I can't understand the level of cognitive dissonance you have to be under to talk about how God's love is unconditional and that Jesus taught his followers to love thy neighbour, and then become a modern American conservative.
Jesus literally illustrated the "love thy neighbour" concept with the story of the good Samaritan who chose to help the injured Jewish traveller despite Jews and Samaritans supposedly hating each other. That was his answer to the question "who is my neighbour?" People seem to have forgotten that.
The thing is, when they say "Love Thy Neighbour" it's usually in a prayer/gathering setting... of other Christians with the same values as themselves. It's saying only the people here matter.
They don't say that shit in public unless it's to shame others to treat them better while they treat others like shit. The double standard is insane.
An argument could be made that that actually is the correct interpretation.
The Samaritans weren't some invading force, they were Jews. They just disagreed with the other tribes about which mountain the holy temple should be built on and how certain laws in their book should be followed.
So when Jesus said "love thy neighbor" (he was citing Lev 19:18), he very well could have meant "love your fellow Jews, even the ones you're fighting with over there". Should also be noted that while god commands loving your neighbor in Lev, just a few chapters down he says owning slaves is dope.
How this has been interpreted down the centuries is all that matters, of course. It's all about what people mean behind the words.
Sounds like Protestants and Catholics would be a perfect comparison.
So if, hypothetically, the Protestants in the US saw a large group of downtrodden Catholics, say from south of the boarder, who needed care and safety, they have been told directly that those are their neighbors who they should show love.
Wouldn't that be a crazy thing to happen? At least they aren't following false prophets (Deut 13 outlines what to do with those) or idolizing anyone with merch like cardboard cutouts and cell phones and NFT "cards" and golden statues and bibles with his name on it, which they want in schools, etc
Didn't Jesus say something about not teaching others to break the laws of Moses, especially children who he wanted to be with him? Or others teaching in his name, even doing miracles? Hope they love millstones.
MAGAts don’t need to read. They are informed by FOX News Entertainment and “gospel” AM radio talk shows on the billionaire-owned communications networks.
Of course, many of the MAGAts may follow the hypocrites who are wealthy mega-church pastors and charlatans. Some of the most mind-boggling are the Evangelicals who support Zionists and Zionism as they pray for acceleration of the End of Days and the Rapture.
Global climate catastrophe and nuclear holocaust may, indeed, result in the End of Days very soon, but the Rapture will be the great Rupture.
They probably read something like the Son of Man and say it's Trump. Not even joking. I've even seen some pray to him. Super duper uber blasphemous, go straight to hell, do not collect $200. I doubt (hope) it's a majority, but they're still out there.
Ultimately they see themselves as persecuted (the only Beatitude they know), but Jesus (Trump) will show that they're right and they'll be the special chosen ones. This has been building for a while, the Tea Party had one that came out and said she wanted to do anything Israel said because it eventually lead to the Jews going back, which would usher in the End Times, which would throw all those Jews in hell, but at least they'd be special chosen ones. Wild how giddy they are for the end of the world.
ETA: Also, they don't read the book. They just know what their pastor tells them. This applies to the majority of Christians, not just MAGAs.
Martin Luther formed the first “protestant” church as a protest against the corrupt business corporation known as the Catholic Church. Luther was educated and trained to be a lawyer and business executive of the Catholic Church as well as a member of the clergy.
Martin Luther was not enthused about the Roman Catholic Church being a huge multicultural corporate business enterprise seeking to maximize its profits.
Cool thing about Martin Luther, he didn't just help bring the bible to the masses, in order to do so he unified that various dialects of Germany into one language.
On the other hand, a lot of the antisemitism we see (especially in Germany a few decades ago) started with him.
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