White conservative Christians are so weird.

[Baitball Blogger]

So, they believe in life after death and picture a peaceful asceny to heaven. Though I pray they spend a few hot days in purgatory, I hope they eventually ascend to heaven, where they will be surrounded by souls of those who have gone before. And what will they do when they realize that there is no segregation in heaven. No gated communities, no suburban white islands. Just a continual music of diversity to entertain them through eternity.

[FreeState]

1. I view it slightly different

When we die we won’t be doing anything, we won’t even have an idea about our death because we will cease to exist. I find religion in politics particularly harmful because when people think they have the answers they stop looking for answers. This is true regardless of the race of the believer.

[DFW]

2. The reason I despise religion in politics

It allows people with extreme arguments to say they have the backing of an all-powerful entity which no one will ever see or hear except for the one putting forth the argument. Their drivel can therefore in no way be confirmed or disputed.

40 years ago, during the Camp David Talks, Egypt's Anwar Sadat complained about negotiating land with Menachem Begin: "I can negotiate with a man who says, 'I need this land, my security depends on it.' I cannot negotiate with a man who says, 'I need this land because God gave it to me.' "

[FreeState]

6. Yep

They don’t need to demonstrate anything just demand people respect their belief. It’s a dangerous road that has caused a lot of suffering and pain.

[KPN]

9. Sadat was so impressive. Thanks for that little story.

[keithbvadu2]

3. We'll all be white in the heavenly light... Old timey gospel -

'We'll all be white in the heavenly light.'

Old timey gospel -

'We'll all be white in the heavenly light.'

Newer playings have changed that phrase.

[keithbvadu2]

4. Imagine the shock when they find that Jesus is dark skinned.

Ben Carson and Jesus

[PJMcK]

5. There is no heaven nor hell

Christian’s, and others, won’t even know that they believed in a fantasy as they’ll be dead.

It’s quite hilarious.

[hurple]

7. Oh, no, you have it wrong...

Nobody BUT the white Christians will be going to heaven. They think the biggest "diversity" there will be blondes, brunettes or redheads.

[Celerity]

12. Curses of Cain and Ham and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (just one example)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curses_of_Cain_and_Ham_and_the_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints

Teachings on the biblical curse of Cain and the curse of Ham in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and their effects on Black people in the LDS Church have changed throughout the church's history. Both church founder Joseph Smith, and his most popular successor Brigham Young taught that Black people were under the curse of Ham and the curse of Cain. Smith and Young both referred to the curses as a justification for slavery. They also taught that dark skin marked people of African ancestry as cursed by God. In Smith's revisions of the King James Bible, and production of the Book of Abraham he traced their cursed state back to the curses placed on Cain and Ham, and linked the two curses by positioning Ham's Canaanite posterity as matrilinear descendants of Cain.

Prior to the Latter Day Saint settlement in Missouri, Smith, like many other Northerners, was opposed to slavery, but softened his opposition to slavery during the Missouri years, going as far as writing a very cautious justification of the institution. Following the Mormon Extermination Order and violent expulsion of the church from the slave state, Smith openly embraced abolitionism and preached the equality of all of God's children, in 1841 stating that if the opportunity for Black people were equal to the opportunity provided to White people, that Black people could perform as well or better than them.

Young, while seemingly open to Black men holding the priesthood under Smith's leadership and praising of Black members of the church, later as Smith's successor used the curse as justification of barring Blacks from the priesthood, banning interracial marriages, and opposing Black suffrage. He stated that the curse would one day be lifted and that Black people would be able to receive the priesthood post-mortally.

snip

In 1978, when the church ended the ban on the priesthood, apostle Bruce R. McConkie taught that the ancient curse of Cain and Ham was no longer in effect. General authorities in the LDS Church favored Smith's explanation until 2013, when a Church-published online essay disavowed the idea that Black skin is the sign of a curse. The Old Testament Student Manual, which is published by the church and is the manual currently used to teach the Old Testament in LDS institutes, teaches that Canaan could not hold the priesthood because of the cursing of Ham his father, but makes no reference to race.

snip

[FreeState]

13. That was once a mainstream Christian slave owner view

Not just Mormons believed it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Ham

That being said much of the US racism was/is part of Mormonism. They believed you became more white the more righteous you were. Indians and blacks would literally turn white if they followed the gospel.

[hurple]

26. You can throw quotes and Wikipedia entries at me all day long

I was raised in the southern white evangelical church system, and I know what they believe. In the church I attended throughout middle and high school we were taught explicitly that ONLY white people had souls. All other races were soulless like all the other animals.

Oh yeah, and we were also taught that Mormonism was a satanic cult meant to lure decent white people away from the true path to heaven.

Same with Baptists. And catholics. And any other branch of Christianity that didn't follow my factions explocit rules to the milimeter.

[Celerity]

27. you seem to be under the incorrect impression I was taking issue with something you said

[Celerity]

8. Heaven, hell, and purgatory, etc, are human constructions based off of fear, powerlust, and a lack

of knowledge.

