A dude who works at my apartment complex invited me over to his family's house for Christmas this week. I'm new in town, so I felt like it's a really kind gesture on his part.
I told my Fundie Boomer dad about it, and he goes, "Is he a Christian?" I said, I have no clue, why? "Because that sounds like what a Christian would do."
All I could say was, "Dad, you know, it's not only Christians who do kind things". I wanted to follow it up with, "In fact, the kindest people who've been the best friends to me over the years have all—literally ALL—been non-Christians" but I held my tongue. I've been down this road too many times :D
My dad used to say things like that. According to him, the only honest people in the world were christians; if they did something dishonest to another person or people, it's because "they aren't christian."
They had somebody remodel their house, but they did a cheap job. Somehow he found out they were mormon. He blamed their shoddy work on the fact that they were mormon, not christian.
If people were just bad people in general, it was because they "weren't christian."
I dislike christians who promote moral superiority. Christians are suffering from moral superiority
Self-proclaimed "Christians" ARE the modern day pharisees. Anytime I see someone rocking a crucifix or with an ichthys (fish) symbol on the back of their car, my brain immediately goes "pharisee, avoid".
You know it's funny you mention Mormons and shoddy work. I know a few guys who own cabins in southern Utah outside of Cedar City. Most of them said if you want quality work to higher the plygs (polygamist from northern Arizona) to build your cabin. That info is a decade old so maybe not accurate anymore.
I can see them being good, but a lot of mainstream Mormons get their jobs via nepotism and church jobs. I’ve heard on r/exmormon the Mormon contractors who do the ward buildings usually do a shoddy job.
The classic thing is "oh they're not real Christians"
Yeah, he believed that if somebody didn't have the exact, same beliefs as he (nondenominational christian), they were going to hell. So according to him, catholics, going to hell. Mormons, going to hell. Even other branches of christianity that weren't nondenominational - like same exact beliefs except liberal or those who believed in predestination instead of free will - were going to hell.
It's binary thinking to the max.
"My team are good people and Christian" and "The other team are non-christian and wicked" and there shall be no overlap between them.
And if you point out this isn't true, they'll just make up stupid rules like "Well, those nice people are really christians and pretend they aren't" or the ever popular "This Christians who do bad things aren't TRUE christians" because the black and white fallacy must be maintained lest some nuance about human beings slip into their worldview.
I have heard that a lot too. Including at part of my family's Christmas last weekend. Just a bunch of self-righteous bigots and racists thinking they know everything, walking around thinking they're better quality people than everyone else. It's ignorant and childish but it isn't the worst I've heard from them.
People who claim to be Christian are the people I most avoid. I assume they are selfish assholes who think me inferior, and I'm usually right about that.
More oppo speak from emotionally immature adults.
He's wrong. Many Christians are the most judgmental folks I've ever met.
There's a story that's been on the internet for a while. Could be true, could be made up. I think it's in the form of a social media post. Woman is at the store, an employee helps her and therefore she sees him as a good Christian, so sunshine and rainbows, animals are in harmony with each other, music is in the air. But when she finds out he's not a Christian suddenly she does a complete 180 and now believes there's a coldness and darkness she must immediately get away from in order to save her soul. What happened to the sunshine and rainbows?
This sounds exactly like my Dad 💀
I had someone try to tell me once that I actually WAS a Christian (because otherwise I wouldn't be so kind); I just didn't KNOW IT. And also that all kind Muslims, etc. are also actually Christians, but don't know it.
WTF
That's actually, ironically, closer to the original message of Jesus than modern day Churchianity. In one of Jesus' sermons, he said something to the effect of, "Bless those who feed the poor and clothe the naked, for they are feeding and clothing Me," implying that even a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Jew who was taking care of humanity would receive his blessing.
But you can't tell that to a modern Protestant churchgoer. They'll do all sorts of mental backflips to squirm their way out of it. "Bu bu bu bu but the Westminster Confession of Faith says I don't have to do good works!!! I'm saved by faith and faith alone...!!!!"
I find it cringe that so many modern Protestants go around proclaiming that "we are saved ONLY through faith, works have nothing to do with it."
I suspect it's so that they can go on drinking their Starbucks lattes and making sure not to drive their Porsche Cayennes anywhere *near* a soup kitchen.
Yeah they miss the part of good works being an outpouring of faith and therefore a sign of one's salvation.
Woooow, what an insulated thing to say. There are tons of kind non-christians, oftentimes more kind. Something I've noticed about Christians is their kindness can seem forced/fake, like they know they should be kind even when they don't want to be. Or they're kind but its only to build a bridge for evangelism. It's not kindness for kindness sake but kindness with an agenda. I for one have actually grown much more kind since deconverting 😄
Riiiiiight. So the self-righteous asshole Christian who threatened to kill me back in 2008, which precipitated my overdue departure from the religion... was a nice guy?
He's the only person to have ever threatened to kill me, was an outspoken loudmouth at the church I was in music leadership for, and he clearly meant it. Yeah, such a nice, upstanding guy.
Yuck.
All of the most selfless and generous people I know are atheists. I remember asking my fundie parents once many years ago, if they believed that an atheist who spent their entire life doing charitable works and giving to others would go to hell, and a "Christian" who never did a selfless act in their life go to heaven. They said yes to both.
So the person who acts Christ-like will go to hell, but the person who just says they believe and does nothing Jesus taught will go to heaven. Make it make sense.
The worst people I know, have consistently been Christians.
Urgh… I had similar conversations with my very Christian mother many, many times back when I still believed.
She’d talk of someone committing a heinous act, to which I’d respond with something to the tune of “I don’t know why someone would even do that, I know I wouldn’t”, at which point she would immediately howl “That’s because you’re a Christian!” I’d then say that being a Christian had nothing to do with it, but she was adamant; all Christians are kind, moral people and all non-believers are monsters in waiting. Let’s just ignore the fact that the most toxic, bigoted and unpleasant people I’ve ever met in my entire life were Christians…
My mom says stuff like that too or saying someone is a “good Christian” or she’s trying to be “a good Christian”
Counterpoint to raise with Dad.
Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan...