They think, “Jesus was cool. I like him, and I’m gonna try to be like him.” Kind of like their guiding light is what would Jesus do? But there isn’t a focus on identification, recruiting others, judging others based on their religion, fear of God, fear of punishment for sinning, respect for clergy as an authority, rituals, worship, etc. Basically, just the example of Jesus’ life.
inb4: Christian lol!! got em!
Isn’t this just the Golden Rule? I’ve tried to live like this everyday for 20 years, but it can be difficult in this day and age. Most people don’t think like that. It’s easy to hold the door for people or say thank you, but it’s hard when you don’t receive the same courtesy. Jokes on them, though, cause they’ll burn in hell!
Jeezie. Like Swiftie, but for fan fiction on the Hebrew Bible.
I’d call you a fan. I’m a fan of Gandalf.
My Grandmother always called this sort of thing being a “red letter Christian”. Basically like you take a highlighter to everything Jesus specifically did or said and discard the rest.
My Mom’s family all followed this principle since like the 70’s thus saving my trans ass from any hint of intergenerationally inflicted religious trauma so I am a fan. My 92 year old great uncle went to bat to fight for non-binary gender accommodations in his seniors home because one of his nurses is an enby who was getting a raw deal from a number of their paitents. Honestly, though I don’t think the Christian God is what he says he is, his kid seems weird but as a rules for life kinda thing the results seem good. .
For context, in some versions of the Bible, the words of Jesus were printed in red font while the rest was black.
Interesting, I thought GamGam was just calling them whores
Agnostic or spiritual.
Like uh… normal? Jesus, as described, seems like a pretty chill dude. It’s christianity that gets into the crazy shit.
I take it you haven’t read the book of John?
Yeah. There’s some good stuff there, like 8:32*, but it’s full of so much crap** that… urgh.
*“And you’ll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
**Give the whole chapter 5 a check, specially 5:14; crippling people is apparently their god’s punishment for sinning. Or 3:36, someone gets really pissy if you don’t believe him!
I was thinking John 6 is pretty nuts tbh. There are a lot of problems with Christ, like how quiet and accepting he seemed about slavery, or how fragile he is about his ego and being respected as God, the central message of Christ is about his divinity, not about moral teachings. He threatened anyone who disagreed with his divinity with eternal damnation and so on. Just not the kind of person you would think of as a “chill dude”, rather the description “crazy” comes to mind when I read the book of John especially.
His moral teachings are irrelevant. It’s like how when cops volunteer to do a charity car wash. Moral behaviour doesn’t get you everlasting life.
yeah, at least not according to him; but his moral teachings got a lot of people in the door and interested in following him, and the whole “faith without works is dead” thing (book of James is pretty lit tbh)
John is way sus.
Nah, I was brought to church as a kid but I haven’t really read the Bible closely. Honestly, I’m just going off a general read of “dude who helps people in need and isn’t an ass”.
I recommend you read the book of John!
I wrote a longer response to Kolanaki if you want to read that as well, sorta summarizes what I think are some of the relevant bits as to why Christ isn’t such a great role model.
Well, he explicitly condoned slavery, so…
An enthusiast?
There is a lot of good messaging in the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, etc. You don’t need to be religious to appreciate that. Just like how somebody who appreciates in the mission and words of The Amazing Randi does not need a special label.
The labels start to come into play when discussing your belief or disbelief in a god or gods.
Randi, no?
I’m assuming we’re talking about the late, great, Randy Savage. So, their spelling is correct. Oooh yeah!
Hell yeah brother! The cream of the crop rises to the top one again!
Yes. Thanks for catching that.
Yep! I was trying to find a short way of describing my situation in this area when asked about it.
While not a term maybe a short blurb like “While I am not religious, I admire many of the lessons of Jesus as portrayed in the Bible, and I try to model parts of my life after his example.”
If applicable you can also add “Along with others I consider to be positive examples for leading a good and virtuous life.”
The Jesus fandom.
A Jesuit! Oh wait…
Do you need to be an -ian? Like, if you like the teachings of Ghandi, or Socrates, or Marcus Aurelius, you don’t have to call yourself a Ghandian, or a Socratian, or an Aurelian. You just agree with their teachings.
I feel like you’re just making a dig on Christians, and it’s not like a lot of them don’t deserve it, but what you’re talking about isn’t a religion. You don’t need an -ian to like a philosophy.
Nah, I don’t need to identify. That’s too restrictive. I’m looking for a shorter way to describe it when asked.
If there exits one, most probably next question to you would be “What is that ?” And then you give the long explanation.
lol 😆
This describes me. I think about this often. The best I’ve come up with is Buddhist. Ultimately isn’t that what Christ taught?
Sounds like you’re describing that you view how he is depicted as a good role model. I think the best way to describe it would just be “I’m atheist/agnostic/etc but view Jesus as a good role model” or something to that effect.
Or just lean into chaos and go with “Jesus is my role model” with no elaboration and let people make of it what they will.
Yes! I like this one. Thank you.
I use the term Atheistic Christian, which essentially means I believe in a lot of the teachings of Jesus, but I don’t believe he was any kind of divinity.
Not to be confused with “secular Christian”, which in popular parlance means “I hang around church for the community but I’m not spiritual”.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_atheism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesuism
Neither are perfect because Christian Athiests includes people who are “culturally Christian” as that can include clergy as an authority and rituals, and Jesuism would include splinter religious groups and is very easily confused with the Catholic Jesuit order. hopefully it’s a starting point though!
This is it!! Thank you very much 😁
