Debating Christianity in class will likely create more non-believers

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/42004497

It’s also likely to backfire on the religious right. They better hope that the kids skip the assigned reading, much less actual discussion and debate about it in class. As many an ex-evangelical can tell you, direct exposure to what the Bible actually says is often the first step to walking away from Christian fundamentalism altogether.

There’s a reason conservative Christians prefer quoting solitary Bible verses out of context: Not only does this allow them to twist the meaning for their own personal or political ends, but it also makes it much easier to avoid the critical thinking that engaging with longer passages can provoke. On my YouTube show “Standing Room Only,” the scholar and former evangelical Brad Onishi pointed to 2 Chronicles 7:20, a passage Christian nationalists often deploy to argue that America is meant to be a Christian nation by relying on the verse’s violent implications of God promising to “pluck” the unbelievers “up by the roots out of my land.” The larger context reveals that this story is about the ancient king Solomon, and it has nothing to do with the modern nation-state, much less one on a continent unknown to the writers of the Bible.

  • Eldritch@piefed.worldEnglish
    82·
    6 days ago

    Hopefully the teachers will maliciously comply as much as they can. Teaching the parts Republicans hate.

    • GraniteM@lemmy.world
      231·
      5 days ago

      Matthew 6:24

      No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

      Leviticus 25:23

      The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.

      Ezekiel 16:49

      Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

      James 5:1-6

      Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure during the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

      James 2:14-18

      What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

      But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

      Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

      1 John 4:20

      If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

      Proverbs 31:8-9

      Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.

      Leviticus 19:33-34

      When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God

      Exodus 22:21

      Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.

      Deuteronomy 10:19

      And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

      Deuteronomy 27:19

      “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

      • III@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        4 days ago

        Thank you for listing all af the passages that these schools will avoid sharing with the children.

    • artyom@piefed.socialEnglish
      311·
      6 days ago

      Teachers probably have enough to deal with without irate parents screaming at them.