I recently described why I think “woke” has become a vacuous word that means little more than “libtard” in modern parlance. It seems apropos, then, that Christianity Today also recently released a piece that saw the editor-in-chief claim (in a previous NPR interview) that evangelical Christianity is moving too far to the right.
It turns out that Jesus’s teachings are increasingly considered by many Christians to be too “liberal” and “weak.”
Of course everyone does. But the scriptural support for their conservative outlook is there in Jesus’ words. Let’s not pretend otherwise. The fact that it contradicts other things attributed to Jesus is a feature, not a bug.
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It’s disappointing how often I need to bring these out for display.
Jesus fails to “turn the other cheek” and instead gets violent: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21:12-13
He threatens eternal torture in fire to anyone who doesn’t accept his teaching:
https://biblehub.com/matthew/10-28.htm
https://biblehub.com/matthew/7-19.htm
https://biblehub.com/matthew/13-41.htm and https://biblehub.com/matthew/13-42.htm
https://biblehub.com/matthew/13-49.htm and https://biblehub.com/matthew/13-50.htm
https://biblehub.com/matthew/25-46.htm
https://biblehub.com/mark/16-16.htm
https://biblehub.com/luke/12-5.htm
https://biblehub.com/john/3-18.htm, etc.
He kills a fig tree for not bearing fruit that he knew was out of season: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+11%3A12-25
He endorses racism: https://biblehub.com/matthew/15-24.htm
When a gentile woman begs for his help he calls her a dog: https://biblehub.com/matthew/15-25.htm and https://biblehub.com/matthew/15-26.htm
He plays favorites: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+4%3A10-12
He destroys a village’s livelihood: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+8
He teaches Christians to have a persecution complex: https://biblehub.com/matthew/5-11.htm
He teaches thought crime: https://biblehub.com/matthew/5-28.htm
He disputes the concept of personal responsibility: https://biblehub.com/matthew/6-25.htm
He condemns skepticism: https://biblehub.com/matthew/14-31.htm and https://biblehub.com/john/20-27.htm
He teaches self-harm in the cause of religious purity: https://biblehub.com/matthew/18-8.htm
He sends his disciples to steal a man’s donkey: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+19%3A29-34
He was not a peacemaker: https://biblehub.com/matthew/10-34.htm
He was divisive: https://biblehub.com/luke/14-26.htm and https://biblehub.com/luke/14-33.htm
He was a liar: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+7%3A8-10
This is the Jesus they worship, not the Jesus you’re taught in the preteen Sunday School.
A few of these are on point but most are really a reach.
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Whether or not you want to admit it, this stuff is there and people like this use them to justify what they already wanted to do. It’s hardly controversial to say the Bible is a Rorschach test that reveals more of the bias of the Christian than what the Christian is supposed to follow.
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