Post by Jade on Aug 23, 2016 13:49:30 GMT -6
Okay guys, let's keep this civil. Or not. Whatever.
I'm not going to say much, except to say that the church I grew up in was the kind of hardline place that would eat up most of the crap in these movies. They're not as despicable and vocal as Westboro Baptist, but it makes sense in their worldview, so... Fuck, okay, I'll explain the point of view of someone who would enjoy these movies. You can shred me afterward, and bitch all you want about how it doesn't make sense or the logic doesn't add up, but just be glad you didn't grow up being taught this stuff.
Basically, we start with a premise: Everything the Bible says is 100% true, except for the stuff that is so utterly impossible that it must be a metaphor. As the pastor I had for 15 years (before fleeing to college and finally being able to clear up my mind) liked to say, "If the scripture makes sense, seek no other sense." So, when you come in with that attitude, Hell is real, and eternal punishment with your soul burning forever is what awaits anyone who doesn't believe in God and accept Jesus as your personal savior. Everyone is a sinner, and therefore everyone deserves to burn forever, as decreed by God. God defines what sin is, and we as humans have no say in that. It doesn't matter if gay people love each other, homosexuality is labeled as sin by God and therefore punishable by damnation. So from that perspective, wanting gay people to not be gay could be less about hating gays than it is about not wanting another person to burn forever because they ignored God's strict rules. (There's a ton of hypocrisy in there because of all the other myriad rules in Leviticus that get ignored; the justification for that is usually that some of those rules got overturned in the New Testament, supposedly, or that stuff like the No Pork rule only applied to Jews. This isn't about describing the hypocrisy, though, it's about describing the fundamentalist worldview).
One thing Leon points out is the self-victimizing attitude and the idea that Christians are a minority when statistically they are not. This is a complaint I heard a lot as a child, and I believe the reason is twofold: 1. the Christian lifestyle is not often depicted in mass media (movies, tv shows; mainly because it's pretty safe and boring) and this creates the perception that Christians are not common, and 2. there is a perception within the church that anyone who does not regularly go to church is not a "real Christian." There are a lot of people who will say that they believe in God or that they identify as Christian, but without involvement in the church, their faith is seen as weak or perhaps even false. Also, there's a lot of negativity toward other denominations, at least in the church I grew up in. Catholics, for example, were regarded as little better than idolators for worshiping Mary and the saints alongside Jesus/God.
I'm sure there was something else I was going to say, but remembering all this stuff is making my brain shut down. Anyway, let the comment bloodbath commence! (Or maybe we'll all just be a bunch of librals and agree on everything)
Hail Gorfinax!
I'm not going to say much, except to say that the church I grew up in was the kind of hardline place that would eat up most of the crap in these movies. They're not as despicable and vocal as Westboro Baptist, but it makes sense in their worldview, so... Fuck, okay, I'll explain the point of view of someone who would enjoy these movies. You can shred me afterward, and bitch all you want about how it doesn't make sense or the logic doesn't add up, but just be glad you didn't grow up being taught this stuff.
Basically, we start with a premise: Everything the Bible says is 100% true, except for the stuff that is so utterly impossible that it must be a metaphor. As the pastor I had for 15 years (before fleeing to college and finally being able to clear up my mind) liked to say, "If the scripture makes sense, seek no other sense." So, when you come in with that attitude, Hell is real, and eternal punishment with your soul burning forever is what awaits anyone who doesn't believe in God and accept Jesus as your personal savior. Everyone is a sinner, and therefore everyone deserves to burn forever, as decreed by God. God defines what sin is, and we as humans have no say in that. It doesn't matter if gay people love each other, homosexuality is labeled as sin by God and therefore punishable by damnation. So from that perspective, wanting gay people to not be gay could be less about hating gays than it is about not wanting another person to burn forever because they ignored God's strict rules. (There's a ton of hypocrisy in there because of all the other myriad rules in Leviticus that get ignored; the justification for that is usually that some of those rules got overturned in the New Testament, supposedly, or that stuff like the No Pork rule only applied to Jews. This isn't about describing the hypocrisy, though, it's about describing the fundamentalist worldview).
One thing Leon points out is the self-victimizing attitude and the idea that Christians are a minority when statistically they are not. This is a complaint I heard a lot as a child, and I believe the reason is twofold: 1. the Christian lifestyle is not often depicted in mass media (movies, tv shows; mainly because it's pretty safe and boring) and this creates the perception that Christians are not common, and 2. there is a perception within the church that anyone who does not regularly go to church is not a "real Christian." There are a lot of people who will say that they believe in God or that they identify as Christian, but without involvement in the church, their faith is seen as weak or perhaps even false. Also, there's a lot of negativity toward other denominations, at least in the church I grew up in. Catholics, for example, were regarded as little better than idolators for worshiping Mary and the saints alongside Jesus/God.
I'm sure there was something else I was going to say, but remembering all this stuff is making my brain shut down. Anyway, let the comment bloodbath commence! (Or maybe we'll all just be a bunch of librals and agree on everything)
Hail Gorfinax!