I wonder how many US Presidents actually were believers and how many were just going through the motions because until recently in our history not identifying as one made you a pariah in the US, unwelcome in all the little clubs that could lead to the Presidency.
Obama seemed way too logical and analytical to actually buy into such irrational things. Trump clearly doesn’t, purely out of narcissistic self-importance making himself his own deity/object of worship.
Not every Christian believes in a literal Genesis and a 6 thousand year old earth etc. , but yeah, probably many were likely (and/or surely) deist, agnostic, uncaring, or even atheist.
Honestly I have more respect for the literalists than the ones that recognize the crazy, but pick and choose which beliefs within their religion they’re willing to swallow the crazy of rather than walking away.
If you’re going to choose to be a nutter, at least fucking commit.
Amen. This is what they should teach in schools. It’s not like you would go outside and tell people that you’re a flat earther but you don’t really believe that earh doesn’t have curve. Then why do people go outside claiming they a christians but don’t really believe in thw crap that happened in the great folk lore fantasy book called the bible. I would love to read it some day completely, like a folk lore book, not to convert. Same goes for koran. It would be interesting
I started it. But when I got to the part in Genesis where there’s entire chapters devoted to the generations of who begat who, I realized that it was crappily written and wouldn’t be enjoyable.
You must hate Tolkien.
I liked it. Except for the entire chapter with the song of Tom Bombadil. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be reading, or singing? Great story though.
It always weirds me out too when there’s like 2 pages of just songs. Like cool songs and they really add to the depth of the lore but I’m having hard time concetrating on them
You’d be too annoyed by the contradictions, repetition and nonsense to finish it.
There are some pretty raunchy bits though.
Yeah propably. I should maybe just stick to kalevala. It’s a huge collection of finnish folk lore which almost got lost but then some guy decided to collect it all and make a book. It’s actually extremly significant for finland and tolkien took inspiration out of it while writing lotr
It kinda depends what you pick and choose. I’m no Christian, but I think Jesus had some pretty good ideas about how to treat others.
I also happen to appreciate many of the philosophies of the fictional character Jesus Christ of the New Testament.
Whether or not there was a Jesus Christ of Nazareth who walked the Earth, the individual of the Bible is a fictional version, the Santa Clause to Saint Nicholas of Myra.
In any event, agreeing with some or even all of another’s positions shouldn’t equate to deification.
I appreciate the writings of Karl Marx, yet I recognize their shortcomings, and have never worshipped or defied him or his work.
Tldr you don’t have to believe Jesus was God in human form, or even believe he was more than a fiction, to happen to agree with his written ideology that can be paraphrased as “Be excellent to each other.”
Except for those that hoard wealth. He pretty much said they go to hell no matter what. lol
He said it was impossible, but that God can make even impossible things come true. I always saw it as “I’m not gonna torture anyone in hell, but I can’t just say that outright because a lot of you guys are assholes and would take advantage of it”.
Then again, I’m not a Christian, if you can’t tell.
Nah, he was straight up calling it ungodly.
And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
I mean there’s merit to the idea that modern Christians don’t follow the old testament. The whole idea of being a Christian is recognizing that Jesus started a new convenient and wiped out the old rules.
If only Christians would actually follow Jesus, instead of picking the shit they conveniently already agree with.
Sorry, a new “convenient”?
Covenant, but the mistake is oddly appropriate.
Ah, thank you.
Every single religion on earth cherry picks beliefs. Including and especially the “literalists”.
It’s impossible to form a consistent belief system based on an inconsistent and self-contradicting document like the Bible, which is why there isn’t any such system.
It’s like the “liberalism of Christianity.” No base principles, fence-sitting and willing to go with whatever message serves their interests.
The bible is clearly written not as literal truth. The literalists aren’t even comprehending it or the messages the author intended. They are very modern in their interpretation taking religious ‘truths’ to be literal truths. They’ve ironically been heavily influenced by science, just not in the way compatible with science.
Many of the founding fathers were Deists, which while technically is a belief in a higher power, also wouldn’t fly with the mainstream religious voters of today. Thomas Paine was a flat out atheist and still remains today the only founding father without a monument. I’m of mixed feelings about that as a monument could be considered idolatry and he might not really want that.
wasn’t obama a pastor or something?
