I just seen the part where I was talking about how polititians are cultivating identity politics and division. Can you ellaborate.
Not really, something to do with ratifying the US Constitution but not familar with the details.
In sum, James Madison proposed that the structure of the politic in the U.S.A. be such that each group in society and its respective interests not be allowed to overshadow and dominate those of any other group and their interests. And it's been [more or less] that way ever since.................
Lol I know but I am also talking to the unconverted, and I don't mean Christianity. There are many who don't realise this. As I think it was Megan Kelly who said the only way to stop the woke ideology is to educate people on exactly what it entails, how it developed within the in academia and mainstream society.
The only way to "stop" Woke Ideology is to understand it and parse its legitimate concerns out from any questionable ideology that those who invoke it may have. If Christians persist in utterly dismissing it wholesale without doing the deeper, painstaking philosophical work of analyzing what's actually being said, and by whom, then all they'll do is cause further Proletariat forms of backlash among Woke individuals.
Do you understand what I'm saying? .... I mean, there's a reason I have a couple of Marxist theorists on my list of personal influences. Not that I'm a Marxist myself by any means, but that some of the theoretical and structural social gripes of someone like Pierre Bourdieu are relevant to the class and group conflicts that are seen at various levels of society. Christians all too often dismiss this with a mere wave of the hand----kind of like how they used to do with the issue of slavery not so many centuries ago.
I agree, its been one form of ideology over another reacting to the wrongs each does which has gradually become more polarised now to the point of violence. But people are also throwing the baby out with the bath water in reacting and rejecting those truths the west was built on despite the wrong they did in exploiting others. Just like people reject the Christianity due to the percieved wrongs the church did.
Throwing the baby out with the bath-water has been going on since well before Marx ever came along. It's a part of the sloppy fallout from certain aspects of both the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.
That is why I say we need to temper any ideological position with the facts and lived reality. It is the Christian truths that align with reality that need to be recognised. They don't just stand because they were Christian beliefs but also universal truths and facts of how we live and experience the world.
Not everything in the Bible aligns with "lived reality," nor does it even address a lot of what now is encountered in today's "lived reality."
And your notion as to "universal truths and facts" are always open to interpretation, and this is one small reason why I parse out the idea of "Reality" from "truth claims" about that Reality.
For example though Colonisers and the church may have dispossesed people which is wrong they also brought truths about humanity, where some were practicing barbaric beliefs and behaviours. Or brough better standards of health and education that they benefit from today.
You mean, the colonizers brought truths about germ warfare to the Americas when they gave blankets to the native peoples?
Still, I get what you're saying. Somewhere in the wash is the historical Jesus of Nazareth, waiting to be properly represented to those who either have never heard of him or have been misinformed about Him.
I agree and I don't intend to life the US up as a perfect nation that represented everyone. Christianity spread differently throughout the west. But it was that freedom within the west that allowed this to happen. Its the same freedom that has eventually allowed society to move away from Christianity. This is not found in most other cultures.
Yes. Enlightenment 'freedom' has been a double-edged sword, hasn't it?
Many Islander nations became Christian and lived a more spiritual belief which has permeated into the west and they are a good expression of Christianity in that they live close to Christs teachings. That was the result of the gospel being taken to other lands.
I am not really talking about western Christian culture and the growth of the church from the time of Christ as any particular national expression. But the Christian principles and Truths that were allowed to flourish within western culture from the time of Christ. That is not really a individual culture but the true church of Christ that happens to align most with western culture. But its reality can be seen anywhere in the world and doesn't have any particular culture or political idea attached.
The problem with this description is that Modern Western Culture is the outcome of all that has cumulatively transpired in plural conflicts and encounters between various people groups and nations from about 1500 to about 1900, roughly speaking. The "true Gospel message"---whatever that truly is----- was awash in a cacophony of confusion during that time. We're lucky to still have Christianity with us today, and of course, you and I can surmise through various allusions to biblical writings as to why it still is among us today.
Thats an interesting way to put it. Perhaps that is done with the spirit of Christ. If Christ is Truth then those truths must be known, we can known them and use them to live by. But those same truths are becoming more hated in the west.
True.