America is losing its religion — and the effects will be long-lasting

Hello Dutch Uncle,

Dutch Uncle said:
Agreed with a caveat on the "many". I know a lot of very good people who try to be good Christians unlike the Usual Suspects on JPP.

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Freakin awesome.

Nailed it.
 
Cypress said:
A personal relationship with God is strictly a tenet of evangelical Protestantism.

It is not a tenet of Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, or to my knowledge mainline Protestants.

In Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism it is ritual, institution, ceremony, and sacrament which mediate the relationship between God and the individual.
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Dutch Uncle said:
Which helps explain why there are so many denominations including the Republican Prosperity Christianity, a huge fad among the Alt-Right.
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A good theory.

I believe that because American history and culture have been so deeply imbued with Puritan evangelicalism, and because evangelicalism is predicated on a direct personal relationship with God, it all goes a long way to explaining the distinctly American emphasis on individualism.

I maintain that the Puritan tradition also helps explain the super-charged capitalism in USA, since evangelicalism is so much more concerned with works and individual accomplishment in this life, compared to the contemplative focus on the transcendent found in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
First, belief in a religion isn't required to believe in God/Supreme Being/the Almighty/Allah/etc.

Secondly, your hateful attack indicates you don't believe in Christianity as a religion. Do you believe in God? I know you believe in and support RW politics. Did you support Roy Moore?

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FIRST OF ALL, I NEVER SAID IT WAS, DID I?


WHAT "HATEFUL ATTACK" WOULD THAT BE?

THAT NON-BELIEVERS ARE SELF-DECLARED , GLORIFIED MONKEYS?

THAT IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT; IT IS PRECISELY WHAT THEY BELIEVE.

AND 75% OF AMERICANS ARE NOT SELF-DECLARED GLROIFIED MONKEYS, AND ARE HAPPY WITH THAT.

CHRIST THE RAPIST; WE SEE WHO USES HATE-FILLED ATTACKS, DON'T WE?

THERE ARE MORE CHILD RAPES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE US.

SO.....
 
Cypress said:
A good theory.

I believe that because American history and culture have been so deeply imbued with Puritan evangelicalism, and because evangelicalism is predicated on a direct personal relationship with God, it all goes a long way to explaining the distinctly American emphasis on individualism.

I maintain that the Puritan tradition also helps explain the super-charged capitalism in USA, since evangelicalism is so much more concerned with works and individual accomplishment in this life, compared to the contemplative focus on the transcendent found in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
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Protestantism is a direct, personal relationship with God. Protestants can have their own Bibles and don't need Priests.

Evangelicals are Protestants, but not all Protestants are Evangelicals. There's a logical fallacy in there somewhere. :)

OTOH, Evangelicals believe strongly in the "every sparrow's fall" aspect of Matthew 10:29. They believe if a person prays to God hard enough, they'll get a new BMW or a promotion. Which is a bit of a stretch in my opinion since Matthew 10:29 and a "Watchmaker God" are not mutually exclusive of each other.
 
Grokmaster said:
FIRST OF ALL, I NEVER SAID IT WAS, DID I?


WHAT "HATEFUL ATTACK" WOULD THAT BE?

THAT NON-BELIEVERS ARE SELF-DECLARED , GLORIFIED MONKEYS?

THAT IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT; IT IS PRECISELY WHAT THEY BELIEVE.

AND 75% OF AMERICANS ARE NOT SELF-DECLARED GLROIFIED MONKEYS, AND ARE HAPPY WITH THAT.

CHRIST THE RAPIST; WE SEE WHO USES HATE-FILLED ATTACKS, DON'T WE?

THERE ARE MORE CHILD RAPES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE US.

SO.....
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Christians walk the walk. You're just talking the talk.
 
NiftyNiblick said:
Protestants believe in salvation by faith alone.
How does that concept help anything?

You can be a racist piece of shit, a wife beater, a child molester, and a terrorist trumpanzee,
but if you accept an executed hippie Jew as your lord and saviour,
an allegedly nice guy, by the way, nothing like you,
fuck, you're all set!
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That's always puzzled me as well, as the kid of parents who were very involved in their church.

There's no incentive to be a better person other than the appeal to one's good nature to be as Christ-like as possible. As we've all seen so richly illustrated on this forum and other forms of social media, as well as in meat space, many of them fail miserably. In fact, many of them don't even *try* to emulate the real Jesus.
 
LV426 said:
The Replacement Paranoia has been a feature of Conservative fascism for decades.

You couldn't have identified yourself any more as a "very fine person" unless you were carrying a tiki torch and screaming "Jews will not replace us".
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Excellent observation.
 
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