I’m at a new job and working on a Saturday. This place is very “Christian-values blah blah blah” and at the end of our work day one of the supervisors is holding a prayer about “please God let this _ go smoothly and thank you for helping us etc.”

This isn’t the first time I’ve sat at a prayer that’s this selfish and asinine. Pretty sure I’ve been in a prayer thanking Jesus for some hot wings.

This kind of prayer was given today. Y’know, the day where some pretty awful things happened in a South American country but who cares about that /s

I don’t get Christians. They say all this nice stuff about their religion but the worship songs are very individualistic, talking about “Jesus saved me”, “my relationship with god”, “thank you God for x”. Never about other people. And of course none of the prayers today were for IDK the people who fucking bombed and murdered today in our bloody quest for oil?!?

Do these people really think their God gives a fuck if their hot wings taste good or if the printer works in the office today? If you really believed in this Devine being wouldn’t you want it to focus on the important things like IDK making sure everyone has food and shelter and maybe making life less miserable for the homeless people? WTF is wrong with Christians? Is this banal kind of “worship” also common in other religions or is this yet another reason to escape the U.S South 🤔

  • deforestgump [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    9·
    2 months ago

    Please do not lump all Christians in with folks like this. People who call themselves Christians and impose their values on others are not Christians. They’re hypocrites who use the name of Christ to oppress in order to make their lives under capitalism feel more powerful. There are plenty of Christians out there doing great work. Read Paulo Freire.

    • BabyTurtles [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      15·
      2 months ago

      Icky. I believe you have fine intentions, but you’re trying to “no true Scotsman” your way out of admitting that Christianity is currently a Nazi bar. The Nazis were allowed in, now they won’t leave. I believe good Christians exist, but unfortunately they are either unwilling, or unable to kick the Nazis out.

      For any good Christians, the fight isn’t to convince everyone outside the bar that you aren’t a Nazi, the fight is to finally kick all the Nazis out of your bar.

      • TrashGoblin [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        11·
        2 months ago

        And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

        “In truth, there was only one Cristian, and he died on the cross.”

        • BabyTurtles [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
          6·
          2 months ago

          If someone said that “ISIS are not real Muslims” using the same no true Scotsman fallacy that you did, I would find that equally icky, yes.

          And comparing Christians to Muslims isn’t exactly apples to apples, either. Christians run the imperial core. Christians create the western propoganda, head the biggest most expensive imperial armies of the world, and hold the majority of the world’s wealth and power.

          Ok a global scale, Christians are the oppressors, Muslims are the oppressed.

          So while certainly there are Muslims who do bad things in the name of Islam, I prefer to spend the vast majority my time and attention punching up to Christians, than punching down to Muslims.

          • deforestgump [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago

            When you lump people into one category you’re punching into space. That was the whole point of my comment. Most people are good and capable of change as I’m sure you have changed at some point. If you want to critique, totally fine: give specific examples. When you generalize like this you’re turning away people who might otherwise be your comrade.

            • BabyTurtles [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
              5·
              2 months ago

              For the record, I’m a white USian, and when people criticize white USians for being ghouls that ruin everything, I don’t wring my hands and say “don’t lump us all in together, some of us are good, if you say that I won’t be your comrade”, I say “yup fuck those crakkkers, death to America”.

              That’s what it takes. You fight from the inside.

              • deforestgump [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
                2·
                2 months ago

                I see where you’re coming from but in some communities, the church is the only vessel for organization and is the spark to understand how change happens through material support. I’m not here to defend any particular christian institutions, I’m just saying when you call the entire room Nazi’s you’re negating generations of liberation movements whether here in the US or abroad. Of course, its about fighting from the inside. You’re always fighting from inside any institution for any change you want to make. Again, this is not a defense of charity in favor of a larger mass movement, but damn, it feels like you’re being intentionally alienating.

                • BabyTurtles [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
                  3·
                  2 months ago

                  You might be unfamiliar with the Nazi bar analogy - I’m not saying everyone in the bar is a Nazi, but that it will continue to be a Nazi bar until you kick all the Nazis out.

                  Step 1 is to stop being offended that people call a Nazi bar a Nazi bar.

                  Step 2 is to admit you have a Nazi problem.

                  Step 3 is to make the conscious decision that you don’t want your bar to be a Nazi bar anymore.

                  Step 4 is to kick all the Nazis out.

                  you’re negating generations of liberation movements

                  No, refusing to acknowledge that the room has a bunch of Nazis inside, is what’s negating generations of liberation movements.

                  I’m not saying that the bar needs to be shut down, just that all the Nazis need to be kicked out. Until the Nazis are kicked out of the bar, it will be referred to as a Nazi bar.

            • BabyTurtles [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
              2·
              2 months ago

              Plenty of specific critiques here that any good Christian would agree with.

              To be a good person capable of change means being able to take criticism, especially of being part of a globally oppressive cult. Someone who can’t handle the criticism of being part of a globally oppressive cult, is not a good person, is not capable of change, and was never a potential comrade.

              If I can’t say “your Nazi bar is full of Nazis” because that would offend someone so much that they would rather ally with the Nazis instead, they were always a Nazi.

      • deforestgump [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        Just like any organization with power, Christians are also susceptible to corruption. Mainstream Protestantism (Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodists, etc.) generally have a more democratic structure on a local level which gives each congregation their own center of power. Even in Catholic parishes, this can lead to great things when partnered with a good theology. In some ways, it is good that these institutions don’t have that much influence in the halls of world power anymore. But I think it’s more insidious that these faceless evangelical grifters are speaking into the ears of politicians like evil witches.

        I haven’t read Moral Man and Immoral Society but I just added it to my reading list!