As time goes on I have become less active here. There are a number of little reasons why, but this is a main one:
This community accepts an assumption that Christianity = Conservatism (political, social, or both).
This notion more than rankles me. I am white. But I live in a part of Brooklyn, NY where the VAST majority of my neighbors are black, stretching a couple miles in every direction. Additionally, along many of those city blocks, stand one Christian church. The ones that DON’T have one church have two or (on several) three.
Each Sunday, the streets are choked with people double parking for church services. The cops don’t even bother writing tickets because Sunday-go-ta-meetin’ is such a deeply ingrained and accepted facet of our community.
These churchgoers are Christian. And most of them are NOT conservative. Neither are the many Latino communities that checkerboard this city beyond my immediate neighborhood. (Most of the population of these areas are Catholic, and I have been told here more than once that Catholics are not “real” Christians, which would come as quite a shock to them.)
The only people who get to decide how much or little Christianity is linked to Conservatism are the individual Christian and God himself.
Seeing Christianity shackled to Conservatism such as the message in the welcome page that greeted me today when I logged on is vexing and saddening. I’m happy to argue that social and political Conservatism are both betrayals of some of THE fundamental tenets of Christianity as long as anyone likes with as many people who like. But this assumed, inextricable linkage broadcasts that any such conversation is pointless and anathema here.
If the “one true church” is the body of Christians all the world over, this attitude, intentional or otherwise, sends a clear message that Christians who consider themselves Liberals should expect no bond with coreligionist brethren here.
To me, that is a very UNChristian principle indeed.
This community accepts an assumption that Christianity = Conservatism (political, social, or both).
This notion more than rankles me. I am white. But I live in a part of Brooklyn, NY where the VAST majority of my neighbors are black, stretching a couple miles in every direction. Additionally, along many of those city blocks, stand one Christian church. The ones that DON’T have one church have two or (on several) three.
Each Sunday, the streets are choked with people double parking for church services. The cops don’t even bother writing tickets because Sunday-go-ta-meetin’ is such a deeply ingrained and accepted facet of our community.
These churchgoers are Christian. And most of them are NOT conservative. Neither are the many Latino communities that checkerboard this city beyond my immediate neighborhood. (Most of the population of these areas are Catholic, and I have been told here more than once that Catholics are not “real” Christians, which would come as quite a shock to them.)
The only people who get to decide how much or little Christianity is linked to Conservatism are the individual Christian and God himself.
Seeing Christianity shackled to Conservatism such as the message in the welcome page that greeted me today when I logged on is vexing and saddening. I’m happy to argue that social and political Conservatism are both betrayals of some of THE fundamental tenets of Christianity as long as anyone likes with as many people who like. But this assumed, inextricable linkage broadcasts that any such conversation is pointless and anathema here.
If the “one true church” is the body of Christians all the world over, this attitude, intentional or otherwise, sends a clear message that Christians who consider themselves Liberals should expect no bond with coreligionist brethren here.
To me, that is a very UNChristian principle indeed.