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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   31957 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 22, 2023

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Christianity was pretty strong in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era, when enormous numbers of people were being killed or tortured in religious wars (between Christians or with other faiths). What would happen if the Sisters showed up in pre-18th century Europe? They'd be lucky to reach prison alive.

The last person hanged for blasphemy in Great Britain was Thomas Aikenhead aged 20, in Scotland in 1697. He was prosecuted for denying the veracity of the Old Testament and the legitimacy of Christ's miracles.

The more people care about something, the stronger it is.

Well it's an interesting question -- is there any sort of intrinsic character to Christianity, or is 'Christianity' whatever people do while declaring themselves 'Christian'?

Can a group like Antifa call themselves "The Anti-Bad Guy Squad" and thereby make all their actions good?

There are so many ways you can interpret the Bible that any action can be defended as Christian. You'd think idolatry and polytheism would be off-limits but my former Catholic church decided to celebrate the Indian festival of Divali, for no comprehensible reason other than that there were a fair few Indians around. Christians can go all the way from pacifism to holy war, tolerance or destruction of evil (however it's defined).

Or, Christianity is defined by the Orthodox Church, which also limits how the Bible is to be interpreted, and all else is Christian heresy.

We are coming at this from different perspectives and common ground seems unlikely.

Thanks for the conversation.

The Orthodox Church (Roman or Eastern?) also took active part in quite a lot of that killing and torturing that RandomRanger mentioned above, though. If His Holiness the Bishop of Rome is the one who decides who does and does not count as a Christian, for example, I don't think you then get to claim that Innocent III o Julius II does not qualify as one.

Eastern.

Thanks for clarifying.

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