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Related: About this forumBernie Sanders talks Christian political values at Evangelical university
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)There's a surprise.
markpkessinger
(8,401 posts). . . is that morality -- and indeed, "sin" -- is something that exists not only at the level of individual choices and behavior, but also collectively and systemically, in the choices we make as a society. This is not a new idea in Christianity. (Indeed, what is new, relatively speaking, is the kind of me-and-my-Jesus mentality that confines any consideration of morality to the realm of personal behavior, to the exclusion of any concept of collective morality. I think it is fair to say that those branches of Christianity that are grounded in the (small-c) catholic tradition (which includes most of the mainline protestant traditions as well as Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions) have, on the whole, done a much better job of keeping the notion of collective morality in view than has much of the religious right, which long ago became unmoored from the wider body of Christian moral discourse. What is truly remarkable here is that it takes a Jewish atheist to remind these folks of that wider teaching.
kiri
(796 posts)Interesting comment about collective morality.
By contrast, note the self-righteous right quoting the Bible about collective punishment. This is a weird notion--Noah's flood would have killed zillions of fetuses, newborns. And now, banning gay marriages would, they say, "exalth a nation". The opposite is obviously that some angry sky deity will punish everyone for "sinning". Sodom worries these true-believers a great deal.
It's a bit nutsy.
LiberalArkie
(15,728 posts)I can see why they are more or less leading. You can listen to them and know where they stand (or feel like you do). They don't talk down to the audience like some of the candidates do. They both feel at ease in front of a large audience. I can't think of any of the other candidates that are like that. With all the rest, it feels contrived when they are trying to act friendly and they are doing the audience a favor by talking to them.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)They actually try to claim Trump and Bernie are "the same" because they attract voters that aren't happy.
Newsflash: The voters aren't happy with the pundits of the Beltway either.