05-23-2016, 11:11 AM
(05-22-2016, 05:13 PM)radind Wrote: As I mentioned before, I have no use for any large Christian organizations and my views are my own. I think that the rights of the unborn are being ignored and don't see how supporter of abortion could be considered Christian.
There are many things that could be done to reduce abortion, but the death of the unborn babies remains.
There are other concerns( abortion is just a clear line of demarcation). It is easy to say compromise without recognising that religious liberty has no meaning for Christians in this secular country. Calling this a 'political culture war' assumes that Christian values have no meaning for the secular camp. It is closer to a religious war in effect.
It is both, I am sure. But it's a war we don't need. I don't see where Jesus said to oppose abortion. Quote me chapter and verse? And claiming that fetuses are "babies" is not a religious statement; it's largely a scientific one. No, it's not a demarcation of Christianity. It's just a conviction that you and others have, and I understand it, and that you will continue to uphold it; but it's mostly orchestrated by church authority, even if it's not in your case.
Today, "Christian" largely means what Church Authority says it is. Very few people in America today understand what Jesus was really teaching and demonstrating. In most cases, they advocate the opposite.
"Secular" means that the state does not enforce or establish a religion. It is well known that this secular principle is GOOD for freedom of religion, AND for religion generally. There is no more religious country than the USA, and I expect this to continue, despite the passing trends among civic generations. The same "humanist" wave happened in the thirties, and the GI or Greatest Generation were somewhat less religious too. But even so, in the 1950s America became festooned with churches, which is how one writer put it (Howard Zinn? I forget).