- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion
- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion
James Talarico has been found guilty of quoting Jesus. The sentence he uttered, according to right-wing media, was “demonic” and “blasphemous,” exposing him as a “fake Christian.” Talarico is running for the U.S. Senate in Texas on a platform The New Yorker recently described as basically the New Testament. One Newsmax host accused him of using fake Bible passages.
The passages in question are familiar ones, found in Matthew 22 and Matthew 25. Love God and love your neighbor. Feed the hungry, heal the sick, welcome the stranger. They are, in fact, in the Bible.
The right’s attacks on Talarico aren’t about him, or at least not entirely. They’re about a much older argument — one progressive Christianity has been losing in public for 50 years — about whose version of the faith gets to count as real. The answer to that question has consequences far beyond any Senate race. When Christianity becomes a tool of power rather than a challenge to it, it doesn’t just damage the church. It destabilizes democracy. We are watching that happen in real time.
Some of the very nastiest people I’ve ever met in my life were xtians that were just like that. The icing on the cake was that during a period of my life when I was in the hard atheism camp, these types would taunt me and say that I was going to (their) hell and they were going to be in heaven watching me burn.
Nothing about any of that kind of “morality” makes even the least bit of sense. Douchebags like this who claimed they are “saved” and can behave like total monsters in their lives would be eternally rewarded, while someone that didn’t accept the fairy tales they did would be eternally tormented? The only differentiating factor is that they “accepted Jayzus into their heart”.
That sounds more like the fantasies of psychopath rather than any kind of moral system.
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.” - Marcus Aurelius (misattributed)
A good person would reward good people for being good. If Jesus won’t reward a good person for being good just because they haven’t “accepted him into their heart” well… I said what I said.