I recently found out that apparently

[conuly]

there are some Christians who think the Sermon on the Mount is optional until the Second Coming. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, tend for the sick, visit the prisoner, or welcome the stranger*? NONE OF THAT NONSENSE HERE. Not until Jesus comes back.

The mind boggles. I can't even fathom how they twisted that logic to make it work.

I feel sorry for these people. No, really, I do**! They clearly missed that day in kindergarten where everybody learned how to share.

* Wait, is that Sermon on the Mount or something else? Anyway, thing is, it's optional.

** I don't.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

That's gotta be some of that new-fangled "God wants you to be a millionaire" cult bullshit the evangelicals came up with.

I was raised Southern Baptist, and it was NOT optional EVER.

(Though the Southern Baptists are their own kind of crazy these days.)

[conuly]

Prosperity gospel is... I don't even have words. Did those people excise those parts of the NT where Jesus talks about money?

[oracleofdoom]

Isn't this why Scientology was created? People wanted a religion that told them it was okay to be wealthy?

[mama_kestrel]

Wasn't that supposed to be how they were supposed to get Jesus to come back?

I could be totally scrambled on that, of course. Not Christian, never have been.

[conuly]

Never heard that one. They're supposed to do these things and then at the final judgment they'll be sorted by whether they did them or not.

[alexseanchai]

Postmillennial Christians, yeah, I believe so.

Premillennial? (This is the type depicted in Lahaye & Jenkins's Left Behind.) Not so much...

[deird1]

Yep, totally. I've also heard "Well, yes, we're supposed to feed hungry Christians, and clothe naked Christians, and..."

Long story short, humans are very good at coming up with justifications for what we want.

[conuly]

*headdesk*

[tcpip]

That seems rather convenient for them, doesn't it?

[conuly]

Seriously.

Giving it the most charitable possible interpretation...

[hudebnik]

... some people might reasonably argue that all those admonitions from Jesus apply to *individuals*, not to *governments*. Governments don't need to worry about getting into Heaven, so governments have no obligation whatsoever to take care of the sick, the hungry, the naked, the needy, especially not with my tax dollars. That's for *me* to do, by my personal choice.

So why don't I do it by personal choice? Because I'm suffering myself because of Obama's War on People Like Me, and there are millions of the sick, hungry, naked, and needy, and most of them aren't anywhere that I see them, and the ones I *do* see up close are probably criminals or drug addicts or illegal aliens or lobster-eating welfare queens or Moslem terrorists so they don't deserve my charity.

Or something like that. Even the most charitable possible interpretation is not very Christlike.

Re: Giving it the most charitable possible interpretation...

[conuly]

No, it's not. And it's not very kind either.

[author_by_night]

That's just depressing.

[conuly]

I know.

[redbird]

One of my working hypotheses is that it's politically/socially advantageous to be (seen as) Christian, and that sometimes the easiest way for people to do that is to find a way to label whatever they already believe/choose to do as Christian.

That's not just on something like this: anything from communism to "wealth is a sign of God's favor," from complete sexual abstinence for all (the Shakers) to group marriage, from apostolic succession to priesthood of all believers.

[conuly]

Still, that doesn't mean they have to torture logic like this.

[thewayne]

Wow. The bind moggles. Isn't that Christianity 101? Maybe something to do with the prosperity gospel? Funny, I don't recall a disclaimer at the end of "Do ye none of this until after my crucifixion, resurrection, disappearance for an unknown number of days, then return. No, seriously. It's all optional until that time. I mean it! I'm putting my foot down!"

[conuly]

And really, why would Jesus waste everybody's time like that? Stand around, listen to my preach about something that's totally irrelevant to you or anybody who will ever know you.

[novel_machinist]

Well, everything was fine till them queers wanted rights and them colored people thought they were as good as white men (tm).


It's disgusting the level of back bending and retreading these assholes do to feel superior. And I know, *not all Christians*, but in general, I have found the vast majority only use it to feel superior.

[conuly]

I think sometimes the number of quiet Christians who don't toot their own horns about how good/pious they are but also do good things is larger than it seems. It's just that their jackass brethren have megaphones.

[spikethemuffin]

Really, what happened to, "For I was hungry, and you did not feed me"? I mean, that's supposed to be the first thing out of His mouth when he got back. It wasn't chased with, "So lol, pony up a cheeseburger from now on and we'll be fine."

