Worth reading and thinking about

[avevale_intelligencer]

Christians in the Hand of an Angry God:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Five)

And part four is in the middle there. An interesting series of articles on why Christianity in America (and I suspect over here to some extent) is the way it is, and who did it.

But of course neither side is bad really, one must respect all points of view, they're all only trying to do their best for the country, and etc and so on. Oh yes.

Comments

[armb.livejournal.com]

Well worth reading. Have you seen Republican Jesus?

[demoneyes.livejournal.com]

Interesting stuff. I already knew some of it (I remember being both ROFL and furious at one cleric being interviewed by the BBC who said we had to condemn homosexuality because otherwise it'd be a "filofax Bible" where we pick and choose which bits we want to follow - talk about irony!) but it's fascinating to learn more.

FWIW I think he's going a bit over the top in assuming this entire reversal of the Christian worldview is due to the Republican party and its followers. Parts of the Church have long had a tendency to be too fond of its own riches to follow a doctrine of poverty. Nor do I see any supporting evidence in his essays that the belief of "through Jesus, not by works" originated in the US, nor how it would grow to be so common elsewhere in the world where there wasn't this Republican agenda driving it.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

"Nor do I see any supporting evidence in his essays that the belief of "through Jesus, not by works" originated in the US"

That would be because it originates in the words of St. Paul. It was a hotly debated point even in his day. =:o}

For the record, my interpretation of what the New Testament *as a whole* says on this, is quite simply:

1. You are saved by grace (i.e. not because you "deserve" it), through faith, not by works (as stated most clearly and repeatedly by St. Paul) "so that no one can boast";

2. That said, if your faith doesn't in turn lead you to do good works, then it is shown to be false (and therefore not to have saved you), or at best underdeveloped. (Peter or James, I forget which: "Show me your faith without works; I'll show you my faith by what I do.")

By my understanding (and occasional experience), the reluctance/fear of doing good works is one of the things you're saved from when faith kicks in. Thus it is an enabling faith ("look at all these good things I can do that I never would have dared/bothered/thought to try before!"), rather than a restricting one ("look at all these things I'm not allowed to do now that I'm a Christian. Guess I'll have to level the playing field by banning everyone else from doing them too...")

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Indebted, sir. That's nicely rendered redundant the question of what I was planning to do today... =:o?