Christianity on JPP, and nationally

RB 60 said:
Christians are the most persecuted of all the religions in this country. Yet, despite that fact, they are the most charitable.
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It seems you are wrong about Christians being the most charitable - it is Jews.

But you are right in the broader sense that the religious are more charitable than the non-religious, though it seems to be partly related to social organization.

The rates for charitable giving according to the Jumpstart survey are: 61 percent of Black Protestants; 64 % of Evangelical Protestants; 67 % of Mainline Protestants, 68 % of Roman Catholics, and 76 % of Jews. By contrast, only 46 % of the not religiously affiliated made any charitable giving.
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NiftyNiblick said:
The belief in God itself is indicative of a willingness to put faith over demonstrable reality.
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It can be. Those pushing Creative Design over evolution would be an example of what you posted.

OTOH, as the discussions Cypress has posted indicate, one can fully accept the reality of the Universe while also believing that what we see is not all there is.
 
NiftyNiblick said:
The belief in God itself is indicative of a willingness to put faith over demonstrable reality.
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I am dubious about a god of Abraham, but there are lots of things I believe in that aren't ontologically 'real', and that I can't measure, see, or touch.

I believe in liberty, equality, and fairness, even though they are just immaterial moral constructs of the human mind.
 
BartenderElite said:
If everyone actually lived and approached each day in a way consistent w/ Christ's teachings, this board would be a beautiful place. The world would be a beautiful place.

But, we don't see that. Some posters here & many of the more vocal people nationally who profess themselves to be Christians and advocate for that religion on many issues express themselves in ways that are close to the opposite of that. They spew vile hatred every day.

When it comes to their agendas about LGBTQ & abortion, they're all about "Christianity" and how they interpret that religion. But that's about it.

How do they reconcile that? Are they even aware of it? I get the whole "we're all sinners" thing, and that everyone tries but doesn't always succeed. But I don't see many trying, at all. Every day is the same thing. Hate upon hate upon hate.

What's the scoop?
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Missed this thread when it was brand new. I'll go out on a limb and predict that you will be accused of "hating Christians" and/or being a godless atheist.

If everyone behaved as Jesus told us to behave, this forum wouldn't even exist.
 
 
PostmodernProphet said:
why do atheists always feel the need to preach the superiority of their beliefs?.......I don't recall the followers of any other belief system starting a thread on JPP extolling how much better they are than others, except for the atheists.......
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You're one of JPP's prime examples of the OP and the failure to comport yourself as Jesus commanded.
 
BartenderElite said:
I just read a comment section for an article about Garth Brooks - he was talking about his decision to serve Bud Light at his bar in Nashville, and said, "Let's try love - it's a good place."

The vast majority of comments talked about him like he was a terrible person, with the concept of Christianity coming up often. Things like (paraphrasing) "he needs to stop shoving his unChristian values down our throat."

Like, really? "Let's try love" is an unChristian value?

Kind of what I was talking about w/ the OP. A lot of modern, political Christians see the religion as being more about intolerance, and opposing things like homosexuality. To think that "Let's try love" is unChristian is a perspective that has completely lost sight of the values that Christ espoused.
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I haven't read all the comments here yet -- a good number of them are safely hidden behind my ignore list for obvious reasons. But it's easy to see that, like Garth Brooks' response, anyone who points out the fact that a majority of self-proclaimed Christians are not following His admonishment to "love thy neighbor as thyself" is met with hate and anger, like you've experienced.
 
RB 60 said:
Christians are the most persecuted of all the religions in this country. Yet, despite that fact, they are the most charitable.
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:laugh: :rofl2: :laugh:

And there's that good old RB victim mentality we've all come to know and laugh at. Can you tell us exactly in what ways are Christians "persecuted" in the U.S.?

I'm pretty sure that not being allowed to teach your religion in public schools or display it on public secular property is nothing like being crucified, fed to lions, burnt at the stake, or any of those *real* persecutions of early Christianity.
 
Cypress said:
It seems you are wrong about Christians being the most charitable - it is Jews.

But you are right in the broader sense that the religious are more charitable than the non-religious, though it seems to be partly related to social organization.
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How did they determine these numbers? The Xtian ones are probably the easiest -- they are counting tithing and/or donations to the person's church as charity. I suppose that is data collected by the govt. Do Jews tithe? Not to blow my own horn, but we frequently donate to non-political fundraisers, charities, causes. Never once have I ever been asked to identify my religious beliefs. How was this data compiled then? The IRS also doesn't ask for religious status for those who itemized and claim charitable contributions.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
:laugh: :rofl2: :laugh:

And there's that good old RB victim mentality we've all come to know and laugh at. Can you tell us exactly in what ways are Christians "persecuted" in the U.S.?

I'm pretty sure that not being allowed to teach your religion in public schools or display it on public secular property is nothing like being crucified, fed to lions, burnt at the stake, or any of those *real* persecutions of early Christianity.
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Victimhood is the main attraction for MAGAts to Trump.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
How did they determine these numbers? The Xtian ones are probably the easiest -- they are counting tithing and/or donations to the person's church as charity. I suppose that is data collected by the govt. Do Jews tithe? Not to blow my own horn, but we frequently donate to non-political fundraisers, charities, causes. Never once have I ever been asked to identify my religious beliefs. How was this data compiled then? The IRS also doesn't ask for religious status for those who itemized and claim charitable contributions.
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The article said they conducted a survey or poll

Charitable giving to charities with religious ties were counted (Salvation Army, church soup kitchens, church food pantries, etc )

The researchers concluded that it was the social organization and social institutions that evolve around churches that fuel charitable giving. They hypothesize that if secular people had social organization at the same magnitude and frequency of churches, secular charitable giving would be just as high.
 
RB 60 said:
Christians are the most persecuted of all the religions in this country.

Yet, despite that fact, they are the most charitable.
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I've never seen any persecution of Christians in the US greater than that of Jews and Muslims. Do you have any examples? If not, I understand. :thup:

How do you know?
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
:laugh: :rofl2: :laugh:

And there's that good old RB victim mentality we've all come to know and laugh at. Can you tell us exactly in what ways are Christians "persecuted" in the U.S.?

I'm pretty sure that not being allowed to teach your religion in public schools or display it on public secular property is nothing like being crucified, fed to lions, burnt at the stake, or any of those *real* persecutions of early Christianity.
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It's preposterous to claim christians are the most persecuted in the USA
 
Cypress said:
It's preposterous to claim christians are the most persecuted in the USA
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Not from a victimhood perspective. Victims always see themselves as being the most harshly treated, the most harmed and the least respected of all Americans.
 
Doc Dutch said:
Not from a victimhood perspective. Victims always see themselves as being the most harshly treated, the most harmed and the least respected of all Americans.
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I also think a lot of Christian MAGAs are just trained like monkeys by FOX to believe they are massively persecuted, even when they don't see evidence of it in their real lives.

MAGAs aren't known to think independently or critically
 
Doc Dutch said:
I've never seen any persecution of Christians in the US greater than that of Jews and Muslims. Do you have any examples? If not, I understand. :thup:

How do you know?
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Christianity in America is the most well protected faith tradition in world history, especially if you consider the freedom to have the pluralistic practice of all varieties of Christian denominations here

As to his other point, the research I ran across states that Jews and Sikhs are more charitable than Christians. But I'm a data guy, and I can't deny that research shows Christians do tend to be more charitable than the irreligious population. I guess they should be, if their faith tradition is based on a categorical moral imperative of charity, mercy, and love for humanity.
 
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