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Christianity and State Power

 I woke up in the middle of the night and, unable to return to sleep, stumbled across this article on Facebook: https://www.politicalorphans.com/the-article-removed-from-forbes-why-white-evangelicalism-is-so-cruel/ (HT to Cameron McCoy for sharing that).

This line in particular struck me: "If all you knew about Christianity came from a close reading of the New Testament, you’d expect that Christians would be hostile to wealth, emphatic in protection of justice, sympathetic to the point of personal pain toward the sick, persecuted and the migrant, and almost socialist in their economic practices."

One of the major problems I have with the pro-birth movement (I refuse to call them pro-life, because most of them quit caring after birth) is their willingness to use state power to enforce their beliefs, which includes the prosecution of doctors (and eventually women, just you wait) for terminating pregnancies.  Many of the people in this movement also abhor using taxes to support the poor and underserved, and use the excuse that such things are why we have charities, and that Jesus intended for such supports to be provided willingly by local communities.  This, however, ignores the greater philosophical contradiction at play: they are willing to use the power of the state to force adherence to their religious doctrine in the case of policing women's bodies (when the Bible isn't terribly clear on the topic of abortion), but not so much when it comes to lifting up the poor (something the Bible is pretty damn clear on).  

Just a thought for the moment.  I'm probably going to come back to this when I'm in a less sleep deprived state.

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