Image description: Two images. The top image is of a sign for a “Back to the Bible Holiness Church*” that reads “God created man & woman Satan made gays and transgender gen 5:2”. The bottoms image is of a women sitting on a porch wearing sunglasses, dark clothes, and smoking. The caption reads “Praise Satan.”

  • @BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
    1•9 months ago

    I could’ve worded it better but meh. I was just dunking on white christians. To be a bit more accurate and measured; Catholicism is still a European sect of Christianity that entrenches western hegemony and white supremacy. There are forms of Christianity that are very much allies to liberatory movements. The zapatistas come to mind. They practice liberation theology which stands in direct opposition to the Catholic Church in the Americas. I can’t speak much for Islam as I’m not very familiar with their interfaith politics, but Jews have a long history of working in/with progressive movements. Black activism in the United States in many of its forms have been religious as well. I hesitate to label any religion as outright bad or destructive. Faith has its place in society, even though it’s not my cup of tea, and it can be used for good just as much as it can bad.

    Religions are shaped by the times just as much as they shape them and radical shifts in the broader world can lead to radical shifts in religion or vice versa. If you’re interested (and have the time) Anark’s video on complex systems sheds some light on this. It’s through the lense of constructing a self-perpetuating revolution but the broad strokes apply to many things. Religion shouldn’t be dismissed outright or suppressed as it will only breed reaction. Instead it should be embraced and molded into a driver of good. By those within the religion that is, I doubt believers would be particularly receptive of an outsider trying to directly muck about with their doctrine

    • TehPersEnglish
      1•9 months ago

      I’ll take a look at those resources, thanks for sharing! I agree that religion itself should not be dismissed, which is why I tried to clarify that many branches of Christianity are more accepting than others (and I’m less familiar with other non-Abrahamic religions, and other Abrahamic religions of course have their own histories and branches interpreting them their own ways). Religion does have its place in society, however this particular religion has historically been used excessively for control and to discriminate, which is what makes it particularly egregious. I mostly wanted to point out that the anti-LGBT+ sentiment was not exclusive to white or European followers of the religion (though the religion did originate in Europe as you mentioned), although in the US you’ll see a lot of hardcore white Christians being anti-LGBT+.