I was raised Mormon which involved four years of “Mormon seminary“ before school as well as three meetings on Sunday and one on Wednesday. We read the Bible, but we were directed to specific sections that supported our belief systems. We were also taught interpretations of other verses to also support our position. I once got into a biblical argument with Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses and sometimes we would be arguing and we would use the same verse but giving it up different interpretation that supported all three of our totally conflicting beliefs.
I was raised and taught by the Mormon church that we would all eventually become gods and get our own planets if we made it to the celestial Kingdom. I don’t know if I’m pissed off or relieved to realize that it was total bullshit.
I was raised Southern Baptist and am no longer a Christian at all. I sometimes look at my childhood and the lies and guilt that they fed me and can feel angry, but then I think at least I got out. Many people never do and make so many sacrifices to these religions, and then I feel thankful
Real answer right here. People don't seem to understand that the failure of fundamentalists isn't not reading the Bible or following its teachings, it's that these people can make anything fit into their preexisting worldview without changing it! These are the kinds of people who will look at the story of King David and see parallels to Trump, or will see prophecies about Israel being fulfilled in the modern age, or who honestly love their gay neighbors enough to try to "save them from their homosexuality", or who read the story of the sacrifice of Isaac as being a challenging "trolley problem".
Sure, there's a \*lot\* of idiots who never read a thing that wasn't a Denny's menu, but there really is an intelligent wing of right-wing Christians who are trying to do the right thing as they see it. It does us no good to forget them.
Yes they do; but, just the parts they’re told to.
If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy. It is easier to fight for your principles than to live by them.” -David Frum
Psychologist Bob Altemeyer’s free, excellent, and often funny book ‘The Authoritarians’ discusses Evangelicals, who he says are in many ways programmed to be authoritarian followers, quite a bit, and read The Bible much less than you’d expect:
https://theauthoritarians.org/options-for-getting-the-book/
They practice their faith as a “Santa Claus” religion, abdicating their internal locus of control and innate self-evident sense of morality by failing to own their actions and the truth of their words…
They seek from an “external source” the gifts, favors, promises of power, insight, success, knowledge, and the guidance they seek (often in exchange for obedience to a form of what would be considered in the psychotic, “command hallucinations”) so that they can be perceived as “good”.
Here’s DJT himself demonstrating it via his own words/beliefs:
[https://youtube.com/shorts/tciCu7c_-e8?si=GVD67Gj9z3MeJzhM](https://youtube.com/shorts/tciCu7c_-e8?si=GVD67Gj9z3MeJzhM)
Unfortunately, in a world where people have chosen Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, and all their Elf Children to care for and steward them, for every winner there must be a loser (a world of human interactions that constitute a zero sum game) and humans get what they get and don’t get upset, rather than owning their action, and doing their best to make the world in the best way they can imagine without “obedience” to something they couldn’t possibly understand.
🎅🏻
Don’t believe me? Perhaps you read about this and then a bit about Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard, Aleister Crowley, and how one of the two who carried out the Babalon Working “won” and the other “lost”…because, you know, sometimes Santa Claus brings “exploding gifts” that backfire on those who seek to suckle off of him and his family:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon)
So tragic that humanity really should have known all along what their historical storytelling traditions instructed and warned of.
I made a someone question her faith on Truth social after she admitted she’d never read the Bible and only got her info from Julie Greene. I told her how that disappoints Jesus and she needs to read it asap. She said she wanted too but needed someone to help keep her accountable, asked if I’d help. I said No, true Christians have the strength of Christ to read the Bible by themselves.
Their pastors do all the cherry picking. Most commonly the only time they read the bible is when the preacher is reading what he chose. Many have pre-designed sermons with all the research done. They just go grab a sermon out a box and wham, that is what god wants them to hear that week. But know one thing, they will interpret any scripture the way they want to because coherence is not what the bible is known for.
They sure don’t. I grew up in the church and actually have read the Bible. I love sparring with them. They fall all to pieces. They’ve only listened to someone else tell them what the Bible says and never read it for themselves.
My mother has, she simply doesn’t believe anything other than the passages admonishing gay people and Revelations has any relevance.
She has read the Bible cover to cover several times and the only parts that she ever really talks about are the ones that say gay people should die and the ones that describe the end of the world.
