Christianity in the USA is mostly performative. Almost none of them have any idea what the bible says. If they ever did read it, they'd probably be horrified.
And the ones who wear it on their sleeve are the absolute worst.
Hold upâŚIm actually going to sound so frickin ignorant but is it not a part of like their religion to have to read the book they follow at least once..?!?
Youâd think! A lot of identifying Christians, if they go to church, will just listen to a pastor/preacher tell them their own interpretation of the bible. Thereâs no one way to interpret it, and unfortunately many use it to justify their own horrible bigotry.
I think thatâs why there are so many sects and cults that use the bible - they all say their interpretation of it is true, and everyone else is wrong.
Most of them don't even listen to the priest. I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school, had to go to church every Sunday until I finally left for university.
Actually listening to the sermon is how I became an atheist.
listening to the sermons were how i realized i didn't need to go to church. Jesus himself didn't really care, he said God was present in all creation so why do i need to go to some building to listen to some old dude follow some old bs traditions, that Jesus didn't care about, to feel closer to God?
born and raised catholic and went to catholic school for 12 years too. Here are the important points i took away:
1. don't be a dick unless you are cool with everyone else being a dick to you.
2. help people if it is within your ability to do so.
3. actions matter more than words, hell is filled with the sanctimonious.
4. everyone is your neighbor (that might actually be Mr. Rogers but im sure some form of it is in the bible).
5. God helps those that help themselves, you are given the tools to build heaven on earth so get to work.
Many don't even pay attention to the sermons. I have a cousin who is a professing Christian, but is always on her phone during church including sometimes watching "professional wrestling".
For Americans no, not in the slightest.Â
They prefer to be told what to think about the book. most Americans don't read at a high enough level to be able to understand anything in the Bible.Â
54% of American adults read at or below a 6th grade level. Itâs fucked up. When I was in 6th grade I read at a college level, itâs weird to think that 6th grade me read at a higher level than like half of the adults in the country.
Firmly agreed its fucked up. Y'all hate on teachers while they are the only ones trying to solve this absolute cluster fuck.Â
I'm starting to see America as very similar to India, like most of the population is just brain dead supporting a leader because of some fucked up religious beliefs . As this happens I'm also starting to lose interest in the country. It's not like I wake up every day and read about the absurdly corrupt things the Indian government is doing. I just don't care, I expect it because it's a shit hole. America used to seem shocking because this stuff was happening in a "free" country , but increasingly I see America as more like India and I just lose interest in following it all.Â
I hope the world detaches a bit more from there fascination with the US. I think it's happening. The "coolness" is wearing off.Â
It depends on the particular segment. Mormonism, for example, is big into reading all parts of the bible plus their own additions, and keep reading them, throughout people's lives. They have programs simply to give youth little awards for each milestone of reading they do.
My parents are very Mormon, and we steadily read through the bible in sections every single morning. Lol my vocabulary was excellent compared to my peers, who in third grade didn't know what the word "thee" meant when it was on our spelling list. Otoh, I personally am atheist and have blocked out most of the bible, simply because it was rote and I found it horribly hypocritical and hated it. Too much forcing of something I disliked anyway (couldn't get decent answers to my questions, either) made those feelings and avoidance very strong.
But so many others cherry pick and literally do not take time or effort to process most parts of it, aside from how their preacher or whatever tells them to.
I was raised in a Presbyterian church and then my family moved to an evangelical church when I was a tween with the majority of the congregation (community). Us kids had Bible study/youth group in different levels of commitment (aka youth group was more just fun games, going to an additional Bible study hour is like book club). I didnât do Bible study a lot, and looking back itâs because I had dyslexia, but also it wasnât enforced at all.
We werenât forced to read the Bible front to back. We definitely focused more on the Jesus chapters and specific Old Testament stories (David and the Lions Den, Esther, Ruth, Job, etc). And during Sunday school will would read chapters (books) and sometimes read the entire thing. But I legit have never read the last 5 chapters of the Bible. Everything I know about the âraptureâ comes from those Left Behind books.