No but he did give his pastor their 15 minutes.
wait is he being sarcastic? he’s being sarcastic, isn’t he?
Yeah he is.
I mean it’s so hard to tell. They say the exact same stuffs unsarcastically
Jon Stewart doesn’t.
Sorry for not knowing this person and his specific humor or use of sarcasm.
Eh that’s Gen-X humor for you. Also, it’s pretty palpable in this bit… no?
Yep. It assumes you’re able to read.
The final sentence makes it pretty clear I think.
That’s just it.
Most sects suffer from the No True Scotsman fallacy. there might be some ecumenical leanings when they’re dealing with the world at large, though internally, they usually don’t believe that anyone too far away from their particular flavor is really Christian-enough.
And that’s ignoring the rampant belief that no True Christian™️ can ever be whatever they happen to find abhorrent- abortion, democrats, lgbtq, the wrong race.
There’s plenty of evangelicals that don’t think Biden is a Christian- he now supports LGBTQ rights, is more or less pro choice, catholic. And a democrat. These are all things that evangelicals see as proof he’s not.
And that’s just Biden.
Who does?
“Real” Christians.
I’ve literally had one saying that certain pro-choice presidents weren’t really Christian, and that they persecute “real” Christians, because they need to feed the victim complex.
Ehh well. Cultists are gonna cult.
well, there’s no
/sso it’s hard to tellFuck the /s
It’s just insecurity on the fundies part that they are no longer dominant. Religiosity in US is diminishing.
43? In a row?
Hey, try not to worship any messiahs on the way through the parking lot!
I remember watching him saying that on the night the show was broadcast and I remember it so well, I can remember his inflections and pauses.
Such a memorable quote and one which should get more attention!
Must be a quote from the Bush Admin.
I want my next president to be a Jewish accountant… Not one of those schmucks that spends and spends
Yeah, he’ll run the country like a business and get us back on the right track. Sounds fresh.
Technically 42 since one guy got counted twice, but all 45 if you’re counting people baptised Christian
I’m being pedantic, I know.
But I think the term “consecutively” eliminates the need to count individual presidents that did not serve consecutive terms, as those who did are commonly regarded as one presidency.
If we only had 3 christian presidents, and the first and last were the same guy, we still had three consecutive christian presidents.
I don’t know. It’s a unique situation. But I don’t think saying “43 consecutive presidents” is necessarily wrong
We’ve had 45 presidents no? Is he leaving out 2 or did he say this during the 43rd? If he is leaving out, who are the 2 based ones?
This quote is from the past.
So what you’re telling me is that time is linear? Let me just ask my buddy Gilgamesh real quick for his thoughts
Ironically, Gilgamesh’s battle against mortality would have been for naught had he known of the possibility of our limitless overlapping of spacetime capability.
Mitch: every quote is from the past. Have a quote from the future? Wait, let me see that.
Considering he says 43 consecutively, that would imply either the first two or last two were not Christians. We know that’s not the case, so it’s safe to assume it’s just a quote from before Trump became president.
Edit: though I’m pretty sure Thomas Jefferson was famously not a Christian, so it isn’t true regardless.
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Obama is not a practicing Christian, and he was the 44th presidency. But Grover Cleveland was counted as 2 separate presidencies, so only 42 people before Obama were president of the United States. But if “43 of them” is referring to presidencies and not individuals, it holds.Trump and Biden also both identify as Christians too,
bringing the total to 45 presidencies out of 46, and 44 out of 45 people who have been president of the United States.And to be especially nitpicky, a few early presidents are speculated to have been atheists or deists, not Christians.
You do not count Obama, but count Trump?!!
Trump CLAIMS to be Christian.
Obama doesn’t. I respect self-identification.Edit: I apparently also live under a rock and am totally wrong about Obama identifying as Christian later in life. I had only ever heard the anecdotes about how he was raised secular and assumed he was reasonable enough to remain that way
In January 2008, Obama told Christianity Today: “I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life.”[110] On September 27, 2010, Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views, saying:
I’m a Christian by choice. My family didn’t—frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn’t raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me.[111][112]
Obama absolutely identified as a Christian, what are you on about?
Biden will be the last openly straight president
I fucking wish
Same tho
Biden will be the last president
ftfy
