You can’t expect to understand these people by reading the Bible because these people aren’t themselves religious, they just know the common layman is and use that to their advantage to retain/gain power.
My mom is religious and she will side with whoever says is religious too, their argument doesn’t matter much as long as it has a religious coat on top of. So if you say you’re not religious and come with a good argument, it doesn’t matter, it’s just a tribalism thing.
Even though she says she’s Evangelical and cites Jesus and Bible texts often, she nitpicks what is convenient at any time like most people do. It’s really annoying when my father who’s Catholic comes and they start disagreeing on stuff citing different parts of the Bible at the same time and considering X important, but ignoring Y totally as it doesn’t go with their narrative of the fact.
In fact I think the people who take the Bible for the more broader message won’t be very flashy in making sure others see them as religious, cause as you said, what Jesus preached very few even attempt to do.
Matthew 6:5 is interesting for this reason. He tells people not to be boastful about prayer. You’re supposed to pray in quiet, away from others. James 2:2 also tells people to care for the poor before the rich. There’s lots of quotes about not showing off, either in religiosity or wealth.
You can’t expect to understand these people by reading the Bible because these people aren’t themselves religious, they just know the common layman is and use that to their advantage to retain/gain power.
My mom is religious and she will side with whoever says is religious too, their argument doesn’t matter much as long as it has a religious coat on top of. So if you say you’re not religious and come with a good argument, it doesn’t matter, it’s just a tribalism thing.
Even though she says she’s Evangelical and cites Jesus and Bible texts often, she nitpicks what is convenient at any time like most people do. It’s really annoying when my father who’s Catholic comes and they start disagreeing on stuff citing different parts of the Bible at the same time and considering X important, but ignoring Y totally as it doesn’t go with their narrative of the fact.
In fact I think the people who take the Bible for the more broader message won’t be very flashy in making sure others see them as religious, cause as you said, what Jesus preached very few even attempt to do.
Matthew 6:5 is interesting for this reason. He tells people not to be boastful about prayer. You’re supposed to pray in quiet, away from others. James 2:2 also tells people to care for the poor before the rich. There’s lots of quotes about not showing off, either in religiosity or wealth.