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!
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)
People who model their lives after the teachings of Jesus are pretty rare. I think it is more psychologically valuable because Christians are able to psychologically transfer the moral qualities of Jesus to themselves. Jesus is “good” in ways that most Christians today don’t even give a shit about, but it gives him moral character, and so it allows Christians to feel like they have moral character as well.
In fact, I was going to link to the article about “moral licensing” as though I actually knew what I was talking about (I don’t) and I see there is a section about exactly this idea, where people see themselves as having the moral qualities of others in their in-group:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-licensing#Group_membership
So in a way, the stories about Jesus allow Christianity to fill an important spiritual role in people’s lives: assuring them that they are good people. But it’s tricking them, and Jesus has to be a model of good morality for this trick to work.
John is way sus.
not sure what you mean
The Gospel of John is the last one written, much later than the others and is full of things that are suspicious. Almost as if it was specifically written to direct a nascent cult into the direction it wanted them to go and not particularly inspired by any actual events.
oh interesting, TIL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_John#Historical_reliability
Thanks! I’ll have to read the book of Mark and see how it compares (esp. I wonder if the events depicted in John 6 occur in the book of Mark).
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…
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
An enthusiast?
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”.
Agnostic or 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 😁
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 😆
I’d call you a fan. I’m a fan of Gandalf.
I met a group that called themselves ‘Jesus Freaks’, but they were just annoying trying to indocrinate people on music festivals.
Ha, they weren’t a band though, just people that walked the crowd trying to convince people of jesus.
I was a ruthless teenager questioning their beliefs until they got pulled away from me by a higher up.
They somehow couldn’t answer why I would need jesus, when I’m already doing all the things they claim they only do because they found jesus.
Today I’m different and don’t question people’s believes as long as they don’t start harming others in the name of their god.
What a coincidink, I just commented this on another thread.
The Thomas Jefferson bible might be up your alley. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible
Thank you! I found a free copy on on Google Play Books, so I’m gonna give a look with my balls of eye.
Fun fact: I remember learning about this in school. Apparently, that’s the Bible that people in court typically swear upon. 🧑⚖️maybe notReally!? I find that a little hard to believe. It’s basically pamphlet sized. I have one.
Maybe not then. It’s what a teacher told the class. I’ll have to check once I get home later.
fan of Jesus?
A Jesuit! Oh wait…
I don’t think that there’s a specific term for picking a religious figure solely as a behaviour standard, with no regards to the beliefs. But you could describe yourself as “morally Christian”, I guess?
