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this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
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I've seen a lot of conservative (the American Republican model) Christians but I have also seen what I consider to be "true" Christians, with a strong faith and love for everyone, and part of that faith often involves confronting reality, thinking about solutions to problems, helping the poor and weak. I agree with you that it's not all black and white. A lot of Christians don't believe in the literal text of the Bible for its supernatural claims, but instead they read it (and other religious texts, there are a lot of religious people who do some multi-track drifting) for its morals and guiding principles, which can all be interpreted in different ways, and there is a lot of discourse in religious circles about the meaning and morals of texts, about finding ancient wisdom or reinterpreting old texts to better suit modern standards. It can be a very research intensive way of life to be religious and have faith. I'd argue that if you have any principles at all that you stick to, that counts as faith.
I don't think you need to be so black and white. you can pick and choose what goes into your faith, and still remain 95% christian. I guess to me the label just doesn't matter very much. also if the Pope claims that to accept all faith is christian, then that is very much what Catholic Christianity is. the Pope also plays a guiding and interpreting role, and you can choose to go with his interpretation or not.
You have to accept that religions can be wrong about some things to have the view that they're all different paths to God.
Plus everyone should turn a critical eye to their own religion, every holy text and every doctrine has both wheat and chaff.
If you reduce an entire religion down to a single axiom, then sure, they can be entirely contradictory.
But religions aren't like that, they are each a thousand different beliefs, rituals, and directives. There are enough similarities in message to see a commonality between them.
Like you said, it's all the same path to God, some paths are a bit more meandering than others, and some claim that there are no other paths.
Religions are a single axiom and nothing else? Which ones?
I agree. Western Christianity is a perversion of the religion imo. To be fair a large part of biblical text has absolutely nothing to do with the teachings of Christ and that confuses a lot of people. A lot of them seem to be quite contradictory to what he was saying.
If anyone is into reading interesting books these helped to clarify Christianity for me. I do not consider myself a Christian ( maybe in my next life) but Jesus was a radical cat and what he did at that point in history was revolutionary .
Leo Tolstoy , The Kingdom Of God Is Within You. This one may turn you into a Vegan Anarchist so watch out
Swami Sri Yukteswar, The Holy Science
Tao Te Ching , Lao Tzu ...this one has nothing to do with Christianity but helped me understand what God ( the Supreme Being , God Head, Jah, Allah or whatever you want to call the source) was in simple terms. It's a quick read
Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of A Yogi.
That Tolstoy book sounds interesting, I'll have to check it out.
There are versions of the Bible where Big J's words are written in red text, that's what I would recommend to people so they focus on the part that matters (for Christians)
Tolstoy was an interesting individual...and a great writer. Enjoy
I finished The Kingdom of God is Within You, I really enjoyed it. The book aligned with many of my prior beliefs about Christianity and the Church, which was very validating. I appreciated the insight into the state of eighteenth century Russia, which I never want to visit. And lastly it made me deeply consider how much my current job makes me a party to violence. You're right about it potentially making someone an anarchist.
Thank you again for mentioning it.
I have given physical copys to a few people over the years and not a damn one read it. They claimed they were " true Christians " , I fear it would have gone over their heads anyhow.
I actually did quit a job that I was previously planning on retireing from after some deep reflection caused by Tolstoy's writing.
As a kid I was under the impression that was how a Christian would behave and then I became jaded as I grew older. When I read it I thought "that is how they should behave" and it was refreshing to hear someone talk like that.
I personally do not consider myself Christian, I agree with Nitzsche that "there was but only one Christian and he died on the cross" (i can't remember the exact quote, it was from the book " the Anti-Christ") but reading The Kingdom Of God is Within You sparked a genuine curiosity about Christ and religion in general.
Glad you enjoyed it ✌️