Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s recent First Things essay, “Our Christian Nation,” may warm the hearts of Christian nationalists and confound historians and theologians who worry about continuing threats to the separation of church and state.

    • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s a common theme. Why lie? Why live in denial blaming demons for urges when if you face reality you live a much happier existence.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Why lie?

        Cause your parents will throw you out of the house if they know your true feelings toward people of the same gender or what’s in that vape pen.

        Cause your teachers will fail you if you express your real political views or historical understanding on a term paper. Or your future prospective employer won’t hire you, if they know you’ve got union sympathies.

        Cause the ER won’t treat you if they know you’re pregnant, in a state that has made it politically dangerous to care for someone having a miscarriage.

        Cause your migrant status means always lying about your real nationality.

        Cause you live in a Christian Nation and your financial, social, and physical well-being are predicated on people believing you aren’t some kind of baby-eating Satanist for holding heretical beliefs.

        When the truth is an excuse to do violence against people, lies are a commonplace means of self-defense.

        • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Your entire rebuttal is right wing fantasy. Not everyone has religious parents they live with, let alone have the need to lie to constantly. You may perceive this country as religious, but it is not, by law. Law and money run things in this country. Not sky Fairies.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Your entire rebuttal is right wing fantasy

            Not a right-wing fantasy. Its what happens when you live in a right-wing community.

            Law and money run things in this country. Not sky Fairies.

            When the law and the money believe in the sky fairies, they will enact the Sky Fairy Will in some truly brutal fashion.

            • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              This would require the sky fairy to be real. Your culture is on its way to the landfill. All you have are two bit con artist snake oil salesmen like Kenneth Copeland, filling their pockets. Morons. Scum. The death rattle of a bygone era, relegated to the dustbin of history. You should stop fighting progress, they’ll be the ones your children will grow to love.

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                This would require the sky fairy to be real.

                Kill in the name of God and your victim will be just as dead as if you killed for secular reasons.

                Your culture is on its way to the landfill.

                Thinkers have been making this claim since the first Enlightenment, back in 1685. But people are as prone to reading messages in their tea leaves now as they were a millennium ago. I don’t see any evidence to conclude that modern day Satanic Panics are less likely than they were under Reagan. And given the number of TV ghost hunters and TikTok psychics and QAnon Shamen I see popping up in my social media feeds, we’re no less likely to kick off another Salem style witch hunt than we were 300 years ago.

                You should stop fighting progress

                My guy, I need to see some progress before I worry about fighting it.

            • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Brutal violence , like good Christian folk. Cowards can’t even have a conversation without trying to threaten people.

              Edit: typical Conservative, threatening people to intimidate them, then erasing it. Cowards

          • dvoraqs@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I think you’ve lost the thread. They are explaining why you are privileged not to have to lie by giving examples of situations that would compel many people to lie.

            Would you say that you’ve been in any of those situations?

            • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              The whole lying bit itself was a “lost the thread” moment because it was in response to someone saying that they couldn’t say something nice about USA without lying. Which has nothing to do with lying to protect yourself or your position. Turning an offhand “I don’t like lying” into a lecture about privilege isn’t going to win any allies.

            • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Lost the thread to a theist on an atheist instance. Lol sure. Atheist are not as incredibly dumb as theists and have a bit more logical thought than that.

              • dvoraqs@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                Now I think you’re a loser because you’ve lost the thread and misinterpreted what I said to mean you’re losing.

                I am not a theist and I see that you’re just not paying attention to what you’re responding to. Almost like Christians to preach while closing your eyes and ears.