this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
126 points (100.0% liked)

chat

8137 readers
229 users here now

Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.

As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.

Thank you and happy chatting!

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

spoilerNope, you were just way more annoying than you generally care to remember. Sorry you had to find out this way.

spoilerIf you say, "but actually I wasn't annoying as a teenager." Sorry, you missed your chance! Not my problem!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Hey I realize this is super off topic, but what brought you back into the fold? Absolutely no judgement from this apostate - I just don't meet a lot of leftists who return to religion as adults so you've got me curious.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I read Zealot that discussed Jesus place in Roman Judea as more of a rebel fighter that was essentially speaking in code. That to some extent the crowning of Messiah's and tracing lineages to David was a way to say "he is the real chosen one" it was a mythologization of the human being that was fighting an anti-colonial, anti-imperialist struggle against the Romans...like seriously the Romans fucking suck.

The Nazi Pope had also stepped down and Pope Francis was selected and he is absolutely despised by the right-wing Trad Caths; when I realized that religious infighting is just as complex and equally stupid as political infighting, I kinda made my peace with just...believing in something. As stupid as it sounds, we shouldn't let Right Wingers have a monopoly on God. It is an affront to humanity, to cede spiritual matters, religious ritual, and morality to morons, evil, fascist, morons.

I was already struggling with being an Atheist, ex-Ancap Libertarian, and in my way to becoming a socialists, now commie. I read a bunch of stuff. Marx cites religious utopians and their concern for the poor in Capital Vol I. Paolo Freire is a marxist and a radical Catholic christian, Fr. (now Saint) Romero died helping indigenous and was killed by the Great Satan and its death squads, Che Guevara was raised religious. Fidel Castro was taught by Jesuits. Paolo Freire says that both radicals and Christians should find his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed a useful resource. In Hammer and Hoe the communist and radicals in Alabama were having church meetings and highlighting different Bible passages to speak in code/keep track of meeting notes. The Bible, like any book, can be a tool of the oppressor or the oppressed.

My wife and I had also just met, she was religious and I would accompany to church and I just kinda stuck with it.

I am trying to come at the brokenness of the world from a place of Love, rather than just violent hatred.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I will definitely check out Zealot and some of the other works you referenced!

As stupid as it sounds, we shouldn't let Right Wingers have a monopoly on God.

I don't think this sounds stupid at all. I don't have any faith and I'm not the type to fake it, but I often wish I did or I could for that particular reason.

I am trying to come at the brokenness of the world from a place of Love, rather than just violent hatred.

I think this is a good approach regardless of religious beliefs. For me it's about what can be accomplished, and there's just a lot less that you can get done through hatred.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago