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this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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Even as a Christian myself, I agree with you. Separation of Church and State. Politics mixing with religion has been terrible for both.
No it hasn't. Religions benefit almost immeasurably from infiltrating politics in so many ways, ranging from exemption from all discrimination laws, to having their private schools funded by tax money, to controlling the majority of hospitals in the country, to being allowed to rape and marry children consequence free.
Eh, that's the church as an institution. I mean religion in the more abstract sense. Political leanings becoming tied to a religious stance has become ridiculous, and has watered down Christianity quite a lot, to the point where even Trump gets to go pray once a year and call himself the Christian vote. It's also been remarkably divisive, as naturally, a lot of Christians aren't that, and hot political debates somehow become religious debates.
Tying religion to politics has allowed politics to slowly pull that horse further and further, to the point where "Christianity" now means southern fundamentalism to a lot, maybe even most, people. I think without political influence, we'd be a lot closer today to how Christianity started, and is meant to look.
Not that I disagree with the sentiment that things would be better for all of us if thr GOP hadn't courted the religious right, but I did want to mention that Christianity in the 1st century looked a lot different than it has in the 20th or now.
The religion has changed dramatically over the years. And it was usually a collection of disparate sects. The new testament canon as we know it wasn't agreed upon until around 400, and the standardization of mainstream belief, the Nicene Creed, had only been adopted a generation before.
And of course the split during the Reformation in the 1500s changed white a bit. Even decade by decade you see different movements, changed in interpretation (slavery being ok vs not), and such.
We don't have any of the original biblical sources, and none of them are believed to be writings directly from Jesus or his disciples themselves. What we have is filtered through other parties and further filtered through the canonization processes (OT and NT both).
So it's a bit tough to really pin down what Christianity was "meant to be". But I wished it wasn't what it is in many parts of the US.
Well it is, look at Malaysia for example
Edit. Ok you're being sarcastic lol
No sarcasm. These are all reality in the US right now. Feel free to fact check.
Lmao I guess that's the same for us either
Let me try a different argument:
The separation of church and state has forced American denominations to compete in a marketplace for souls/money, and they have become ruthlessly efficient corporatized entities, using marketing and business-process management, and exploiting tax advantages and high switching costs.
Meanwhile, in Europe, you have official state Catholicism or Protestantism-flavors, which are moribund, inspire little passion, and most everyone is either atheist, agnostic, or un-passioned.
This is not a product of separation of church and state, but of the atrocious combination of hyper-capitalism and tax exemption for religious organizations.
Yeah it is one of the unexpected results. It is an imperfect analogy but Europe Christianity has become a domesticated animal that knows not to cause trouble. American Christianity is a mean badass sewer rat that not only fends for itself but can't be killed. I really doubt anyone could have predicted this before it happened.
Such an interesting statement. I can kind of see what you mean. Would you happen to have more reading material on this topic? It would be very appreciated.
lmao, so the church and state shouldn't be separated because the government is inefficient and its inefficiencies should remain to be inflicted upon the church?
that's... actually kinda based, lol. i do appreciate the objective and the unconventional method to achieve it. however, i think there's a difference between being a government entity and having control over governance. the latter should never be given to the church, because that's one hella fast way to surpass all the damage they have managed to do under the american system. for example, while your statements seem accurate for western europe and the nordics (emphasis on "seem", i don't live there) but over here in hungary the "christian democratic party" is literally the only party our government is in a coalition with, and they get to pass discriminatory laws basically as fast as they can come up with them. the closest analogy i can give is imagine if all the shit that's going on in those red states was going on country-wide with no one left to oppose it.
that's also what europe looked like before the "age of enlightenment", which is separation of church and state is so important in public consciousness, even if not technically implemented.
still, i do like your idea, and yes, inflicting bureaucracy upon the church would be helpful. maybe it's not a separation of church and state that we need, but protection of the state from the church's influence.
This statement presupposes that religion hasn't always been inherently political. Religion is nothing if not a tool for control.