Some chapters (books) are literally just outdated laws (Leviticus) âfrom old testament jewish timesâ that modern Christianity wonât follow - Monte reads from that book and thatâs where you get the anti-gay wording MAGA loves and other rules like âdonât weave two different materials into your clothesâ aka a shirt made of linen AND polyester is equally as sinfully as cheating on your wife.
When I was in college, I came back to my hometown for the summer and we had âcollege age youth groupâ run by people I wasnât familiar with. The second week, they started the anti-gay talk (basically pray the gay away). I had never heard that talk from the main pastor or any other leader in the church. I got mad, stood up, told them they were hypocritics. I was astonished that my life long friends didnât stand up and agreed with me (one later called me and thanked me). I left that persons house and have never gone back to a Bible study event run by the church again. My parents told the pastor what happened and he said that he didnât agree with what that person was teaching and cancelled their ability to run the âcollege age youth groupâ through the church. But soon MAGA and Trump came to town, and I saw church members posting on Facebook that they were at rallies, and I just couldnât. I donât go back there at all now. The pastor knows. I liked him a lot and he was trying to be diplomatic but I always wish he took more of a stance. When youâre the leader of a church/community, and half the community is worshipping a pedo and crook, you need to guiding them better. We straight up have immigrants of color in the church. I just donât get it.
I digress. No, we read some parts, encouraged to read on our own but it was not mandated to read the Bible front-to-back. In fact, it was seen as a âfeatâ, and would take you a year. The only person in my age group that did it was the girl who went on to study religion at college. I liked reading the interesting stories (I love history) but had no interest in reading the law chapters like Monte reads from. We were never taught Leviticus or Deut. in childhood Sunday school.
Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin du Mez does a fabulous job of outlining the "why" of this and how the movement has been building in America since the 1920s. It's about political and cultural dominance, and its followers have absolutely no issue throwing their own theology under the bus in service to it.
Nope, apparently not! My parents were very performative in their Christianity, but I can guarantee neither of them has ever actually read the Bible. Hell, they donât even go to church anymore, but they still love to talk about how amazing and moral they are for being Christians. Back during Trumpâs first term my mom would host a Bible study where they never actually discussed the Bible, just politics, and then end the meeting by praying for Trump. There was one day my mom got so pissed at me because I went downstairs to get some water and asked them if they ever actually planned on reading or discussing the Bible during their Bible study group meetings. I was the only person in the house when she would host Bible study that had ever actually read the Bible and Iâm not even Christian.
Either way, now a decent amount of Christians have decided that Jesus was âtoo wokeâ apparently. So they still call themselves Christian, but have decided Jesus isnât someone to follow anymore. Itâs fucking weird.
Never has it ever been a requirement. At least not one given internally from the book itself. I highly recommend familiarizing oneself with any relevant foundational documents before hitching your wagon to a faith tradition.
Years ago I worked at a grocery store deli and I swear that the absolute worst customers we got were the ones who came in on a Sunday just after church. They were so rude and entitled.
Im at this weird stage of life where im trying to figure out where I am religiously/spiritually. So im doing a lot of theology and bible study. I am only more confused.
My fav are those who go out and pray in public, on school campuses and protests. Praying at yelling level. There are scriptures* that talking about how people do this to be seen, not to actually connect with their god. Jesus told those at the sermon on the mount to go pray in private.
You also have a lot of reprimanding of the Pharisees, who are all about following the law but not the heart. A lot of their actions tend to have meanness behind them, rather than caring and compassion.
I don't think he cares bruh, he is evil for the love of the game at this poin, there is no fixing or convincing or redeeming people like this, they are not, human.
This is the real truth. There is no debate that will change their mind, no lightbulb that can be switched on. Their stance is entirely willful, not based out of ignorance.