The same for the whole god or gods thing, plus the religions created to worship the invented god or gods and exert power control.

The world's oldest and largest woos/cons/tragedies.

Good people are good despite the human-invented god or gods, and despite the human-invented religions, not because of them.

The wilful suspension of disbelief (which is necessary to believe in a god or gods) has never been, and never will be, a prerequisite to to living a good life and treating your fellow human beings with dignity, justice, respect, and yes, even love.

[pwb]

10. What do non Christians feel about death?

No soul, a darkness, a void, no anything after life???? At death all of our life becomes meaningless. Family and friends, memories erased? I would call that Hell. Believing is not wrong just because it does not fit. I do not go to a building to listen to a man speak or pray with others but I believe.. Why is that wrong? Should I become a Republican because of my thoughts?

[Celerity]

15. Your life doesn't become meaningless to the living.

Also:

No soul, a darkness, a void

The concept of a soul is a man-made invention, and a void and/or darkness are observed things, you have to be alive to observe them. No life, no observation of anything.

[Ocelot II]

16. Having religious faith of some kind does not require one to be a Republican.

Many religious people are liberal, and many liberals are religious. This is not mutually exclusive. Religion is a problem only when those who practice a particular faith start insisting that others do likewise, or where their practice or traditions cause harm to others. Any religion is only as bad or as good as the people who practice it.

[Lemonwurst]

17. Impending and complete closure is scary, but necessary

We value our consciousness and sense of self as “life”, but absent any physical means to measure time, consciousness as we know it cannot exist. Just ask yourself, how long is one day in the afterlife, and realize that your ability to form a single thought then immediately recall it (i.e. recognizable consciousness) might actually span 14 billion Earth years, or perhaps a fraction of a nanosecond.

If any afterlife of consciousness existed, the eternity of it would alone be an unending hell. Life and its attendant consciousness are precious only because they are finite.

I find solace knowing that our memories and the love we shared persist for a generation or two, in the memories of those who were close to us, and that is plenty to be thankful for, now and when our time is up.

[Mariana]

19. The OP's comments are very clearly about "white conservative Christians".

If you aren't a white conservative Christian, then the poster isn't talking about you.

[Lemonwurst]

25. Sure, but...

Who on DU could possibly respond to the post if commentary was expected to be provided only by white conservative Christians? The OP no doubt brought this conversation to the fore in hopes of some spirited (heh heh) discussion, starting with their own personal observation.

DU is great because it unconditionally encourages us all to offer diverse considerations. Any topic might turn out to be a launching point.

[FreeState]

21. For me

I find belief in something that’s not demonstrable as irrational. One can have faith in anything so it’s not an indicator of truth.

When one dies there is nothing, including thinking, so hell would be impossible as their would be no person left at all, no void.

[JI7]

29. Yes, what were you doing 5 years before you were born ?

that's what being dead will be like for the person.

It will be like before they were born.

[ymetca]

24. There are myriad conceptions of an "afterlife"

worthy of contemplation.

Gnosticism / Agnosticism
Indra's Net / Noosphere
Reincarnation / Nirvana, etc.

The fear of death can drive people mad, and invoke mass delusion. And, of course, it gets exploited by the lust for power.

Every child at some point awakens to their own mortality. It's a shock! So we come up with explanations to try and make it easier to cope. If we taught children all the different ideas about what an "afterlife" might be, rather than demand they adhere to just one idea, that would improve our collective lot as a species.

Maybe our individual lives provide epigenetic change, as we interact with our planetary environment, so that future generations can "incorporate" our "beingness" on some wild quantum level we only now are beginning to understand.

There is no reason to conclude that nothing "survives" of our individual consciousnesses once our bodies die. No one really knows.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

11. What will they do, you ask? They'll demand segregated bathrooms.

KY............

----

[roamer65]

14. IF there is a rapture, most of them will be "left behind".

That scares the shit outta them because they know what’s next.



666.

[keithbvadu2]

18. Expectations

[treestar]

20. If they think there are no nonwhite Christians

they need to think again.

[Thomas Hurt]

22. I pondered this for short time. I figured they get they basking in the glory of God...

sitting at God's right, smugly looking down on those suffering in the Rapture.

I do wonder why they consider Heaven a good thing when everything will be free. Sounds like filthy socialism to me.

[Marcuse]

23. Going down.

[Amishman]

28. You are projecting racism onto a group I've found to typically lack it

My extended family is loaded with white Christian republicans, many of them very active in their churches.

I can only think of one of them who is actually racist.

Most however are very intolerant of any other cultures or beliefs.

In other words, they don't care what color you are - as long as you believe what they believe, talk like they talk, like what they like, etc.

Have cultural differences? Even if you are white, you are a bad person and distrusted (or even outright hated) for it.

Racism and cultural intolerance are different but can appear the same.