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**Romarionsion** · 02-24-2010, 12:05 AM

wonderful aspect of current popular Christianity is that you can do any damned thing but if you say you seek redemption through Jesus and proclaim yourself to be "born again", then all is forgiven and you are rehabilitated. It works even better if you're a white celeb compared to if you're black (in pop culture, other skin colors are mostly on the sidelines).

-- the Colorado gay-bashing pastor who had gay relationships himself, then went to some christian retreat and claimed to have been "cured" of his gayness and was considered righteous again

-- the death row woman in Texas who claimed to have rediscovered her Christian faith and claimed to be born-again

-- Josh Hamilton of Texas Rangers is a crackhead, does binge drinking, is caught with women polishing off his knob (he's married), and yet-- he writes a book about all this, says he's born-again, and voila-- a great hit amonng Texas baseball fans.

You can say race doesn’t matter, but a look at how we treat the screw-ups of Josh Hamilton vs. Josh Howard indicates otherwise. - Page 1 - News - Dallas - Dallas Observer

I'm sure there are thousands of examples like this. And it's not even a recent phenomenon or just a Protestant/Evangelical/mega-church thing. Afterall, the pope back before Christian Reformation was selling tickets to heaven in order to raise cash so that he could wage his holy war against his personal enemies...pope was (is?) afterall considered Christian God's field general and commander-in-chief. The rich could buy the tickets and be assured a proper Christian (Catholic?) last rites and an unsmeared family name even in the face of all sorts of moral regression.

So it's not surprising to see FOX News playing to the gallery on this issue... "just become a Christian, all will be forgiven...(at least in the here and now, and you can go back to making millions and be adored by millions more). It's pretty seductive argument, at least to the ones who are brought up in nominal Christian households but never really got into the whole church routine...and likely never will again either even if they proclaim for public consumption their change of heart and sudden love for Jesus Christ.

02-24-2010, 12:05 AM	#8
Romarionsion Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 480 Senior Member	wonderful aspect of current popular Christianity is that you can do any damned thing but if you say you seek redemption through Jesus and proclaim yourself to be "born again", then all is forgiven and you are rehabilitated. It works even better if you're a white celeb compared to if you're black (in pop culture, other skin colors are mostly on the sidelines). -- the Colorado gay-bashing pastor who had gay relationships himself, then went to some christian retreat and claimed to have been "cured" of his gayness and was considered righteous again -- the death row woman in Texas who claimed to have rediscovered her Christian faith and claimed to be born-again -- Josh Hamilton of Texas Rangers is a crackhead, does binge drinking, is caught with women polishing off his knob (he's married), and yet-- he writes a book about all this, says he's born-again, and voila-- a great hit amonng Texas baseball fans. You can say race doesn’t matter, but a look at how we treat the screw-ups of Josh Hamilton vs. Josh Howard indicates otherwise. - Page 1 - News - Dallas - Dallas Observer I'm sure there are thousands of examples like this. And it's not even a recent phenomenon or just a Protestant/Evangelical/mega-church thing. Afterall, the pope back before Christian Reformation was selling tickets to heaven in order to raise cash so that he could wage his holy war against his personal enemies...pope was (is?) afterall considered Christian God's field general and commander-in-chief. The rich could buy the tickets and be assured a proper Christian (Catholic?) last rites and an unsmeared family name even in the face of all sorts of moral regression. So it's not surprising to see FOX News playing to the gallery on this issue... "just become a Christian, all will be forgiven...(at least in the here and now, and you can go back to making millions and be adored by millions more). It's pretty seductive argument, at least to the ones who are brought up in nominal Christian households but never really got into the whole church routine...and likely never will again either even if they proclaim for public consumption their change of heart and sudden love for Jesus Christ.
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