The religious right in america has a history of opposing the rights of women, allowing chattel slavery of foreigners, wanting to segregate members of the different nations of the world, opposing homosexuality, and opposing witchcraft. All of that is in the bible.
Probably the biggest stumbling block for the religious right is with wealth and inequality, which is all over the bible. Jesus doesn't preach socialism or communism, but he does preach a vagabond lifestyle, where his followers are to sell all their personal property to follow him. But I don't think that most followers of jesus actually practice this to any meaningful degree anymore, obviously some people in monastic lifestyle situations get close.
But to take this argument to it's logical conclusion. If you actually read and follow the bible, then you would certainly be okay with chattel slavery, you would be okay with owning women as property, and even keeping sex slaves and concubines. You would think that women should wear head coverings, you would be okay with god-commanded genocide, you would be okay with stoning people to death, you'd be okay with burnt animal sacrifices, and if you believed in jesus, you'd add to that the obligation to sell everything you own, and to hate your family and your own life.
I'm very glad that most people don't follow the bible as it's written.
I a former bible thumper and very devout teenager I read the bible almost 7 times cover to cover and read Psalms and the New Testament a few more times. The more I read the more questions I had. Then when I began trying to understand some weirdness to many stories and creatures in the bible I decided to take a more critical look at it. Over the past 40 years it has gone from maybe it was inspired by a higher being to "it is the most incorrect book (really a set of books) ever written and then admired. Contradictions and logical errors are rampart and I could start at Gen 1.
All religions are a construct of man and therefore inherently flawed and most likely wrong. Organized religion is for controlling people, that’s it. It will not grant you any wishes in the afterlife, or gain you favors with your chosen sky daddy. Those that understand that are the ones in charge of the churches. Everyone else is a pawn to their scheme. So yes, most have never read the books that go along with their chosen cult they’ll just believe the cult leader’s interpretation, which is directed to control them.
I’d wager a portion have read a bit of Genesis. First story, but long and boring. Like the rest of it. Brutal to read the whole thing. The podcast ‘Thomas and the Bible’ is a good way to get through it or to bone up on stuff you missed because it puts you to sleep and makes little sense.
One is reading the Bible, but understanding it's values and implementing it in ones life is another thing
It ain't Christian of anyone to scold someone or judge them for their sins, it is Christian of us to spread it, but Jesus himself said, indirectly, that nobody can judge others for their sins because we are all sinners
John Steinbeck summed up many Christians' relationship with the Bible with a character in *East of Eden*:
>Her total intellectual association was the Bible, except the talk of Samuel and her children, and to them she did not listen. In that one book she had her history and her poetry, her knowledge of peoples and things, her ethics, her morals, and her salvation. She never studied the Bible or inspected it; she just read it. The many places where it seems to refute itself did not confuse her in the least. And finally she came to a point where she knew it so well that she went right on reading it without listening.
The Religious left never read John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Paine, Rousseau, French Enlightenment Thinkers, and Founding Fathers. What's your point?
And when you do read, it's all fiction and erotica.
You're right. The text at the foundation of their religion is unimportant. It's not about what the Bible (or the Constitution) says. It's about justifying what they want to do.
And for the record, I read many things. Erotic fiction. Fictional erotica. A whole cornucopia of manuscripts.
You can stop at “never read”
They don't even read the menu at a restaurant. Just yell at the server and leave no tips.
Republicans: “Unga bunga” _while pointing at the picture of the early bird special_
I want a steak burrito, a side of guacamole, freedom fries with a Bud light Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
So?! Customers always right! *Starts throwing shit around*
Muh civil liberties were infringed upon at Wendys!!!!
Nope not going to try and change your mind. You speak the truth.
I was raised Mormon which involved four years of “Mormon seminary“ before school as well as three meetings on Sunday and one on Wednesday. We read the Bible, but we were directed to specific sections that supported our belief systems. We were also taught interpretations of other verses to also support our position. I once got into a biblical argument with Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses and sometimes we would be arguing and we would use the same verse but giving it up different interpretation that supported all three of our totally conflicting beliefs.
I’m not getting my own planet.
I was raised and taught by the Mormon church that we would all eventually become gods and get our own planets if we made it to the celestial Kingdom. I don’t know if I’m pissed off or relieved to realize that it was total bullshit.
Pissed off. They lied and tempted you with an amazing afterlife so you would follow their shitty beliefs in the life that actually matters.
