James Gallagher
Leah McElrathOne thing I see in my mentions are frequent expressions of the myths that Christianity is a religion primarily of love, peace, and inclusion and that Christians who are hateful, bigoted, or violent in the name of their religion aren’t “real” Christians.
Unfortunately, history doesn’t bear that out.
I feel the need to add here that I am saying this as the granddaughter of a minister, someone who was baptized and confirmed as an Episcopalian, and a person who has researched religious history.
I well understand the desire to cling to this myth.
But it IS a myth and has been from its inception.
Christianity didn’t spread by love but by violence.
Christianity spread by killing Pagans who refused to convert, torturing and killing Pagans as witches and heretics, destroying Pagan art, subverting Pagan symbols, and taking over or destroying Pagan sacred sites.
And that was just the beginning.
Pete@leahmcelrath.bsky.social
I was struck by this while reading a book about the Viking period of Europe. The tools that the Roman Catholic church offered burgeoning nation states weren't peace, love, and understanding. They were legitimized rule, clerics that could serve as bureaucrats and administrators, propagandists, tax collectors, and justifications for violence like crusades against the Pagan neighboring rivals. No wonder that leaders converted to such a convenient system to maintain power.
I was struck by this while reading a book about the Viking period of Europe. The tools that the Roman Catholic church offered burgeoning nation states weren't peace, love, and understanding. They were legitimized rule, clerics that could serve as bureaucrats and administrators, propagandists, tax collectors, and justifications for violence like crusades against the Pagan neighboring rivals. No wonder that leaders converted to such a convenient system to maintain power.
LillyLyle/Count Melancholia@forpeterssake Religion is one of the basic pillars of patriarchy, and the foundational precept is private landownership. The repression of women is to ensure land is passed from a man to his legitimate offspring. The other basic pillar is the raising of a group of armed men, whose purpose is to protect this private property.
Werner Rhein
Callisto@leahmcelrath.bsky.social The scriptures themselves are inconsistent. You've got sects that claim the love and charity are meant literally while the hate and genocide are metaphors, and other sects that reverse the idea. Don't think either has a monopoly on "real."
Adrianna Tan@leahmcelrath.bsky.social to be honest, they remind me of the men who say men who assault others sexually are not ‘real men’.
StevenSavage (he/him)@leahmcelrath.bsky.social It also reminds me of people that talk about a "European Identity" utterly ignoring the long history of European countries warring with each other.
Jay@StevenSavage @leahmcelrath.bsky.social Or, as somewhat relevant to the topic of Christianity, the fact that “European Identity” includes centuries of Islamic rule.
Funny how the identitarians never wanna talk about that…
samiamsamChrissy Stroop has great commentary on this as well.
I like to remind people to read about The Inquisition for context.
'Goya's Ghost' is a great film to watch.
Claire, The Ultimate Worrier@leahmcelrath.bsky.social Jesus' be excellent to each other stuff seems to be nowhere as core to the religion as the death and the resurrection and redemption and such
Bongolian@leahmcelrath.bsky.social It's the "No true Scotsman" fallacy.
No True Scotsman
No True Scotsman (NTS) refers to a logical fallacy that occurs when a debater makes a generalization of a group that requires observational evidence to support it. When confronted with evidence that instead clearly falsifies their claim, the debater fallaciously switches their claim from requiring evidence to being a definitional statement. For example, it's common for one to argue that "all members of [my religion] are fundamentally good", but when provided a clearly falsifying counter-example, to simply discard the counter-example as "not true [my-religion]-people by definition".
TPushic@leahmcelrath.bsky.social If religion was about peace, Religous Extremists would be extremely peaceful.
Robin Barton@leahmcelrath.bsky.social No hate like Christian love