The established Church policy is to spread Christianity through persuasion, not coercion. — Apollodorus
Like many elderly non-believers or agnostics, I know Christianity on a first hand basis as my first "operating system". There is plenty in it that can function in the pejorative meanings of "opium" or "opiate", as well as ameliorative meanings, — Bitter Crank
No! "spiritual salvation" delivered in the absence of love (agape) or absent concern for the person's wellbeing, results in the missionary position of ramming Jesus down their throat or up their ass, whichever you prefer. — Bitter Crank
God shouldn't be treated as one's buddy. — baker
If the premise is that the acceptance of Jesus as one's savior is a necessary component for eternal salvation from damnation, then the absence of immediate concern for the person's wellbeing would be of little concern. — Hanover
Marx himself wrote that the concept of the rule of law is "obsolete verbal rubbish" — Apollodorus
Correct. Christianity at least believes in the rule of law, Communism doesn't. — Apollodorus
:100:In the hands of the bourgeoisie, "the rule of law" is a system plundering the resources of society -- labor, natural resources, etc, for their own benefit. As Marx put it, "the state is a committee to organize the affairs of the bourgeoisie." — Bitter Crank
I'm not a Marxist, so I don't defend it, but I don't believe it a tenant of communism that there be anarchy with the absence of law. Those nations I've seen claiming to be Marxist tend toward totalitarianism, which is a superabundance of law. — Hanover
Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and others (State and Revolution, Terrorism and Communism, etc.) clearly base their ideas on Marx and Engels' own statements.
Quite different from Christianity, really. — Apollodorus
My position wasn't to equate Christianity to Marxism, but it was to respond to your post that Marxism did not respect the rule of law. You're pointing out in this post that the law followed by Marxist nations has been historically brutal, but that's a concession there is a rule of law, the thing you deny. — Hanover
In Communist countries like Soviet Russia and the Communist Bloc, a country would have an official legal code, but the ruling Communist Party would take the law into its own hands as it pleased, for example, by ordering courts to sentence people to death without due process or simply arresting, jailing or executing them without any trial.
In other words, the law was there but wasn't applied. The state was "above the law". — Apollodorus
“Thou shalt love the Lord and thy neighbor”: a Reconsideration in Philosophical Perspective — Apollodorus
I am not sure what you mean by a "reconsideration. " — Valentinus
I think the decline of Christianity in the Western World can only be reversed by the correct "reinterpretation" or "reconsideration" of these two central commandments which together have always formed the very foundation of the Christian Faith. — Apollodorus
In Marxist dictatorships, people were convicted of crimes with mock trials, others were executed without a fair trial despite the law required it." -- Not a verbatim quote, but I agree with it. — god must be atheist
Your presenting to a billion atheists and agnostics Christianity without first carving their frontal cortex from their skull will encounter a lot of derisive laughter. — god must be atheist
In Communist countries like Soviet Russia and the Communist Bloc, a country would have an official legal code, but the ruling Communist Party would take the law into its own hands as it pleased, for example, by ordering courts to sentence people to death without due process or simply arresting, jailing or executing them without any trial.
In other words, the law was there but wasn't applied. The state was "above the law".
— Apollodorus
Of course, they are dictatorships. That's how they do things. — Tom Storm
Are there any Christians and believers here who could speak up?The OP is about how Christians and other believers view the commandments mentioned. — Apollodorus
Are there any Christians and believers here who could speak up? — baker
Oddly similar to how the capitalists and the bourgeois do things. — baker
Hess associates Christian love with “sharing knowledge of God with the whole world”. This suggests that an essential aspect of Christian love is not as some might assume having an attitude of affection, etc. toward our neighbor or even concern for his material wellbeing, but primarily concern for his or her spiritual salvation. — Apollodorus
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