• hydrashok
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    7 months ago

    But if they open that book and actually read and understand it, how will all the churches that warp that message make money and further spread their hatred and discrimination? Won’t someone please think of these super important churches and their totally-not-coincidentally wealthy pastors? (/s in case it wasn’t obvious)

    • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Won’t someone please think of these super important churches and their totally-not-coincidentally wealthy pastors?

      For the record, a remarkably small percentage of pastors are actually wealthy. Lots of churches have a pretty poor financial outlook these days, and many pastors struggle.

      That’s not to say there aren’t rich assholes fleecing (pun intended) their flock, and obviously fuck televangelists, but it’s not the norm for a pastor to be wealthy.

      Edit: (Not disagreeing with the stuff about modern Christianity failing utterly to understand itself though.)

    • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      But if they open that book and actually read and understand it

      Then they’d risk not believing anymore, and a lot of Christians are aware of this on some level so they choose ignorance.

      Speaking as one, a lot of ex-Christian atheists started their journey by simply wanting to know more about their religion. Then somewhere along the way they realized it was getting harder to believe. But once you peel back that outer layer you can’t easily put it back.

      • hydrashok
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        7 months ago

        As someone that was raised in the church, I totally understand. My parents really didn’t like my curiosity, which of course fostered further skepticism.

    • gravitas_deficiency
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      7 months ago

      But keep in mind that the assumption of literacy is not necessarily accurate.