The fact that weʻve seen a few MAGA pastors openly say stuff like "Well, Jesusʻ teachings were more applicable in the first century and we have to adapt now" is proof enough that itʻs not Jesus they believe in. I want to see this pushed more and more to get them to finally admit that theyʻre not actually Christians, but are actually like Cartman in the South Park episode where he starts a Christian band ("You donʻt know the first thing about Christianity!" "I know enough to exploit it.")

Not really. Pastors are being pushed out for being too woke and replaced by a more right wing figure. The congregation gets what the congregation wants. They've gone supply-side Jesus.

Like a chimp with a shotgun. Does it know what it’s doing? Absolutely not. Will it kill people? Most certainly.

And so fucking loud

The U.S. reminds me of when I worked retail and a mentally unstable customer would come in and start getting loud and knocking things off the shelf and acting entitled and asking for discounts and special treatment.

Yeah. I am Chicano but identify more with my indigenous side and am friends with plenty of Native Americans. I've always personally blamed Judeo-Christian thinking. The whole manifest destiny mindset is insane.

I mean read just a piece of how different things were before those religions came to this land.

A second, related factor was the absence of large domestic animals in North America, which meant that instead of the 'intensive', ploughing-and-manuring agriculture practised in Europe, Native American farmers used 'extensive' techniques, cultivating an area for a few years and then moving on to let the soil recover. Most groups - hunters and plant-gatherers as well as agriculturists - viewed land as a common resource rather than a commodity that could be owned. Tribes and families had the right to hunt, fish or grow crops in defined places, but the concept of a fenced-off parcel of land being the exclusive property of an individual would have been utterly alien to most, if not all, Native Americans. The Indian attitude towards land was part of a broader, more fundamental understanding of reality which underpinned the whole of native life. Although, again, there were enormous local variations in mythology and ritual, some of the essentials of this world-view were shared by many, if not most, cultures. Perhaps the most basic element was the belief in sacred power: the idea that everything in the universe was interconnected and possessed a spiritual force or energy that could affect the lives of 'the people' and of all other living things. Gaining power and the aid of powerful beings was absolutely vital: for success in hunting, plentiful crops, good health, thriving children and victory in battle. But power was also dangerous.

Source: Chapter 2 of The Earth Shall Weep by James Wilson.

The only thing that has really kept religion in check in this country is, ironically, their enmity toward each other due, ostensibly, to differences in eschatology. That has melted away as they have come to the realization that they are in danger of becoming irrelevant. Fortunately, the laity is extremely stupid and easy to manipulate (religion will do that to you) and have no idea what they really believe or what the differences are, so they are being led as if they are more monolithic by focusing their worship on what they all agree they love: money. They are also too stupid to realize that this is ironic.

So weird for one of the world's youngest nations to hijack one of the world's youngest religions from a place they so frequently fear, hate, and bomb.

They really are just the plebeians of an empirical nation that never quite got to empirical level, unless your factor corporatisation of the society.

And they accuse the English of not speaking English...

Not really, no. America is unique among wealthy and powerful countires, it's the only theocracy on the "west", and it's almost the only one where christians are majority. Except Vatican maybe.

This. I went through a similar thing, but wound up in a different place (grew up in fundie-leaning Southern Baptist world with a pastor that turned out to be a sexual predator and abused people I am close to; decided to revisit the Bible and all that and wound up a priest in the Episcopal Church). Regardless of how folks end up, breaking people free from their control is paramount. If a meme manages to dent the armor, so be it. And if it annoys OP, they can always just mute it and move on. I do it a lot with posts that are openly hostile to my beliefs.

“Yet you participate in society”

Jesus lives rent free in their big, empty head.

Wtf don't ever belittle the greatest and wisest shit in history. Now stand out of my sun.

Early Christianity was nothing anyone would recognize today. It might have been more like if Diogenes was blissfully happy instead of being a little shit.

we can't really understand the social influences that shaped individual experience and personality in an age with such low literacy. whatever we know is a pixel in a 4k video.

change my mind

https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/roman-history-and-jesus-existence-extra-biblical-proof-that-jesus-was-real/

https://www.history.com/articles/was-jesus-real-historical-evidence

https://youtu.be/8NYnhoJ-RMM

So part of the reason to believe he was a real figure was that, crucifixion was a humiliating punishment at the time. The fact that people were worshipping a guy who was crucified was ridiculous at the time. Lots of people were talking about a guy Jesus who got crucified, and they weren't friends of Christians.

You had early Christians talking about Jesus, and early enemies of Christianity talking about some charlatan who got humiliated by being crucified and then for some reason people still worshipped him, which would have been ridiculous.

The guy probably existed as a historical figure.