If one believes in objective morality as defined by Yahweh, they have no business teaching an ethics class. Yahweh orders and celebrates genocide, slavery, child abuse, misogyny, marrying of one’s rapist, and all manner of behaviors that modern society considers deeply unethical.
The most interesting thing I’ve realized is that Jesus himself is portrayed as a pretty liberal, empathetic, merciful man of the people. What passes for modern Christianity would sicken him. Organized religion is effectively organized crime hiding behind some platitudes, but if you just listen to Jesus himself (and not the people/organizations claiming to speak on his behalf), you could do worse.
Of course, along with that goes some delusional nonsense, but I’d rather deal with someone like that than a hardcore conservative who can cite verifiable sources for every thought they’ve ever had.
This raises the question of if Jesus actually existed, which I’ll happily avoid getting into.
The modern Jesus + America = Property Rights thing is explained super well on Behind the Bastards a recent two-parter on how the rich ate Christianity. I’m feeling lazy right now so I link to the episodes here, but James W. Fifield Jr. is a keystone in the reshaping of American Christianity (that is Christianity and patriotism in the US) into the far-right pro-capitalism stuff that is driving the Christian Nationalist movement today. Spoiler: Hydra never was purged from SHIELD. They’ve been lurking in the shadows since the first time.
Ooh, that’s interesting stuff! Thanks!
The most interesting thing I’ve realized is that Jesus himself is portrayed as a pretty liberal, empathetic, merciful man of the people.
You are picking and choosing, which I don’t blame you for since everyone is doing that. The further you get in time the nicer he gets. The earliest writings have him send people to hell. It took about 4 centuries for the Adulteress story of John to be invented. Heck, the author of Luke flatout omitted verse of him yelling because it made Jesus look bad.
but if you just listen to Jesus himself (and not the people/organizations claiming to speak on his behalf), you could do worse.
Those don’t exist.
This raises the question of if Jesus actually existed, which I’ll happily avoid getting into.
Probably didn’t.
I took classes on Old Testament and New Testament. The former was taught by a professor who had been on television’s History of the Bible. There was a student who made some comment that clearly revealed that he thought this was a church study rather than academic.
The instructor gracefully let him speak without correcting (and potentially embarrassing) the student. The look on his face (bemusement) said it all. He likely had one in every class.
happend
\facepalm
