Is it not as a reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice rather than celebration of how he died?

Weird thing is that it started as a symbol. Believers carrying a cross, albeit a small symbolic one, was a sign of sympathy and emulation with the sacrifice Christ did, one of which was carrying his own cross, in order to save mankind from sin. But of course it was distorted and fetishized to the point of ridicule. Christians aren’t exactly the most well versed on the beliefs of their own cult.

A bunch of years ago I was at my brother in laws bachelor party. It was mid summer along a river so we were drinking and enjoying the weather and a bonfire. One dude had this huge cross tattooed on his back, he was BiL’s coworker friend and I had never met him before. He was saying some pretty awful shit and then started to get into racist shit against Mexicans. I can’t remember exactly what I said but it was basically “you say these things while showing off that tattoo? Did you get it because you thought it looked cool or do you even know what the cross means?” My BiL asked me to drop it but its always reminded me of how much some of these people are complete idiots and maybe they are trying to be better but wrapping yourself in these symbols and failing to even meet a baseline of understanding is just so disgusting to me. A thousand years ago, I am sure one of us would have tried to kill each other over that moment.

This is basically the premise to a Ricky Gervais bit.

People don’t get that freedom from religion means that me, as an atheist, am protected from forced participation in your religious activities. That you are not allowed to use the government to compel or punish me for not participating, but that you can still participate in your religious activities.

Anyone downvoting that concept in disagreement is saying that they want to force their neighbors to be under the rule of religion.

Freedom from religion does not mean that you don’t get to practice. It’s that you don’t get to force me to live under religious rules.

It doesn’t take much. For starters “Greed” is one of the 7 deadly sins…

Just a note… whether he is atheist or follows a religion isn’t actually related to his garbage character.

I get it… I know some religious people mistakenly think that morals come from religion. So it’s interesting they pick someone who doesn’t even put on a show of practicing their religion.

Of course, as the rest of us know, any amount of observation in life will show that there are both decent and despicable people in both religious and non-religious camps.

But, yeah it is painfully ironic that religious people hitched their wagon to that lying, adulterous, greedy, gluttonous, (etc) slime bag.

I think it already is blowing up in their face, and agree fully with your sentiment. While atheists dont depend on religion to define their morals, they get the opportunity to self-define their morals. A narcissistic egotisticial born-with-a-silver-spoon person like Trump is a wolf in sheep’s clothing parading as one of them. He decays or corrupts everything he touches, and the GOP and evangelical Christians have been rubbing all up on him for 7 years. Both groups are in crisis these days.

The GOP has no true platform beyond revenge politics, and the churches are bleeding congregation members… people leaving either because they aren’t on board the crazy train of their church peers or leave because they’ve allowed their beliefs and morals to twist out of whack in conflict of scripture.

Not only that, but all of that was well known prior to him winning the election.

They don’t care.

All that immoral behavior you mentioned reads much more like the behavior of an outspoken conservative Christian rather than an atheist. You know, all the “rules for thee but not for me” type stuff.

It may be true that neither of them really believe deep down, but only one is using it to look good while being shitty.

it’s not that he’s athiest - he still firmly believes in a God and a Supreme Being™, it’s just that he sees himself in the role…

Nah there will always be plenty of bigoted pastors, churches, and congregations for these people.

This may cause (another) split amongst Christians, but there’s no way they give up religion entirely. It’s far too useful to them as a tool of control and indoctrination.

I have always been surprised that the Catholic Bishops have been so willing to align, politically, with the evangelicals on this issue. They haven’t historically gotten along well. And the evangelicals were agnostic about abortion, until they realized all the money they could raise by embracing the bans.

If the end-game for this is turning the country (or even the red states) into a theocracy, Catholics are going to find themselves excluded again. Some evangelicals don’t even think they count as Christian. And nobody else is going to have sympathy for them, when the ruling class imposes their belief systems on Catholics, because it’s exactly what the Catholic Bishops have been doing to other groups through their support of extreme abortion bans.

Authoritarians don’t vote for other authoritarians, they vote for charismatic strongmen who don’t share their political beliefs. It’s literally crazy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarian_personality

Christianity was never about following scripture, it’s always been about using scripture to maintain power over others. If a personis going to put christians in that position of power, they’re going to follow that person, simple as that.

My blooded axe is ready.

They wouldn’t get that reference.

They built a literal golden idol of trump.

Would be interesting to see what reaction one would get to “Trump is Lord” posters.

Churches should be taxed though. Give unto Caesar and all that.

Dividing into camps along political lines and shouting at each other is what happens out in the world. It’s not supposed to happen at church.

Wait, I thought this was their main feature…

The comedian Emo Philips has a well-known joke about religion that may explain some of the decline in membership… "Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”

He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too!”

Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over."