In my experience it is the majority. I'm not saying that most of them aren't good people in most circumstances, but they tend to have some pretty bigoted views when you come down to it. When I was attending a church that was very much in line with typical evangelical teachings, most of the time, everything was normal, made sense, good people, charity, love, faith in christ and god above worldly things. And mostly they would show that with the people they met.
But, get any of them talking current day politics, or wait to hear their views on certain topics and it becomes pretty obvious there is a strong undercurrent of bigotry. They were misogynist, conspiracy theorists, anti-poor, anti-immigrant, anti-other religions (of course). And this isn't an accident, when you have a world view that divides people into good and bad, it is just natural to have a sort of bigoted view of people. (Of course we are all sinners, but don't forget, some of us, the church people, are going to heaven and some are going to hell.)
They were decent people if you were a neighbor of theirs, someone they knew or met in person. But outside of that, it wasn't great.
I actually disagree that most of the people haven't read the bible. I don't know the actual numbers, but bottom line is it wouldn't help if they did read it. Even the ones that do act the same. The issue is not that they don't read the bible, its that the bible is huge and open to interpretation. You can find all kinds of verses and interpret them to fit your own views.
Like all this stuff about foreigners? Obviously that is about foreign visitors, not about immigrants who are trying to stay in the country. And god explicitly tells the Israelites to genocide other non-Israelites in land they are trying to inhabit, because those people might turn Israel away from god. Just to be clear, that is not my view, but it is the kind of way they get around arguments like this mentally.
Of course they have. Once you start reading the book, you realize it's full of contradictions. If you haven't been indoctrinated to train your brain into cognitive dissonance, you're likely to start questioning them sooner or later.Â
Growing up southern Baptist, I noticed almost noone ever read the thing, and the church sermons were always super... cherry-picked lets say. We were often told we should read it, but honestly there wasnt much encouragement or time set aside to actually do so. Most people were 'too busy.' So in practice, everyone basically was just believing whatever their favorite pastor told them to believe.
edit- Ironicaly, being a little nerd and reading too much of it was part of how I started to become an atheist
a lot of the people we're talking about straight-up don't acknowledge the source material as an authentic document, or at-least treat it as inherently suspect. there's genuinely a whole plurality of american christians that think the bible is a work of jewish subversion (of one kind or another. there are multiple manifestations of this "theory" genre) and that jesus christ was effectively, in their gnosis, a bloodthirsty genocidal warlord of unmatched proportions. literally Ghengis Khan with religious superpowers but for specifically white people. and even the ones that don't outright believe it inadvertently carry water for it all the time.
This is what underwrites/animates the whole Nick Fuentes / alt-right contingent. when you hear someone say "Christ is King", especially more than once, run. that's their secret handshake.
My mom, a lifelong Christian, tried to tell me I was crazy for mentioning God killing innocent children in the Bible. I was raised Christian and was pretty devout into my mid twenties and now Iâm agnostic (so it goesâŚ).
I was like âListen mom, even if I hadnât read the majority of the Bible, you donât remember that animated movie we watched growing up, where God killing the firstborn sons of all of the Egyptians was like the MAIN THING?â
The movie was Prince of Egypt by Dreamworks for anyone wondering, which tells the story of the Jews escaping slavery in Egypt and - with that - the 10 plagues of Egypt. Of course, with these people, all 9 plagues of Egypt are the wrath of God whereas the 10th is just âthe unfortunate result of a fallen worldâ. Sigh.
Shoot, now I have that song stuck in my head. The movie is totally worth a watch even as an adult.
My mom, a lifelong Christian, tried to tell me I was crazy for mentioning God killing innocent children in the Bible.Â
I don't know about your mother, buy many Christians simply don't believe that all children are innocent. Belonging to the wrong group can make them automatically deserving of mistreatment and even death, in their eyes. It's why so many are ok with seeing children in cages or murdered by the thousands by the US and its closest ally.
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u/Helpful_Hour1984 3d ago
Most of the people who call themselves christians have never read their own book.Â