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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   26962 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025

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No one officially runs the church in the US. Not in the sense you may think. Most people here are a kind of very watered down, non-denominational version of a Protestant, which is basically a way of saying people just make shit up for themselves about what Christianity means to them and they pick and take what they want from the Christian references they grew up hearing.

That's also the impression I got, and the fact that Christianity in the US is so "headless" and the Presidents still swear on the Bible and pay general lip service to it makes me think the Christian tradition in the US is a lot stronger than in Russia. Even if Russian clergy have swaggier drip.

In the US it’s essentially a meaningless gesture. It’s violated all the time as a matter of some “sacred duty” to uphold the integrity of the office. Same as in our court system when there’s some criminal matter have you have to swear on the Bible to tell the truth. If you refuse to swear on the Bible they have you make what’s called an “affirmation” instead but in both cases, they violate this requirement so often that almost nobody takes it seriously. It’s an almost useless symbolism.

In that case it looks like what you describe as Christianity being a profound part of Russian daily life looks like useless symbolism to me, and vice versa regarding my impression of American life.

In the US, Christianity has taken a major hit in the culture and has been severely disempowered in its message. It’s one of the things a lot of us hope to see a restoration of in the future but right now it’s progressive ideology in places like California and NYC that are the trendsetters for the rest of the country. To confuse that with Christianity however is a mistake.

In the US, and correct me if I'm wrong, the progressive ideology considers the church important enough to take it over - gay/female priests, permissive doctrine, etc. In Russia the progressives are generally either milquetoast or militantly atheist.

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