I swear, those guys are the Serpent and the Metatron is typing: "To: Eve re: Due diligence," as we speak.

[conuly]

What happened is apparently the "you" in that sentence is those people in the (to him) far distant future who will be around at his return. Not the people who were there, and not us.

[aerye]

This is the best comment thread.

[alwaysbeenasmiler]

One of the main reasons why my cousin is going through a crisis of faith, because she can't make her idea of what God is even with what most of Christians think that God is.

It's like the most terrible thing to behold-- watching her world crumble and her trying to put it all back together again

[conuly]

That's rough. I hope she comes out of it stronger/better/happier.

[siderea]

there are some Christians who think the Sermon on the Mount is optional until the Second Coming. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, tend for the sick, visit the prisoner, or welcome the stranger*?

* Wait, is that Sermon on the Mount or something else? Anyway, thing is, it's optional.

No, Sermon on the Mount is Matthew 5-7 wherein Jesus says a lot of actually quite awful stuff which doesn't take much spin to get you the fundamentalist assholes' doctrine.

You're thinking about Matthew 25.

I've been saying for quite some time there are two sorts of Christians, Matthew 25 Christians and the other sort.

[conuly]

Ah. Anyway, they still think it's all freaking optional.

[greghousesgf]

this is one reason why I'm an Atheist.

[conuly]

Because some Christians are working on troll logic?

It doesn't speak well of them, but there are other Christians who recognize that as bullshit and also utterly lacking in compassion.

Me, I'm an atheist because I find the idea of deities to be implausible. The actions of the religious have no influence on my views of gods.

[fayanora]

Doesn't surprise me. Almost nobody knows that the sermon on the mount was intended to replace ALL the commandments, ALL the old rules. Any Christian that lives by anything in Leviticus or by any of the 10 commandments is violating the rules of their own religion's founder.

Of course, the entire idea of Christianity is incompatible with the Old Testament anyway. Old Testament God is an overpowered, spoiled toddler that commits multiple genocides and demands his people fear him. OT God is utterly incompatible with the omnibenevolent God The Father of Christianity.

Only form of Christianity that ever made any sense to me at all was the gnostics, where they believe the god of the Old Testament is an evil demiurge, and the true god is beyond knowing. Of course, there's parts of Gnostic Christianity that are equally stupid or bad.

[conuly]

Of course, the entire idea of Christianity is incompatible with the Old Testament anyway. Old Testament God is an overpowered, spoiled toddler that commits multiple genocides and demands his people fear him. OT God is utterly incompatible with the omnibenevolent God The Father of Christianity.

From my atheist perch, NT God is also an asshole. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

But I can see through the fog ahead, and if this turns into an atheist vs. Jews vs. Christians free-for-all I'm freezing this thread.

[silveradept]

If they consider it optional, then they're also running fairly contrary to commands set down in Tanakh, which are about freeing slaves, forgiving debts, and being welcoming to people who aren't part of the tribe, no Jesus necessary.

[conuly]

Oh, Jesus canceled all that out by fulfilling the law, except for the ones they really like for some reason like hating gays and whatnot.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

They're going to be very surprised when they reach the pearly gates and learn that the brokeass hippie dude MEANT IT when he said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me."

I mean really. It's like they pay no attention to the god they supposedly worship.

Re: Well ...

[conuly]

I doubt there's an afterlife, and I wouldn't want even the most vile criminal to be tortured for eternity, but I wish we could do some sort of fake-out anyway, just to see the looks on their smarmy faces

[oracleofdoom]

I feel like that requires some really amazing mental gymnastics.

[conuly]

They're champs at the illogic olympics! Gold medals all around!

[zyzyly]

I don't get that either--there seems to be a total disconnect.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

It's from the Book of Matthew, chapter 25, 'Separating The Sheep and the Goats'.

I don't feel sorry for hypocrites - "whited sepulchres" - who piously proclaim their Christianity while blatantly acting contrary to the Word of Christ in every way. If the Bible were true, such people would assuredly be going straight to Hell, which is precisely what that chapter of Matthew is saying, in no uncertain terms.

I do not believe that the Bible is true, or that Hell exists. All these hypocrites will suffer no consequences for their hypocrisy. On the plus side, the more blatant the hypocrisy, the more obvious it becomes that Christianism is a corrupt path.

[conuly]

All these hypocrites will suffer no consequences for their hypocrisy.

I choose to believe - and you don't need to tell me that this is contrary to all evidence - that they're really miserable all the time.