#But! Ingrained in their brains is the belief that non-christians are wrong and doomed.

[glassfullofsass]

so. It's been a hot minute since I gave a shit about the bible as a "guiding" texting my life, and at least as long since I attended church services with any sort of regularity, but I was raised in the United Methodist Church which does tend to be one of the more liberal* denominations.

(*over the last decade, the denomination has formally split over the Issue of Gay Marriage.)

(I'm going to use "church" as a catchall for A Bunch of Christian Churches that I Feel Confident Grouping Together, lets say Protestants, which covers Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and Evangelicals, among others)

There's plenty of nuance to dig into if you want to think about ordained ministers/divinity schools/Christian Educated Folk, but at the end of the day, church leaders follow the teachings they agree with, they find ministry programs that further their beliefs, and they stay on their chosen path.

Regular everyday congregation members are typically exposed to Teachings 1-3 times per week, depending on their dedication and the activeness of the church. (Some denominations certainly meet more often). These teachings fall into two (Very very broad) categories, services and bible studies.

Services have readings, sermons, prayers, and maybe music if your denomination is spicy enough.

Readings are literally just a layperson reading a text that has been selected for them.

Sermons usually involve a reference to the bible (maybe the parable of the sower, or the good Samaritan), and then the pastor's interpretation of it. (And usually his 15 minute illustration of that reference in a "real world" scenario that ends in a shitty joke.)

Bible studies do involve conversation and actual engagement with the text...but its usually a very select piece of text. It's from whatever version of the bible the specific church uses, or whoever is leading the study uses. The study may be lead by the pastor or some other Educated person, or just a layperson. I can't speak for every church, but as far as I remember, all the sunday school and vacation bible school and confirmation classes and youth group discussions I ever attended were not about challenging the text, or digging into it to discover how the teachings might be applied in today's world, they were about learning the story and "understanding" the "lesson". (The Prodigal son, the mustard seed, the one about the two guys that were given their master's coin and the one with more buried it and the one with less invested).

Now sometimes you might get an actual, good sink-your-teeth-in study that does really investigate whichever book. I'm not denying that those exist entirely.

I know Christian scholars exist. I know sacred reading practices have been practiced in Christian traditions. Even some protestants observe the teachings of the saints. There's a *booming* industry of Christian non-fiction where scholars do reach an audience that seeks to deepen their relationship with Christ.

But. The Everyday Layperson isn't expected to challenge the text. It is the word of god. To question it would be sacralidge. Interpretation is for those Wiser and More Holy to pronounce.

The teachings and sermons and passages are all chosen by Important People that the congregation looks up to, and those people sure as fuck have an agenda.

Those sacred reading practices I know about? I didn't learn Lectio Divina or Sacred Imagination in youth group. I learned them from a podcast hosted by divinity school students.

Even if your average layperson decides to Read Their Bible, they likely don't have the tools or the community support to interpret it in a meaningful way.

There is, also, this pervasive teaching that underlies the Christian belief...that if everyone were just "saved" then all would be well. If everyone accepted Jesus into their life, then that would solve our problems. That Christianity is the one true way and we know best and we are the blessed and all others are to suffer for not bowing to the truth.

I'm getting low on spoons, so I'll just wrap up with this-

Particularly with American Christianity, you have a legacy of the faith being used as a tool of assimilation and being claimed as an indicator or righteousness and superiority.

There exists a pattern where access to the source material and the ability to understand it is reserved for those who "deserve" it.

This is the faith that literally stripped passages from its sacred text in order to better master the enslaved people who had been indoctrinated into it.

Americans have not rooted out our indoctrination to the White Supremacist Social Order and American Christians are the natural conclusion to a religion that worships itself more than its god.

Since posting that "how many mass graves and extinct cultures" post last month, I've had multiple Christians in the notes whining that there isn't a "specific instruction of belief that Christianity needs to wipe out every other religion in the world" in Christianity's teachings, and that it's all just The Church/King James/etc.

And every time, I point to the literal text of the passages of The Great Commission.

And nearly every time, that shuts them up; the only time it didn't, it was to engage in some disgusting semantical goalpost moving.

But it's like...

Why do Christians not know the content of their own texts? Is your faith really so tribalistic and totemic around the concept of "Jesus" that you all don't bother to actually read the religious texts?

It feels like it must be--I've heard of too many instances of Christians walking out of readings of The Sermon On The Mount because they think it's "liberal nonsense" and the like, but I just find it baffling and more than a little sad that I, a Jew, apparently knows the New Testament's text better than the people who swear by it and ostensibly believe and follow it.