this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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That must be painful and frustrating. An old coworker of mine was a “real” Christian (by that I mean kind, pleasant, and non-judgmental) and I often wonder what his take on the last several years would be.
I know what mine is. Nobody is truly thinking about how they "should" go about things, they make the word second fiddle to something else, whether it's public speakers being selective and hoarding their money to supposedly "Catholic" or "Protestant" governors enacting policies that would make even Neo-Stoics give up on them. I often hear about people going through hardships with supposedly Christ-loving families, hardships that shouldn't be there, and it makes me mad I can't do anything. I might be terrified of being a mom, but I'd do it for those people.
A good rule of thumb: The ten commandments > The word of Jesus > The rest of the old testament > Indirect interpretations, with Paul being nothing more than the Christian equivalent of a hadith.
Out of curiosity, why put the 10 commandments before the words of Jesus? I dig the general point you're making but that caught my eye.
Also seems a bit weird to me. Maybe they meant it along the lines of what is easy to look up and apply quickly. But even then, there’s “Love thy neighbour as thyself“ which is maybe even simpler. Maybe they’ll explain what they meant.
The ten commandments are a priority, Jesus stressed often the need to not impede on those. Commandments were brought up a few times in the synoptic gospels. The most famous example was when he said that fantasizing about someone you're not married to was (figuratively) as good as adultery. In another, he was asked why he was "working on Sundays" and he went out of his way to demonstrate how it wasn't work in a laborious sense. The ten commandments do take priority over other teachings, that's why they're called the ten commandments and why, according to some, they were inscribed on stone while other rules were spoken orally.
Jesus himself did this. The implication behind them being inscribed in stone was that they are a priority. Imagine putting something in bold print and saying "oh don't worry, that text is in bold just because I felt like it". If someone had to choose between, say, disobeying a commandment and disobeying the food rules, you should disobey the food rule.
The Ten Commandments are literally the word of God, straight from their mouth (hand?) and onto stone. Doesn't get much more important than that.
God gave us 10 commandments, Jesus gave us 1.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
We call it the Golden rule because if you can follow that one rule you're golden when it comes to your judgment at the end of time.
Blessed are the empathetic, for they shall accrue a debt that God will repay.
Jesus still said the ten commandments were crucial expressions of the commandment of doing to others as one one have done to themselves. The ten commandments had been brought up a few times in the new testament, either with Jesus being questioned as to why he wasn't following them (in response to which he'd elaborate why a commandment is important and why he's not dishonoring it) or with him expanding a commandment, such as at Matthew 5:28-29.
I always preferred the general commandment of "don't be a dick", and everything else is just kind of a given if you follow that.
I grew up in a religious community that was mostly "real" Christians (there are always exceptions, and people are imperfect, but they were trying their best). It's SO frustrating to see how these people are. I haven't been practicing in well over a decade, so I don't feel like I'm a part of that group anymore, so it's starting to get less frustrating. Or maybe I'm just getting jaded.
But the worst part of it all is seeing my parents start to drink the hate Kool aid. My parents used to be the kind of people that would literally take the shirts off their backs to help anyone. And now they are so hateful and selfish. It's so disappointing.