tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3559910.post550753300479322355..comments2024-02-17T19:58:47.311-05:00Comments on Textuality: We Don't Need Religious Doctrine to Behave MorallyLarry Tannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642725101009530480noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3559910.post-47071309876276518952011-04-30T08:20:23.933-04:002011-04-30T08:20:23.933-04:00Tristan,
First: How are you and yours? Everyone O...Tristan,<br /><br />First: How are you and yours? Everyone OK, I hope? Where is help still needed?<br /><br />Second, you say: "That's where I think more liberal Christians get hung up--they want to practice secular values without relinquishing the 'sense' that they are still a part of Christianity.<br /><br />But it never ceases to amaze me how they can take things so liberally and still call it Christianity and be satisfied. It seems like they are trying to have it two ways--they want to be Christian--but at the same time they want to uphold their secular values/lifestyles--but since they can't do both, precisely because of strict doctrinal reasons, they manipulate that doctrine until it becomes an entirely different doctrine--a hybrid doctrine of secular values attached to Christian ones."<br /><br />Exactly.Larry Tannerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14642725101009530480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3559910.post-84627884795686400852011-04-30T02:50:05.480-04:002011-04-30T02:50:05.480-04:00Not to sound too much like a Bible thumping Christ...Not to sound too much like a Bible thumping Christian... but...<br /><br />“. . . I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”(John 14:6)<br /><br />and<br /><br />Wouldn't Jesus comment that "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 10:33)<br /><br />along with<br /><br />“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18)<br /><br />Do not these series of doctrinal comments imply, I should think, a strict adherence to doctrine? At least as far as Christianity is concerned? <br /><br />That's where I think more liberal Christians get hung up--they want to practice secular values without relinquishing the 'sense' that they are still a part of Christianity.<br /><br />But it never ceases to amaze me how they can take things so liberally and still call it Christianity and be satisfied. It seems like they are trying to have it two ways--they want to be Christian--but at the same time they want to uphold their secular values/lifestyles--but since they can't do both, precisely because of strict doctrinal reasons, they manipulate that doctrine until it becomes an entirely different doctrine--a hybrid doctrine of secular values attached to Christian ones.<br /><br />***<br /><br />I think you are right when you say Christians tend to decouple their faith from doctrinal matters as separate from morality, while only pretending they are still whole, but I do not think most Christians are aware they are doing it.<br /><br />My theory has come to be that most Christians are just generally ignorant of what the NT teaches, and so when their own "Christian" beliefs are often times unwittingly in conflict with the teachings of Christian doctrine. Other times, they are just trying to have it both ways. <br /><br />Either way, they do not know, or they do, but they don't seem to care all that much--because the moment you point it out to them they go about harmonizing away any difficulties so they can maintain a separation of a strict Christian doctrine and practice of a lose Christian lifestyle largely influenced by secular values, while pretending it's all part of one unified philosophy.<br /><br />I find the habit rather peculiar. Even as I myself came out of Christianity, in reflection, I never realized that was what I was doing. But looking back it seems extremely confused--to say the least.Tristan Vickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05348780254008374268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3559910.post-15110632262340599232011-04-30T02:41:40.521-04:002011-04-30T02:41:40.521-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Tristan Vickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05348780254008374268noreply@blogger.com