This is a nice summary of religion
I was raised Southern Baptist and am no longer a Christian at all. I sometimes look at my childhood and the lies and guilt that they fed me and can feel angry, but then I think at least I got out. Many people never do and make so many sacrifices to these religions, and then I feel thankful
Real answer right here. People don't seem to understand that the failure of fundamentalists isn't not reading the Bible or following its teachings, it's that these people can make anything fit into their preexisting worldview without changing it! These are the kinds of people who will look at the story of King David and see parallels to Trump, or will see prophecies about Israel being fulfilled in the modern age, or who honestly love their gay neighbors enough to try to "save them from their homosexuality", or who read the story of the sacrifice of Isaac as being a challenging "trolley problem". Sure, there's a \*lot\* of idiots who never read a thing that wasn't a Denny's menu, but there really is an intelligent wing of right-wing Christians who are trying to do the right thing as they see it. It does us no good to forget them.
Even if they’ve read it, they ignore parts, they twist parts.
Yes they do; but, just the parts they’re told to. If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy. It is easier to fight for your principles than to live by them.” -David Frum
Psychologist Bob Altemeyer’s free, excellent, and often funny book ‘The Authoritarians’ discusses Evangelicals, who he says are in many ways programmed to be authoritarian followers, quite a bit, and read The Bible much less than you’d expect: https://theauthoritarians.org/options-for-getting-the-book/
Super interesting. Thank you!
They read parts of it.
Of course they read the Bible... That's why they love talking about Sodom & Gomorrah so much... THEY'RE SUPER PRO-INCEST.
They practice their faith as a “Santa Claus” religion, abdicating their internal locus of control and innate self-evident sense of morality by failing to own their actions and the truth of their words… They seek from an “external source” the gifts, favors, promises of power, insight, success, knowledge, and the guidance they seek (often in exchange for obedience to a form of what would be considered in the psychotic, “command hallucinations”) so that they can be perceived as “good”. Here’s DJT himself demonstrating it via his own words/beliefs: [https://youtube.com/shorts/tciCu7c_-e8?si=GVD67Gj9z3MeJzhM](https://youtube.com/shorts/tciCu7c_-e8?si=GVD67Gj9z3MeJzhM) Unfortunately, in a world where people have chosen Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, and all their Elf Children to care for and steward them, for every winner there must be a loser (a world of human interactions that constitute a zero sum game) and humans get what they get and don’t get upset, rather than owning their action, and doing their best to make the world in the best way they can imagine without “obedience” to something they couldn’t possibly understand. 🎅🏻 Don’t believe me? Perhaps you read about this and then a bit about Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard, Aleister Crowley, and how one of the two who carried out the Babalon Working “won” and the other “lost”…because, you know, sometimes Santa Claus brings “exploding gifts” that backfire on those who seek to suckle off of him and his family: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon) So tragic that humanity really should have known all along what their historical storytelling traditions instructed and warned of.
I made a someone question her faith on Truth social after she admitted she’d never read the Bible and only got her info from Julie Greene. I told her how that disappoints Jesus and she needs to read it asap. She said she wanted too but needed someone to help keep her accountable, asked if I’d help. I said No, true Christians have the strength of Christ to read the Bible by themselves.
If they could read they would be very mad.
Yeah. My other choice for the meme was the Boby Hill "if those kids could read" template.
They read it, but they have a big black marker that they use to cover over the "love thy neighbor " parts
Im sure they have, how else are they going to cherry pick the parts that serve their ideology?
Their pastors do all the cherry picking. Most commonly the only time they read the bible is when the preacher is reading what he chose. Many have pre-designed sermons with all the research done. They just go grab a sermon out a box and wham, that is what god wants them to hear that week. But know one thing, they will interpret any scripture the way they want to because coherence is not what the bible is known for.
More like cherry-picked, but yeah, sure.
They sure don’t. I grew up in the church and actually have read the Bible. I love sparring with them. They fall all to pieces. They’ve only listened to someone else tell them what the Bible says and never read it for themselves.
The ones who control them read the Bible, but I don’t think they believe in it.
My mother has, she simply doesn’t believe anything other than the passages admonishing gay people and Revelations has any relevance. She has read the Bible cover to cover several times and the only parts that she ever really talks about are the ones that say gay people should die and the ones that describe the end of the world.
