religion, subtoot
Christmas, if you actually read Christian scripture, *absolutely* involves politics.
Child of probably-teenage mum, born in a stable due to overcrowding. Census (i.e. data collection and surveillance) by a foreign occupying power. Shepherds, that is, working class people working nights, the first to find out about it. And, of course, the whole thing about the slaughter of the innocents and the family becoming refugees to Egypt.
religion, subtoot
@artsyhonker The phrase from the Bible that best catches the spirit of Christianity is probably this one:
"There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)
It's all about abandoning tribalism, because we're all essentially the same. Yet tribalism continues to come back like shit stuck to a shoe, be it left vs right, races, classes or whatever divisions people creatively come up with...
religion, subtoot, Christianity
@kravietz That's one of the better bits of what I think of as "St Paul's Blog", and certainly in the Gospel accounts Jesus opposes hierarchy often.
I might point to the opening of John's Gospel as more central to Christianity, or even John 3:16 -- For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
But the crapitalist caricature of Christianity is just that: a caricature.
religion, subtoot, Christianity
@artsyhonker Couldn't agree more...
