7 votes

Inside the radical beliefs of Israel Folau's Truth of Jesus Christ Church, founded by his father Eni

Posted by Algernon_Asimov
Tags: religion, christianity, israel folau, australia, athletes, rugby.union, churches, truth of jesus christ church, author.kate mcclymont, paywall.soft
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/why-the-pm-and-most-christians-are-going-to-hell-20190719-p528xx.html

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Title
Why the PM and most Christians are 'going to hell'
Authors
Kate McClymont
Published
Jul 19 2019
Word count
1402 words

3 comments

  1. [3]
    Algernon_Asimov
    Link
    And, of course, this article has generated some pushback: Folau's group's far from mainstream Christianity, leaders say. This whole aspect of religion - particularly Christianity, with its 30,000...

    And, of course, this article has generated some pushback: Folau's group's far from mainstream Christianity, leaders say.

    This whole aspect of religion - particularly Christianity, with its 30,000 denominations - fascinates me. People will swear black, blue, and blind that the Bible is the Word of God and the only true source of all Christianity... and then they'll argue over their own various personal ideas about what Christianity is and is not - often based on their own cherry-picking of parts of the text they like, and "re-interpretations" of parts of the text they don't like. Even when I've demonstrated (or so I thought) to someone online that their own personal view of Christianity as they've just explained it to me relies heavily on their own personal interpretation because they have directly contradicted statements in the Bible on which they're supposedly basing their religion, they'll insist that it doesn't and they haven't.

    Seeing cognitive dissonance in action like this is, to coin a phrase, fascinating.

    2 votes
    1. [2]
      Diet_Coke
      Link Parent
      I really think that's the power of the Bible. It's so broad and there are so many one or two sentence statements that can be picked out and used to build whatever meaning you want for it. There's...

      I really think that's the power of the Bible. It's so broad and there are so many one or two sentence statements that can be picked out and used to build whatever meaning you want for it. There's a Gnostic idea I like that says the serpent in Genesis was actually the good guy, and the Bible is a creation of the devil. Which, if you consider the strife around it, isn't unbelievable if you can believe in the rest of it.

      2 votes
      1. Algernon_Asimov
        Link Parent
        Yep. I've seen this point before. Because the Bible is so big, and was written by many different people at different times, it's possible to find a statement in there to support any positions -...

        It's so broad and there are so many one or two sentence statements that can be picked out and used to build whatever meaning you want for it.

        Yep. I've seen this point before. Because the Bible is so big, and was written by many different people at different times, it's possible to find a statement in there to support any positions - even contradictory ones. For example, the Bible was used by both pro-slavery and anti-slavery advocates back in the day.

        It's almost the ultimate ink-blot test: people see in the Bible whatever they want to see.

        2 votes