I’m not calling Obama a saint, I’m just saying he didn’t preach hatred like Republicans love to do. His drone strikes, his failure to close Guantanamo, his betrayal of whistleblowers, deportations, were absolutely not good. Personally I think a big part of it was his eagerness to compromise with Republicans. But even if it was all him, I’d say there’s still a massive difference between him and any recent Republican president.
But you can have Obama if you want. It’s not about him, my point is that good Christians do exist even in the US. They just don’t make the most political noise. Jimmy Carter, MLK, plenty of unknown Christian activists who fight for justice in many ways. Maybe they are a minority, but at least some exist.
My point is that Christians don’t get to enjoy an assumption that they don’t wish for the suffering of others.
There’s a kernel of hatred at the core of the religion, by way of “source of all moral truth also insists that some people will be sentenced to extreme suffering for not believing the same”.
In my experience, and unsurprising given the discrimination at the very core of the belief system - the vast majority of Christians (American ones, regardless of political persuasion or even voting record) are more than happy to let that seed grow and express itself in various ways.
Your point seems to have ended with “one group of those are very vocal about that hatred” and also “there are some good Christians”.
Okay.
Those are weak uninteresting points. They certainly don’t justify any assumption of Christian good will. Much like any assumption of some kind of “benevolent imperialism” by the cultural “West” is thoroughly behind us today, so is any such assumption. Christians have had ample time to emphasize what matters about their Christianness and they have done so. The evidence speaks for itself.
I’m not calling Obama a saint, I’m just saying he didn’t preach hatred like Republicans love to do. His drone strikes, his failure to close Guantanamo, his betrayal of whistleblowers, deportations, were absolutely not good. Personally I think a big part of it was his eagerness to compromise with Republicans. But even if it was all him, I’d say there’s still a massive difference between him and any recent Republican president.
But you can have Obama if you want. It’s not about him, my point is that good Christians do exist even in the US. They just don’t make the most political noise. Jimmy Carter, MLK, plenty of unknown Christian activists who fight for justice in many ways. Maybe they are a minority, but at least some exist.
My point is that Christians don’t get to enjoy an assumption that they don’t wish for the suffering of others.
There’s a kernel of hatred at the core of the religion, by way of “source of all moral truth also insists that some people will be sentenced to extreme suffering for not believing the same”.
In my experience, and unsurprising given the discrimination at the very core of the belief system - the vast majority of Christians (American ones, regardless of political persuasion or even voting record) are more than happy to let that seed grow and express itself in various ways.
Your point seems to have ended with “one group of those are very vocal about that hatred” and also “there are some good Christians”.
Okay.
Those are weak uninteresting points. They certainly don’t justify any assumption of Christian good will. Much like any assumption of some kind of “benevolent imperialism” by the cultural “West” is thoroughly behind us today, so is any such assumption. Christians have had ample time to emphasize what matters about their Christianness and they have done so. The evidence speaks for itself.