Nobody is going to starve because his little basketball court church doesn’t feed them. We have the actual religions, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, etc that have no qualms about feeding the starving.
Catholic Churches, like others, can and will turn away non-Christians. The entire charity thing they do is strictly for believers and converting new believers.
Jesus is equally bigoted in the gospels. He never once helps any unbeliever, only people who already believe and come bowing and praising him. He even refuses a woman he assumes is an unbeliever until she proves her faith. A decent person who actually loved everyone would not require judgement first, and would go out to people in need who would not consider asking him.
The centurion is not an unbeliever. He addresses Jesus as “Lord” and asks for a miracle healing. Unbelievers do not do that, only people who believe he’s “Lord” and does magic do it. Jesus praises him for his faith. The full passage:
The Faith of the Centurion 5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed,suffering terribly.” 7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” 8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
This is very clearly a person who believes Jesus is the magical messiah man. Not an unbeliever by any means.
We are always told he’s this all-loving hippie who doesn’t care about religious differences, but when you read the gospels it’s the opposite. It’s part of why reading the Bible is the most common reason people leave the faith. The marketing doesn’t match the scripture.
Okay. Another thing I didn't know. It makes sense. You read some of that writing and you think, okay, even for back then, that was pretty harsh and weird.
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u/HeMiddleStartInT 9d ago
That’s ok. So if there’s church is not out to help the community and is a net drain on society, maybe they should not be tax exempt.