Thats what happens when people decide to interpret. Suddenly Jedus is white, despite that making NO sense, and the bible gets a sequal full of contradictions.

Apparently they even have apps now that will pull out random quotes from their Bible to justify their attitudes.

This isnt entirely true. In the fundie circles i grew up in, it was heavily encouraged to ready the bible cover to cover as many times as possible, on top of that required to memorize entire chapters. They know whats in there and they dont care. Thats even scarier imo.

Well that would certainly explain why the tax collectors get such a bad rap in the Gospels.

I'm sorry but in which one of the "canonical" Gospels does Jesus say fuck the poor and love yourself more than anyone else?

None of the four gospels are in contradiction at all with what Nobody@anarchist.nexus said. Not sure what your point is

But America wasn't a thing or even an idea when the Bible was written.

(I totally get what you are saying, though.)

Could you point out where?

I'm a Buddatheist who grew up with both cultural Catholicism and later Christian Evangelicism.

I like how this hints at the nature of the self. If I leave someone behind am I not also leaving myself behind?

For me, ethical acts are those that increase the freedom of the self and others. We all suffer. That's a fact of life. If we dissolve our concept of the self and acknowledge our link to others and the world itself we can see ourselves more as threads going through human experience. If we are kind to ourselves and "others", we have a better chance at reducing that suffering.

Imagine the time a stranger forgot their wallet and you paid for their coffee. A version of that experience could still exist in that person's mind long after you die. It could get blended with other experiences and reinterpreted. It could be told as a story to a friend who was inspired by the act. The cascading effects of that person being properly caffeinated on that day could have world changing effects. In a similar way, I carry the shared experiences of my own ancestors and even strangers who have shared their stories with me. They are still alive as a small part of me because my true self is humanity or even some animating life force of the universe or something like that and the name that people call me just refers to the limited perspective and incomplete view I have of existence. Essentially I see existence as blinders limiting my perspective like a race horse, but the true self is a satellite view of the track. When I act, I do so based not only on my experience, but the collective experience of every perspective and experience that has been conveyed to me in every way, but I am still one human body, in physical space, subject to time. I hope that when I die, those blinders will be lifted and I'll exist as pure conscious perception of everything that ever was is and will be. Able to see through anyone's eyes, in any time. To feel any and every feeling felt my an animal or human. To view the entirety of existence as a completed masterpiece from outside time itself.

You can probably see why I like the Buddhists.

I find that when you acknowledge the interconnection of things compassion becomes easier.

I hope that people rediscover that within themselves and others.

Nice. I like 99% of what I've encountered from Buddhism.

Of course! Because heaven and hell are made up and facts don't matter!

(Maga Christian don't believe in facts or science)

like pervasive distrust of Jews

Historically that's a manufactured thing. Christians were not allowed usury, charging interest on loans. Jews didn't have that limitation. One solution they came up with was barring Jews from doing other jobs and forcing them into the money lender role, with the Christian landlord asking for their cut in fees. That gave Jews a reputation for being distrustful greedy bankers.

Israel is integral to their eschatology. They can't have Armageddon without certain conditions being met. Supporting Israel is intended to facilitate the the creation of those conditions.

They hate jews but worship a jew. So fucking weird.

It makes sense if you don't think of it from the viewpoint of principles and ideals.

Antisemites are in general all for zionism. Antisemitic Brits were the ones who made Israel possible in the first place, and even the Nazis supported the creation of Israel. Because it's not about the Jews having their own country where they can (supposedly) live in peace, safety and freedom, but it's about Jews moving far, far away.

And with Israel being a western "outpost" pretty much in the centre of the Muslim world, there's a secondary effect: If Israel and the Muslim countries around it are fighting, that hurts Muslims without causing too much trouble for people living e.g. in the USA.

(These are obviously not my views. I'm just trying to explain why many antisemites are pro Israel.)

There are alot of American Christians who are obsessed with End Times Prophecy which Israel plays a big part in.

It's tied into revelations (which these people tend to revere more than any other part of the Bible). There's some bullshit about all the Jews returning to Israel being the start of the end of the world so that everybody can go straight to heaven do not pass GO do not collect $200. So they don't actually care about the Jews of Israel they just want to go straight to heaven so they want all the Jews to "go home".

Hierarchy. The invisible sky wizard makes the rules, and if we don't follow them we burn. And so on down the line, priests, pastors, presidents (unless they're black, hoo boy did that send them over the edge), police, parents. Do as you're told. Do not question authority. It's practical preparation for school and the workforce at least.

Meanwhile, all of my birthday parties were keggers because the weather was nice and the adults liked to party. And I was at most 4 years old when I learned that I shouldn't touch the small squares of mirror. Or the plastic film canisters.

There's nothing quite like the smell of hypocrisy in the morning. Overflowing ash trays and last night's beer cans when you're trying to eat breakfast comes close though.

Funnily, you see similar things with e.g. Americans who lived for generations in America, but still identify as Irish, German and so on.

My wife's late grandma had a daughter who moved from Germany to the USA at age 18. Her children never lived in Germany. Some of them have learned a bit of very rudimentary German. None of their children (the cousins of my wife) learned German in any meaningful way and they maybe visited Germany once or twice as children. One of these cousins (the second generation born in the USA) now had a kid (third generation born in the USA) and they called their kid "Schaefer" to "honour their German heritage".

"Schaefer" is a misspelling of the word "Schäfer", which means "shepherd" and is, if anything, exclusively used as a last name in German (German countries are quite strict about what's a first name and what's not). There's actually a registry of first names that were given to children in Germany, and the name "Schaefer" doesn't occur once over the last 80 or so years that this registry covers.

So they identify as "German", even though they never had any meaningful contact with the country and couldn't even be bothered to google whether the name they chose to "honour their German legacy" was actually a German first name.

TLDR: People identify as all sorts of garbage, because it makes them feel cool or makes them feel part of something, even if they have no clue about or interest in what they identify with.

Does anyone actually think these pseudochristians are actually pure in any way?

Of course, everyone will be judged eventually. Pretty sure it says that in the Bible too.

Lol, the Bible is full of contradictions that are all rationalized and interpreted by the wants of the individual and leader. No desire to dig into that any more than I already have.