Every week, millions of Christians gather to worship and remember the tenets of the faith: belief in God, in Jesus Christ as his son and their savior, and in the Holy Spirit. Many utter the words of the Lord’s Prayer each week, and in doing so, ask that God forgive our sins, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
These are the ABCs of the Christian faith — and they should theoretically be an easy answer to offer if, like President Donald Trump, you’re asked what might happen when you die, and what you might do when Judgment Day comes.
And yet, when asked last week by Ross Douthat on 60 Minutes where Trump thinks he’ll go when he dies — and if he could forgive his political enemies if his salvation depended on it — Trump was brutally honest.
“Well, I’m a religious person, so in theory I go to heaven,” the president said. “I hope so. I don’t want to go to hell.”
Could he forgive opponents like former FBI Director James Comey and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi?
“Well, then I wouldn’t be real, would I? I mean, if I said to you, sure, the easy answer to that is ‘Oh, yes, I could forgive,’” Trump told Douthat. “The answer is no. I want to be honest, no.”
Even if God asked it?
“Before the judgment, no,” he said. “I do hate some of my enemies…I probably cannot do that, no, because I do hate some of my enemies and I always will.”
Evangelicals are not Christians.
They’re almost all charlatans, with a few sheep mixed in to pay for the mega church.
How do you know they’re not Christian: they don’t file any of Christ’s teachings and they lie about speaking in tongues. If you don’t follow Christ’s own teachings, by definition you’re not Christian.
This is bullshit Christian copium. Your religion is toxic and you refuse to accept it.
Evangelicals are Christians.
Nobody follows Christ’s teachings. He said to give away everything to the poor, the jacket off your back, and to live like a bird in the field. So, by your stated metric, only a few hermits living in the wilderness are Christian.
Yet, there are billions of Christians that don’t live like birds in the field. Deal with reality as it is, not as you wish it to be.
People don’t follow them perfectly, but evangelicals straight up don’t follow them.
Modern evangelical Christians in the US are made up of pro-slavery southern fundamentalists, wrapped up in the idea the earth will soon end and you need to recruit more evangelicals. It’s a hate based pyramid scheme.
Everybody straight up doesn’t follow them.
Evangelicals are Christians OR there are no Christians.
All fall short of the Glory of God. Accept reality as we know it, not as you deem it should be. You’re not the “True Christian Decider™”.
There’s nothing more Christian than hate, you should read the Bible. Search the key word “hate”, God hates quite a few people. He hates them so much, He tortures them forever (“these are the six things that the LORD GOD hates…”)
This is just the no true scotsman fallacy. Evangelicals are one of the largest sects of Christianity. You can disown them if you like, but outsiders to the Christian faith aren’t going to care who is the real Christian when all sects claim to be so to the exclusion of all others.
Until your alleged christians police their own ranks, yes evangelicals are christians. So are christo fascists and Christian nationalists and all those weirdos who worship trump. Don’t like it? Reject those you claim don’t represent your faith.
I agree. Every time I say it, people push back and scream “no true Scotsman!”, but it’s true. There are fake Christians (who mostly probably know they are that) and there are people who actually try to follow those teachings. Doesn’t mean they have to be perfect. But yes there are real and fake Christians just like most any other thing people claim to be.
Edit: And if you’re wondering who I would consider real Christians, those would largely be the ones doing charity work that truly helps people without preaching at them. They exist.
So then are there any Christians?
Yes.
They’re the ones who help their neighbours, treat immigrants with respect, don’t hoard wealth beyond what they’ll conceivably ever need.
And you’re the one who determines which is which?
Decidedly anti-Christian and goes directly against the Bible.
… and keep their faith to themselves.
Have you read the Bible? I would really say proselytizing is a disqualifier for being christian
Mark 16:15-18
Nope.
Autocorrect I meant wouldn’t say lol
To some extent. You’re probably referencing the Sermon on the Mount, though (Matthew 5 and 6, including the bits about praying in private and not making a display of your faith), and that wasn’t exactly a private affair.
Yeah I’m no christian and I realize lemmy isn’t the most religious place, but proselytizing as a disqualifier is a hilarious take.
Christian scripture references spreading the word many times and spreading the faith is a cornerstone of Christianity. It’s literally what all of the disciples did and what Jesus himself (allegedly) did, travel around converting people.
As a hot take it’s pretty good but if the other commenter is serious they show a fundamental misunderstanding of Christianity to the point of absurdity.
Anyone who claims to be a christian is a christian, if you don’t like their behavior then look inward.
Religion is the problem not the particular branding.
Ok. Anyone who claims to be a socialist is a socialist. Just as true, right?
Socialism isn’t a religion that claims to save your eternal soul. The comparison is dumb.
You’ve given no reason that the comparison is dumb. The comparison shows that it’s its stupid to claim that when it’s convenient for you, I have to think the concept of faking isn’t real, but any other time it is.
There’s a little more incentive to claim to be an adherent to a religion when the people of that religion believe in eternal damnation for non-believers.
It’s just not comparable at all. Socialism isn’t a religion.
Ok so because you think Christians can trick God, faking isn’t real.
Seriously what is the point in your comments? I absolutely know that if you thought about it for .5 seconds you’d see the point, instead you try to derail by saying what socialism is or isn’t and that has fuck-all to do with the point. Substitute any other belief you can fake and the point remains.
I find it really annoying, this trend of “your comparison doesn’t work, there’s at least one difference between the two things.” Yeah no shit, why would I compare identical things? The point is to illustrate the relevance difference between the two. In this case, “despite whether the belief is one you like or not, it can be faked”. Obviously.
The point is to point out glaring weaknesses in bullshit arguments.
You’re comparing a religion based on blind faith, with a political ideology. They’re different things.
Weird how you keep pretending that matters. Obviously you know that comparisons don’t require things to be identical. You obviously also know that you don’t get to decide what constitutes a similarity that matters. But keep pretending you don’t get it even after having it spelled out for you