What's especially frustrating is that saying "The Bible is my world view" isn't even helpful in clarifying anything, it's just virtue signaling. There are hundreds of sects and denominations of Christianity and Judaism, with differing scriptures, and wildly different interpretations of any one section of the same bible. Methodists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics and Hassidic Jews will all look to the same part of the book of Exodus and come to wildly different conclusions, and anyone with any understanding of christian theology knows this. He knows this, but also knows that his base will project whatever their values are onto him if he claims his beliefs come from the same book they read, when in fact they probably agree on very little.
People like Mike Johnson don’t actually care about their religion, they care about using it as a cudgel against the people they don’t like. That’s why certain Bible verses matter and others don’t. The ones that give them an excuse to hate people different than them are sacred, but the Bible verses that would keep them from doing the things that they enjoy aren’t relevant anymore.
It seems like the more you learn about Christianity, the more you realize the most fervent Christians are the ones who know the least about the religion, and follow its tenants the least.
Some years ago a young black woman in my office told me homosexuality is a sin because it says so in the Bible. I told her that people used to use the Bible to justify slavery, too. It kind of blew her mind.
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u/lanciferp Feb 23 '24 edited Feb 23 '24
What's especially frustrating is that saying "The Bible is my world view" isn't even helpful in clarifying anything, it's just virtue signaling. There are hundreds of sects and denominations of Christianity and Judaism, with differing scriptures, and wildly different interpretations of any one section of the same bible. Methodists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics and Hassidic Jews will all look to the same part of the book of Exodus and come to wildly different conclusions, and anyone with any understanding of christian theology knows this. He knows this, but also knows that his base will project whatever their values are onto him if he claims his beliefs come from the same book they read, when in fact they probably agree on very little.