now but “don’t steal from strangers”, “don’t kill strangers”, “share your harvest with strangers in need” etc. were actually pretty novel ideas which needed to be taught and helped a bunch with ensuring people could co-exist with more people than they had relationships with

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
    352·
    11 days ago

    married a member of the rock band Journey

    Is that why she didn’t stop believing? (I’m guessing she never started, but…)

    • TrippingBalls@lemmy.world
      1·
      9 days ago

      Do a little research into Medellín Colombia. One of the more religious places I have visited and at the same time the people are content, generous and overall happy. This despite years of chaos under Pablo E

  • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
    25·
    10 days ago

    The Founding Fathers were VERY CLEAR when it came to Protecting Mass Child Murderers but VERY MURKY when it came to Separation of Church and State!