Backwards
So, this Christian blogger has a post on where Progressive Christians lose him. One of his points:
I have a hard time taking seriously any argument that rejects the idea we have a natural tendency towards choosing sin. Or, maybe I’m just wrong on this issue and a really horrible person on top of it– because here’s what I know: I gravitate towards sinning. I always have. I always do. Reality is that I find myself in a daily battle to do what is right– a battle that is with a disposition deep inside me.Sure. Of course.
I don’t know a lot of things in life but I do know that I sin, and that this desire to pursue sin is something embedded deep within me. Any denial of this sin nature or original sin completely loses me, because it argues for a position that I experientially know does not jive with real life.
But that's not because humans are inherently sinful, have a "desire to pursue sin" "embedded deep within" them.
It's because the church has carefully taken human behavior and labeled it "sinful" in order to control people. If you decide, and more importantly convince others, that normal human behavior (I'm not talking about murder here, and nor is he) - sex, for instance, or the desire to have nice things, or envy - are the worst behaviors ever and that people are damned for them, then you have a good way to ride herd on everyone. To make them conform to your instructions and follow your rules and keep you in comfort.
Labels: freethought, links
2 Comments:
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At 4:49 PM, January 01, 2015
Kathie had this to say...
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At 5:35 AM, January 14, 2015
Adrian Morgan had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Maybe he wouldn't have this problem if he tried making his position jibe with life instead, because maybe he thinks jive is a naughty genre ;-)
I really have to disagree with you on at least some of this, but I don't feel like writing a lengthy reply, so instead here's a humorous quotation from "An Alien at St Wilfred's" by well-known Christian parodist Adrian Plass (in the voice of one of his characters). I hope it raises a smile.
I'm always hoping to discover some law or commandment in the Bible that I haven't broken. To date, I have been singularly unsuccessful. By the definitions that Jesus used I have to confess that, at one time or another, I have broken every single one of the ten commandments.
I wish there was something in Exodus about not drinking caustic soda, for instance, because I can honestly say that I have never done such a thing. Oh, for a verse that says: 'Inward and outward shalt thou breathe, outward and inward both, by turns, breathe thou shalt, else thou shalt die, saith the Lord.' I've always been very strict about that; but will I get any credit for my steadfast attention to this duty? Of course I won't, because it's not in the book. God is so very selective!
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