What is the core teaching of Christianity?

[MineralMan]

[Mojambo]

1. Those guys seem to be all over the place. n/t

[Laelth]

2. F thy neighbor as Dick Cheney would have Patrick Leahy F himself?

:shrug:

On second thought, I guess that's just "Republican" Christianity.

:dem:

-Laelth

[darkstar3]

3. Last time I asked,

no one could decide...

[Sinti]

4. The Christian myth is supposed to teach

that if you forgive others, and don't be aggressive yourself, you will receive peace on earth. You have to read it like a 4-year-old would reach the Christmas story - leave the gory, ugly bits out. Jesus didn't really talk about that stuff.

Maybe I had a different Bible.

[Taverner]

5. Depends on the Christian. You could theoretically be a Christian Atheist

All being Christian means is to "try and act Christlike"

But if you're talking Catholicism, its the 'State of Grace'

Protestantism has this concept too, but its based more on man hours than writs of indulgences

:P

[MineralMan]

11. There's a novel thought. A Christian Atheist...hmm...

A contradiction of terms if I ever heard one...

[baldguy]

6. Check out Matthew

[MineralMan]

7. You think Matthew is the core of Christianity?

You'd never know if from most churches. It's the most ignored chapter these days. Most of today's churches are Paulist, not Christian.

[baldguy]

10. Bingo.

Organized church means organized power.

[rrneck]

16. +1 yep nt

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. The 5th chapter of Matthew (aka the Sermon on the Mount) pretty well sums it up

From the mouth of JC Himself.....

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.


Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.


Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.


Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.


Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.


Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.


Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.


Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.


Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake.


Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in Heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.


Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men.


Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.


Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.


Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven."

[demosincebirth]

12. That is the corner stone of Christianity.

Fundamentalist churches don't even know its in the bible. If they do, they skip over it. Also, "faith without works is dead" goes hand in hand with the Beatitudes.

[ZombieHorde]

17. Do you believe your quote is literal or not literal and why? nt

[RKP5637]

9. Christianity = My Way or No Way! n/t

[struggle4progress]

13. Humans represent our best guess about the image of G-d, whom we have never seen, and therefore

our best expression of love for G-d is love for our neighbors, whether or not they are objectively our enemies

[Democrats_win]

14. That mankind will be redeemed to live a perfect life on earth forever.

Ever since Adam and Eve, people sinned. According to the Bible, the penalty of that sin is death--not hell! The entire point of ancient Israel was to proselytize to the entire world. They did not succeed. Nonetheless, the promised Messiah, Jesus, came as a sacrifice to redeem mankind so that all people could be resurrected from the dead and live forever as perfect, forgiven-for-their-sins (and once again) sinless people on earth.

[saltpoint]

15. It doesn't seem that there is only one core teaching, or even that

there is all that much teaching at all. Christianity is less pedagogy than it is resonant myth, and I mean 'myth' in its most gleaming definition.

Paul's letters are teacherly, sort of, but they are not resonant with all readers, including readers who like the ministry of Jesus better than Paul's more authoritarian social doctrines. There is a lot of pure politics in Paul. There is unfathomable mystery to the figure of Jesus.

There remains the problem of interpolation over many centuries by people with varying agendas. The version in the canonized Bible now may or may not have been the "books" used by the Christian communities of the century of and century following the life of Jesus. There are passages of significant beauty and of garbled nonsense as well.

And not least, we cannot say with certainty that the Jesus referenced in these texts is an actual person. We are told that that is the case, but it is quite another matter to say we clinically 'know' it to be the case.

Lincoln was at Gettysburg; we have photos and an address written in his hand. No such record is extant regarding the life of Jesus. There is the long trail of awed comment on his ministry, there are those imbued to help others banking off his model -- and they seem to me to be genuine in their impulse to do good -- and of course there are the unstable and insecure nutbags who warn us of "witches praying over Hallowe'en candy." Jesus, if he was a real person, was likely a Jew.

As it's given to us, the gospels in varying degrees of detail and emphasis, suggest a man in his very early 30s who pointedly and often cleverly distrusts the local authorities of the realm in a time when the Roman Republic had become the Roman Empire and individual freedoms and dignities were hard-won things, and damned rare. We see an intelligent, charismatic figure emerge from (evidently) Galilee, we get the boats and the water and the anglers, we get a strikingly vivid woman in the Magdalene, we get another woman rescued from a hole and stones and certain death, we get the sick and the afflicted healed, we get a maniacal king threatened by a baby in a humble manager, we get a very well-placed donkey for the final number into town, and two thousand years of redemptive blood.

Sincere spirit in a world of warfare and poverty appear to register more deeply than corrupt application of power and conquest by remote tyranny. The frail and the unlistened-to are raised higher in esteem and given citizenship in a broader communion. Forgiveness appears to take precedence over condemnation. The truth itself is suggested to be in faraway desert caves or in any case well out of town, and certainly involves express nonalignment with organized temples, churches, etc.

Paradox is also a theme, as even though uplift and belongedness inspire individual and community change and maybe world peace, efforts toward those goals are met with violent resistance.

[OHdem10]

18. Jesus Christ became Man, Died for our Sins, Resurrected into Heaven

Will come again to Earth to judge the living and the dead.

[The Magistrate]

21. No One But You, Sir, Has Come Even Close....

[gtar100]

22. And in the meantime neglect an incomplete teaching that festers

into wars, hatefulness, and disregard for the natural world.

[Deep13]

23. Sure he will.

:eyes:

[Meshuga]

24. The "all of the above" option covers your answer. n/t

[undergroundpanther]

19. narcissism

Christianity did not become the 2,000 year success story it is by expecting people to make sacrifices. Quite the contrary. Christianity thrives for only one reason: the promise of the ultimate reward of eternal life. And the people who call themselves Christians do so because they want to live forever.
Christianity is successful because it is narcissistic, and the world is full of narcissists.

http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/RelSci/Narcissism.html

It is time for religious fundamentalism to be regarded as a severe and potentially dangerous mental condition.
http://www.inebriateddiscourse.com/2009/06/cosmic-narcissism-new-psychological.html

http://open.salon.com/blog/amytuteurmd/2009/09/29/is_god_a_narcissist

[More Than A Feeling]

20. Love, humility, and forgiveness. n/t

[rd_kent]

25. Core Teaching: Do unto others..... Core Action: DO as I say not as I do....

Hypocrisy......thats the message.....

[darkstar3]

26. That's not true of every Christian

just the majority who are willing to spout that 'I'm not perfect, I'm forgiven' line that sickens me to no end. THAT'S the phrase that allows and excuses the hypocrisy.