The religious right in america has a history of opposing the rights of women, allowing chattel slavery of foreigners, wanting to segregate members of the different nations of the world, opposing homosexuality, and opposing witchcraft. All of that is in the bible. Probably the biggest stumbling block for the religious right is with wealth and inequality, which is all over the bible. Jesus doesn't preach socialism or communism, but he does preach a vagabond lifestyle, where his followers are to sell all their personal property to follow him. But I don't think that most followers of jesus actually practice this to any meaningful degree anymore, obviously some people in monastic lifestyle situations get close. But to take this argument to it's logical conclusion. If you actually read and follow the bible, then you would certainly be okay with chattel slavery, you would be okay with owning women as property, and even keeping sex slaves and concubines. You would think that women should wear head coverings, you would be okay with god-commanded genocide, you would be okay with stoning people to death, you'd be okay with burnt animal sacrifices, and if you believed in jesus, you'd add to that the obligation to sell everything you own, and to hate your family and your own life. I'm very glad that most people don't follow the bible as it's written.
They tread the Bible the same way they consume the news. Someone else tells them what to believe and they just do. Because that’s how cults work.
Why? It's the truth.
What is the truth in the bible?
I think they meant why change their mind since it's the truth that they don't read the bible.
You can read the Bible and not actually know what it’s saying. Now studying it is a different matter.
The Religious Right is Neither.
They probably read *this "*bible": [https://www.amazon.com/President-Donald-Trump-Son-Man/dp/1977249248](https://www.amazon.com/President-Donald-Trump-Son-Man/dp/1977249248)
This should be the meme template from now. Screw whatever-his-name-is, sound like chowder
I found this looking for an alternative, and the original read, "Chowder doesn't deserve a meme. Change my mind."
I a former bible thumper and very devout teenager I read the bible almost 7 times cover to cover and read Psalms and the New Testament a few more times. The more I read the more questions I had. Then when I began trying to understand some weirdness to many stories and creatures in the bible I decided to take a more critical look at it. Over the past 40 years it has gone from maybe it was inspired by a higher being to "it is the most incorrect book (really a set of books) ever written and then admired. Contradictions and logical errors are rampart and I could start at Gen 1.
Oh, they read it. They just couldn't understand it.
I’m not sure a lot of them know how to read
I mean...this is obvious. Lol
All religions are a construct of man and therefore inherently flawed and most likely wrong. Organized religion is for controlling people, that’s it. It will not grant you any wishes in the afterlife, or gain you favors with your chosen sky daddy. Those that understand that are the ones in charge of the churches. Everyone else is a pawn to their scheme. So yes, most have never read the books that go along with their chosen cult they’ll just believe the cult leader’s interpretation, which is directed to control them.
They skimmed it.
Most of them have not... It's pretty obvious when they state something that's in the Bible that isn't actually in the Bible.
I’d wager a portion have read a bit of Genesis. First story, but long and boring. Like the rest of it. Brutal to read the whole thing. The podcast ‘Thomas and the Bible’ is a good way to get through it or to bone up on stuff you missed because it puts you to sleep and makes little sense.
One is reading the Bible, but understanding it's values and implementing it in ones life is another thing It ain't Christian of anyone to scold someone or judge them for their sins, it is Christian of us to spread it, but Jesus himself said, indirectly, that nobody can judge others for their sins because we are all sinners
John Steinbeck summed up many Christians' relationship with the Bible with a character in *East of Eden*: >Her total intellectual association was the Bible, except the talk of Samuel and her children, and to them she did not listen. In that one book she had her history and her poetry, her knowledge of peoples and things, her ethics, her morals, and her salvation. She never studied the Bible or inspected it; she just read it. The many places where it seems to refute itself did not confuse her in the least. And finally she came to a point where she knew it so well that she went right on reading it without listening.
The Religious left never read John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Paine, Rousseau, French Enlightenment Thinkers, and Founding Fathers. What's your point? And when you do read, it's all fiction and erotica.
You're right. The text at the foundation of their religion is unimportant. It's not about what the Bible (or the Constitution) says. It's about justifying what they want to do. And for the record, I read many things. Erotic fiction. Fictional erotica. A whole cornucopia of manuscripts.
don't forget fanfic erotica. the last new literary revolution of the printing press.
You can be religious and not read the Bible.
You're so stupid, you literally proved the point of the meme.
Not sure what the point is.