Newly-elected Speaker Mike Johnson gave Americans a glimpse of his "worldview" on Thursday night while fielding a question about homophobic remarks he made.
I'm athiest, but spent many years in church, so here's my understanding of why he references the Old testament:
Jesus said he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it. (Matthew 5:17-18) So the Law, which is found in the OT, is still in effect. Each denomination and individual decides for themselves what parts they'll pay attention to.
Many Christians throw out the entire Old Testament, but most just pick and choose which parts they want enforced. They love the 10 commandments, for example. But they also wear mixed fabrics, eat pork & shrimp, and some get tattoos…all of which are forbidden in the OT.
This guy plays Pick & Choose. If it's in the OT and he can use it to make this country a "Biblical Republic", he will use those verses. If it means he can't eat crawfish etouffee, then that verse clearly doesn't matter to him.
The scariest part about this dude is that he interprets everything thru the lens of scripture. And he does not believe the separation of church and state is real.
I've been saying most of my life that "the" bible is basically a Rorschach blot used for confirmation bias for both liberal xtians and conservative xtians. Many liberals look at the "red letter" portions of the NT and want to dispense with most everything else, including the OT.
The weirdest thing about the NT is why on Earth Paul gets so much prominence. This is a guy who, even according to the narrative, never even met the character of Jesus…and yet, so many xtians seem to lean on things he wrote, even though they contradict things the character of Jesus is made to say in their stories. These people should be called Paulians.
I'm athiest, but spent many years in church, so here's my understanding of why he references the Old testament:
Jesus said he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it. (Matthew 5:17-18) So the Law, which is found in the OT, is still in effect. Each denomination and individual decides for themselves what parts they'll pay attention to.
Many Christians throw out the entire Old Testament, but most just pick and choose which parts they want enforced. They love the 10 commandments, for example. But they also wear mixed fabrics, eat pork & shrimp, and some get tattoos…all of which are forbidden in the OT.
This guy plays Pick & Choose. If it's in the OT and he can use it to make this country a "Biblical Republic", he will use those verses. If it means he can't eat crawfish etouffee, then that verse clearly doesn't matter to him.
The scariest part about this dude is that he interprets everything thru the lens of scripture. And he does not believe the separation of church and state is real.
I've been saying most of my life that "the" bible is basically a Rorschach blot used for confirmation bias for both liberal xtians and conservative xtians. Many liberals look at the "red letter" portions of the NT and want to dispense with most everything else, including the OT.
The weirdest thing about the NT is why on Earth Paul gets so much prominence. This is a guy who, even according to the narrative, never even met the character of Jesus…and yet, so many xtians seem to lean on things he wrote, even though they contradict things the character of Jesus is made to say in their stories. These people should be called Paulians.
It's cus he was a wealthy Roman citizen of the time while the Apostles were mostly poor Palestinians
Paul was the trump of his time