Crisis in American Faith: Christianity is 43 percent of population as Conservative Christianity becomes own religion

[Mariana]

9. I don't think you get to decide who's a Christian and who isn't.

And let's not pretend that the Gospels always portray Jesus and being this super nice guy. The stories describe him at times as being racist, sexist, violent, destructive, and as putting his own comfort above the needs of the poor. Examples:

Racist: Matthew 15:21-28, in which Jesus is hateful toward a woman who asked him to heal her child because, he said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel" and she was of a different ethnicity. He compares her to a dog begging for scraps, and only relents after she grovels enough to suit him, and agrees with his dehumanizing characterization of her.

Sexist: Zero of his disciples were female.

Violent: John 2:13-22, in which Jesus flies into a rage, constructs a weapon and attacks people because he disapproved of their activities on the temple grounds, even though they had permission to do what they were doing there.

Destructive: Same story, in which he vandalizes the place. Also Mark Chapter 5, in which Jesus causes a herd of pigs to run off a cliff and die, after which the locals begged him to leave the area. This might also be a racism story, because the owners of the pigs would have been Gentiles, and "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

Put his own comfort above the needs of the poor: Mathew 26:6-13, in which Jesus is anointed with very expensive perfume. His own disciples are disturbed by this, and protest that it should have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus rebukes them, saying, "The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me."