Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) bashed former President Trump online and said Christians who support him “don’t understand” their religion.

“I’m going to go out on a NOT limb here: this man is not a Christian,” Kinzinger said on X, formerly known as Twitter, responding to Trump’s Christmas post. “If you are a Christian who supports him you don’t understand your own religion.”

Kinzinger, one of Trump’s fiercest critics in the GOP, said in his post that “Trump is weak, meager, smelly, victim-ey, belly-achey, but he ain’t a Christian and he’s not ‘God’s man.’”

  • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    You are assuming though that Kinzinger is…

    arbitrarily changing the definition to fit their argument

    …, which he is not doing. He’s using the definition as defined by Jesus.

    Or, as @[email protected] puts it …

    Jesus would not recognize modern Christians by almost any measure

    • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      I’m not assuming, I’m asserting that those gospels are heavily edited and censored by the church, so who really knows what the original intent was?

      Leaving aside that the KJV that most Christians learn is filtered, sometimes erroneously, through multiple language translations, several of the original texts were cut from fairly recent editions because they contradict other texts or were morally problematic.

      Claiming authority on what Jesus did or didn’t mean when referring to people who believe just as strongly they’re right is a fallacy, especially when, given the context of many other horrible teachings the bible espouses, it’s morally dubious at best. And those same texts have been used by church officials who should be authorities on the topic to justify atrocities.

      So yeah, this is a fallacy.

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I’m not assuming, I’m asserting that those gospels are heavily edited and censored by the church, so who really knows what the original intent was?

        That’s one hell of a debate catch-all escape hatch you’ve got there.

        If you’re arguing that what we’ve all been told about Jesus’s intent and teachings are not true, then that’s a completely different discussion to be had, and we’re wasting our time discussing this current subject.

        • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          It’s not a debate catch-all, it’s just the truth.

          My point is and has been that Christians who say other Christians are Christianing wrong are using a fallacy, because it’s just as valid that they think you are doing it wrong, and everyone on all sides can find bible quotes that support their views.

          A hundred years ago, white supremacists used Jesus’ teachings to validate slavery, and they thought they were just as correct as you think you are. You can say they were using those passages erroneously, but they’d say the same about you with equal conviction and, looking at it from the outside, you’re both right.

      • btaf45@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Claiming authority on what Jesus did or didn’t mean when referring to people who believe just as strongly they’re right is a fallacy,

        Not when there is an entire book explaining the ideology of Jesus. Ignoring everything it says proves they haven’t read it which proves Kinzinger right.