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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35062 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023

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I wonder if it depends on what kind of Christianity you grew up around? When I was growing up it was common to hear someone reply to a description of a sinner with "Well they're going to hell." But that was it, that phrase not only ended the conversation, it was a signal that you should stop being concerned about the sinner and move on with your life. Yeah they are doing the wrong thing, and God will take care of them for it, so focus on your own problems. And that's before you bring other religions into it - oh you think I'm going to suffer in a place I don't believe in after I die? Cool bananas!

Meanwhile, considering someone subhuman - that's an open book. Who knows what a person might do to a subhuman - although it isn't a stretch to think they might treat them subhumanely.

I wonder if it depends on what kind of Christianity you grew up around?

I think it might. I grew up amongst this weird mix of Congregationalist Evangelicals, old school Black Baptists, and hard-core latin mass Catholics and Episcopalians who had kind of formed an alliance. Despite their theological differences and semi-regular flare ups these disparate groups tended to regard each other as natural allies. One of those "nobody gets to rag on my little brother but me" type vibes. We would play softball together. Whatever else there was seemed to be a shared consensus that the path was hard and that even trying to follow it marked someone as "not a complete asshole" and worthy of encouragement.

I wonder if people who grew up in more mono-demoninational areas of the country might have missed out on that part.

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