The problem with so many of these concepts and terms is that they’ve been politicized. Call it a flaw of human thinking or a very successful marketing campaign by political interests, but when you say things like “people shouldn’t suffer discrimination based on their fundamental being” or “an advanced society should accommodate people to live their lives if it isn’t harming others” or “no one should have to live in poverty if it can be helped” etc. you’d think that these things would be fairly universal to any decent human being. A concept like being a feminist just means you think men and women should have equal rights and opportunities- but it is conflated with certain ideologies and politics. When we discuss outrage over a man being choked to death by police for an alleged minor crime you might assume that any frente free person would see that as an outrage, but it gets wrapped up in politics and “us vs them” between political parties and people who want
to put forward that weeding out bad or unqualified police is an attack on all police. I will tell you that at every job I ever worked, people who could do the job and should have the job didn’t worry about it when people who shouldn’t have the job were sorted out. People who are good at their jobs and suited to them usually are happy when the people who give them a bad name and make their jobs harder are removed. It’s an insult to all the great officers we have to support police who shouldn’t wear a badge in “unity” because that implies that you believe that most police need protection against consequences of being poor at the job. That most shouldn’t be in uniform.
So we conflate the terms and politics. We can’t discuss the actual issues or see the forest through the trees. A cliched but apt metaphor for people so fixated on tiny details and narrow perspectives that they miss the entire purpose. We can’t talk about gun violence without the “ban all guns” crazies coming out and the “everyone should be able to own 40 rocket launchers” crazies coming out. It becomes code- you oppose a gun control law, no matter how pointless or ridiculous it is? You must be a gay hating red hat wearing nut job. You believe that trans people should have protected rights? You must hate babies and be proud choice and are probably a communist.
And it gets worse- because people use words like communist and socialist and they don’t even actually know what those words mean. They use them wrong, they just know those are the “bad guys” and if you say something they don’t like you must be one. So many people want to say a country like America is a Christian nation- but the constitution is the foundation of America. The nation was literally founded around individual freedom, including religion, and the equality and rights of ALL being created equally. So if you believe america is a Christian nation or “real america” extols Christian values you must believe that equality for ALL is a Christian value. If you think the constitution and founding documents are incompatible with your faith then America must NOT have been founded as a Christian nation then huh?
Regardless of how you slice the pie, the facts are that Jesus expressed no prejudice of such sorts. Jesus never said he rejected those who didn’t hold to traditional gender or heterosexuality. Jesus never said that those people should be excluded or marginalized or harmed or shunned. Jesus never said to create a nation without people other than traditionalist heterosexual conservatives. Jesus was… quite liberal. Understand that the hook of the whole New Testament was that Jesus was dissolving the traditions of the Old Testament. That’s why Christian’s aren’t Jewish you get that right? A new covenant is what Christianity and the New Testament are all about. Literally over turning the conservative tradition of the time.
Jesus was radical. The established government saw Jesus as a threat to their power and to the social order they created.
Jesus is constantly telling shocked people to give up their stuffy old ideas and narrow views and get with this new gospel he and his peeps were on. Jesus was bringing people in that were left out, people with leprosy that were seen as unclean physically and spiritually- and he was hanging with them and saying they were all right. Criminals and killers and the sorts of folks that the Old Testament was less about being pals with and more about wrath and exclusion.
In a massively controversial and progressive twist- Jesus was an immaculate conception in the New Testament. No biological father, it’s in the Bible that Mary and Joseph knew some folks would wag their fingers when she got pregnant at the scandal of it. So like… sorry to tell so many but Jesus was a progressive liberal. It’s all there plain as day and inherent to the whole story and significance of his story. He spends a lot of time talking about accepting and loving and forgiving and very little time talking about wrath and vengeance and punishment and using force and coercion to get people to hear the message he has. So like… yeah. There’s layers to this but in essence the biggest problem is just a general foolishness and the manipulation of powers that be tricking people into conflating terms and concepts to follow a political spectrum that keeps them rich and powerful.
Not everyone who voted for Trump was a racist or a complete idiot and not everyone who voted for Biden is a “snowflake” etc etc. we’ve been sold on this concept that you have to take the good with the bad and pick one side or the other but the truth is that we can demand better without rejecting everything we believe in because one or two things don’t fit our narrative. It’s not a hard concept. You hopefully realize that if you have a spouse that drinks or cheats or abuses you etc. you aren’t limited to either accepting everything about them or getting a divorce. There is another whole option set that allows you to say that you live someone or support them but refuse to accept certain things.
So focus on labels less. It doesn’t have to be a case where if you identify as a Christian you have to reject anything that you are TOLD Christians reject. If you identify as a progressive you don’t need to reject an entire branch of government just because some members are rotten or malicious or imperfect.
Think for yourself and… actually think. Listen to yourself speak. Does what you say even make sense when you strip away rhetoric and buzz words and labels?
It is completely true that Donald Trump was targeted for indictment. More time and effort and focussed intent was placed into sticking a crime to him than is the norm for any citizen. Were he almost anyone else, the investigations and proceedings probably wouldn’t have gone far enough to reveal enough evidence for an indictment and at this point most prosecutors probably wouldn’t bother to go through what will almost certainly be a drawn out and costly affair for a relatively minor punishment
Of a crime that likely won’t be repeated by the alleged perpetrator. That said, he totally committed a crime. If not this one than another one. The guy belongs in prison. You may not agree ideologically that anything he’s done should be illegal, but he’s a criminal by the letter of the law and the laws werent changed so believe it. He’s a criminal. Flat out. No arguing it. So both things are true. I won’t argue that he wasn’t targeted. He totally was. I also won’t argue that he does belong on trial. He totally does. Wether one believes that rial serves any purpose let alone wether it is a new good or bad thing for the nation is a separate matter.
But that’s the point. Here’s a guy who the details aren’t really important to most people. He’s a totem for politics and social views. You support him or want to see him fall because of what he r represents to you, not who he is or what he’s done necessarily. So less labels, more thinking. That’s the homemwork.
Jesus is constantly telling shocked people to give up their stuffy old ideas and narrow views and get with this new gospel he and his peeps were on. Jesus was bringing people in that were left out, people with leprosy that were seen as unclean physically and spiritually- and he was hanging with them and saying they were all right. Criminals and killers and the sorts of folks that the Old Testament was less about being pals with and more about wrath and exclusion.
Think for yourself and… actually think. Listen to yourself speak. Does what you say even make sense when you strip away rhetoric and buzz words and labels?
It is completely true that Donald Trump was targeted for indictment. More time and effort and focussed intent was placed into sticking a crime to him than is the norm for any citizen. Were he almost anyone else, the investigations and proceedings probably wouldn’t have gone far enough to reveal enough evidence for an indictment and at this point most prosecutors probably wouldn’t bother to go through what will almost certainly be a drawn out and costly affair for a relatively minor punishment