To think this is a load of bs?

[nicetoseeyoutoseeyounice]

My mum posted on fb today that she's excited to see trump in power as he's a Christian and America finally has a Christian leader. Personally I don't see anything Christian about trying to segregate America. Aibu to think that's utter nonsense and he's definitely not getting his instructions from God?! I'm not a Christian though so maybe I just don't see it?

And your mum is being a proper loon, BTW.

Maybe you need to tell your mother that the Klu Klux Klan are also 'Christian'...

Re homophobia, they lean on the story of Sodom to say that's what happens if you let gays run rampant in your city. However, if you actually check out the story it's not about the wicked men being gay as such but their determination to rape a stranger. Lot gave him shelter and tried to deter the attackers by offering them a go with his own daughter instead - ok, I'm not justifying that bit! Apparently this was more acceptable in the eyes of the Lord (or rather, the culture of the author). Anyway, the stranger was of course an angel and the rapists got run over by a volcano whilst only Lot and his family were given the warning to get out ASAP. Mrs Lot's fate is also offered as a warning to do as your husband says, but basically the lesson is if there's a volcanic eruption going on Do Not Go Back for anything you suddenly remembered you left behind. It's not nearly as important as your life.

Disclaimer: it's been a long time since I did RE.

so excited to see the bragadocias guy has done an alternative facts song! Can't wait to get home so I can hear it!

Morphine I'm completely in love with him!

My mum is very homophobic, against abortion, against immigrants. Pretty much all the bigot opinions of trump. I've always struggled to understand how a religion which is supposedly big on accepting and loving everyone can be so judgemental.

It's just a story made up to comfort the rich who find "sell all you have, give to the poor, and follow me" too painful.

I'm sure you are better informed than I am - no sarcasm intended, I was never that up on Bible studies and I have additionally a really dreadful memory - but we can certainly agree the point is that the rich man isn't going to get through either a real or a metaphorical needle while he is burdened with earthly wealth. He needs to, in the immortal words from a quite different context, "Let it go".

I know a lot of lovely Christians, in fact I don't know any who aren't. However they are all C of E and English. Christianity in America appears to be a different matter, though it depends which version you're talking about.

The evangelical Christians who hate gays, want birth control and abortion banned and who seem to have completely missed the bits about caring for the poor and sick are a major political force there.

My DM, one of the lovely Christians I know, says that from what she sees a lot of people who describe themselves as Christian in the USA are far from the message of Jesus. The NHS and the welfare state were rooted in Christian belief.

Trump is a mouthpiece for Pence and the movement that got him there...Whether he realises it or not.

Trump isn't a real Christian.

The problem isn't Christians but people who use Christianity as a justification for treating each other poorly and behaving badly. Just like Muslims aren't the problem when it comes to terrorism, it's that terrorists use being Muslim to justify their actions. Religion isn't a problem, people are.

Name any view on God (atheism included) and there will be dangerous people making up their own version of it to justify what they do.

Trump isn't a real Christian.

Try telling him that.

My mother is a church-going, anti-abortion, no-sex-before-marriage Catholic diehard, OP.

But she was still sending up novenas for Trump to get capped clean between the eyeballs at his own inauguration.

Being a happy clappy doesn't preclude good old fashioned common sense.

I'm British, living in a southern US state. Yesterday morning in church our Pastor stood up and gave a sermon that was an outright and passionate denunciation of everything that Trump did in his first week.

He quoted from Micah 6:8

"And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God"

The main message in the gospels was love one another. Spreading fear and hatred is the opposite of that.

Annie - I've heard that "eye of a needle" explanation before, too, ad agree that it's a possibility.

But maybe Jesus meant what he said - If you choose money over people there's no way you will get into heaven!

And as someone else said, there is very little prohibition against homosexuality in the Bible. What there is is in the list of rules (NOT commandments) in Leviticus, as far as I can recall, and is culturally and not religiously based.

Jesus himself didn't say much at all about any type of sex except that you should be faithful to your spouse and look after them (OT actually says this, too). The commandments only tell us not to commit adultery.

What Jesus had a lot to say about was money - and power. And yet you will find a lot of supposed Christians (and indeed people of all faiths) who are obsessed with these two things. Money itself isn't evil. The LOVE of money is evil, and so is the abuse of power.

Maybe you need to tell your mother that the Klu Klux Klan are also 'Christian'...

My friend's American SIL insists that the Klan is a "charitable organisation".

I am pro abortion but I still don't think it's fair on this thread to suggest there is something terrible about people who think it's murder. It's a perfectly understandable position to hold to be against abortion and many many mumsnetters and people around the planet and in the USA are against abortion.

We also need to listen to the Trump and Brexit voters because one reason those votes went the way they did was because of failure by one half to listen to the other which is never a good idea. I don't see much listening and attempts to understand going on at the moment sadly anywhere on line.

We also need to listen to the Trump and Brexit voters because one reason those votes went the way they did was because of failure by one half to listen to the other which is never a good idea. I don't see much listening and attempts to understand going on at the moment sadly anywhere on line.

I see this a lot, and it begs the question; when do they ever listen to us?

They don't have to because they won...

They don't have to because they won...

And there lies the stupidity. Well, they're having to listen to us now.

Are they having to listen?

Oh, I just lurve Leviticus, you can sell your daughter, beat your slaves, if the slave is able to get up in a day or two after the beating that's OK also. If slave dies then you can be charged with murder. And, of course, have sex with slaves.

Are they having to listen?

You can't make anyone listen, but you can bloody well try.

If trying to avoid nasty Christians online I look for the phrase "bible believing", which means a load of unlovable characteristics including homophobia and Young Earth Creationism. You'd imagine that most Christians rated the bible, but the ones who spell it out believe literally. My DF met 2 at a Christian weekend retreat and was shocked to the marrow. But he says he owes them a lot because he came home and immediately read Darwin's On The Origin of Species which he says is a cracking read and armed him to flatten the next YEC he might encounter.

rapists got run over by a volcano