To start with, I apologize for misreading the situation a bit, I believed you were a fundamentalist set in your ways and responded mostly with snark. Since you seem like a person actually willing to engage in conversation, I’m going to change tactics a bit in response here.
To explain why I thought you were a fundamentalist, you seem, at least at first glance, to use a lot of the same buzzword language that many conservative Christians use. The way you seem to place a lot of blame on “the left.” The way you spoke of your own beliefs as “the truth” - specifically the suggestion that once exposed to the christian faith and it’s literature, people cannot help but see “the truth” and therefore any rejection or disagreement with it must be a rejection of “the truth” and subsequently objective morality.
To be honest I have a hard time seeing that kind of language and not feeling suspicious/hesitant around folks who use it.
I would consider myself a leftist, and I’m very much agnostic.
I have never read and do not care to read Karl Marx at this time, and I do not consider marxist ideology to be the building blocks of all or even most american left leaning political beliefs.
“Purity culture” is a phrase which has a very different context for left leaning people than the way conservative Christians typically use it. When people on the left talk about it, we are speaking about unhealthy, overdramatic, and unmovable responses to relatively benign - but still harmful -behavior. I’m talking about cyberbullying and dogpiling. It exists in our spaces, yes.
The idea that purity culture has it’s origins in “the god complex” is a frustrating suggestion. I say this for several reasons:
1) purity culture looks directly tied to conservative christian calvanist ideology. For much of history, the idea of eternal punishment without redemption came primarily from christian ideologies. Christianity is hugely defining culturally for much of the modern western world, and it’s impact exists outside of itself due to this.
2) Most of the people I’ve met who have anything close to a “god complex” seem to be conservative Christians, predominantly because they seem to project their own ideologies and morals directly onto god, and call that god’s word regardless of whether there is biblical precedence for their beliefs at all. They then demand others submit to the will of god, when it blatantly themselves they speak of. Rarely, even among the worst people on the left, have a I seen that kind of behavior. The worst of us may engage in harsh and unyielding moral absolutes, yes, but I’ve never seen any of us project them onto god and then demand people submit to “god’s word.”
Another thing that gives me hesitation are your assertions about Judaism. I am not that educated in Judaism, but I know several Jewish people, and have listened to what they have to say about their beliefs and their relationship to Christianity. For one thing, my understanding is that “Judeo-Christian” is not a phrase they tend to use, because the two belief systems are so fundamentally different. Furthermore, many Jews have expressed that Christians tend to only perceive Judaism through a very Christian lens, and this results in very many misconceptions and misunderstandings.
For another thing, my understanding is that the modern Christian idea of Hell as a place of eternal punishment and fire is in no way accurate to Jewish ideas of “hell.”
Lastly, Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, I’m tired and not exactly able to give my mental best here, but I’m uncomfortable with the assertion that Christianity is a “progression” from Judaism in the way that a child grows and matures. Judaism still exists and thrives and grows on it’s own standing. If anything, I’ve found most Jews I’ve known to have a very mature and adult mentality when it comes to their relationship with god, and most Christians I’ve known have had a deeply regressive, childish relationship with god that I’ve found alienating. Not to suggest that you do, but this dynamic is in my opinion certainly not an uncommon one among american conservative Christians. I think this point relates to what I am saying about viewing Judaism through a Christian lens and nothing else. It doesn’t strike you as rude or dismissive to suggest that your beliefs are more “matured” than another, still very much thriving belief system and culture?
theartofmadeline
amandla
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
yousharknotpass
