They think, “Jesus was cool. I like him, and I’m gonna try to be like him.” Kind of like their guiding light is what would Jesus do? But there isn’t a focus on identification, recruiting others, judging others based on their religion, fear of God, fear of punishment for sinning, respect for clergy as an authority, rituals, worship, etc. Basically, just the example of Jesus’ life.

inb4: Christian lol!! got em!

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    12 days ago

    Like uh… normal? Jesus, as described, seems like a pretty chill dude. It’s christianity that gets into the crazy shit.

      • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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        12 days ago

        Yeah. There’s some good stuff there, like 8:32*, but it’s full of so much crap** that… urgh.

        *“And you’ll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

        **Give the whole chapter 5 a check, specially 5:14; crippling people is apparently their god’s punishment for sinning. Or 3:36, someone gets really pissy if you don’t believe him!

        • dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          12 days ago

          I was thinking John 6 is pretty nuts tbh. There are a lot of problems with Christ, like how quiet and accepting he seemed about slavery, or how fragile he is about his ego and being respected as God, the central message of Christ is about his divinity, not about moral teachings. He threatened anyone who disagreed with his divinity with eternal damnation and so on. Just not the kind of person you would think of as a “chill dude”, rather the description “crazy” comes to mind when I read the book of John especially.

          • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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            12 days ago

            His moral teachings are irrelevant. It’s like how when cops volunteer to do a charity car wash. Moral behaviour doesn’t get you everlasting life.

            • dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              12 days ago

              yeah, at least not according to him; but his moral teachings got a lot of people in the door and interested in following him, and the whole “faith without works is dead” thing (book of James is pretty lit tbh)

              • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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                11 days ago

                People who model their lives after the teachings of Jesus are pretty rare. I think it is more psychologically valuable because Christians are able to psychologically transfer the moral qualities of Jesus to themselves. Jesus is “good” in ways that most Christians today don’t even give a shit about, but it gives him moral character, and so it allows Christians to feel like they have moral character as well.

                In fact, I was going to link to the article about “moral licensing” as though I actually knew what I was talking about (I don’t) and I see there is a section about exactly this idea, where people see themselves as having the moral qualities of others in their in-group:

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-licensing#Group_membership

                So in a way, the stories about Jesus allow Christianity to fill an important spiritual role in people’s lives: assuring them that they are good people. But it’s tricking them, and Jesus has to be a model of good morality for this trick to work.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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        12 days ago

        Nah, I was brought to church as a kid but I haven’t really read the Bible closely. Honestly, I’m just going off a general read of “dude who helps people in need and isn’t an ass”.

        • dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          12 days ago

          I recommend you read the book of John!

          I wrote a longer response to Kolanaki if you want to read that as well, sorta summarizes what I think are some of the relevant bits as to why Christ isn’t such a great role model.

  • EndOfLine@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    There is a lot of good messaging in the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, etc. You don’t need to be religious to appreciate that. Just like how somebody who appreciates in the mission and words of The Amazing Randi does not need a special label.

    The labels start to come into play when discussing your belief or disbelief in a god or gods.

  • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    My Grandmother always called this sort of thing being a “red letter Christian”. Basically like you take a highlighter to everything Jesus specifically did or said and discard the rest.

    My Mom’s family all followed this principle since like the 70’s thus saving my trans ass from any hint of intergenerationally inflicted religious trauma so I am a fan. My 92 year old great uncle went to bat to fight for non-binary gender accommodations in his seniors home because one of his nurses is an enby who was getting a raw deal from a number of their paitents. Honestly, though I don’t think the Christian God is what he says he is, his kid seems weird but as a rules for life kinda thing the results seem good. .

  • Zikeji@programming.dev
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    12 days ago

    Sounds like you’re describing that you view how he is depicted as a good role model. I think the best way to describe it would just be “I’m atheist/agnostic/etc but view Jesus as a good role model” or something to that effect.

    Or just lean into chaos and go with “Jesus is my role model” with no elaboration and let people make of it what they will.

  • mjsaber@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    12 days ago

    I use the term Atheistic Christian, which essentially means I believe in a lot of the teachings of Jesus, but I don’t believe he was any kind of divinity.

    • vzq@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      Not to be confused with “secular Christian”, which in popular parlance means “I hang around church for the community but I’m not spiritual”.

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    12 days ago

    Do you need to be an -ian? Like, if you like the teachings of Ghandi, or Socrates, or Marcus Aurelius, you don’t have to call yourself a Ghandian, or a Socratian, or an Aurelian. You just agree with their teachings.

    I feel like you’re just making a dig on Christians, and it’s not like a lot of them don’t deserve it, but what you’re talking about isn’t a religion. You don’t need an -ian to like a philosophy.

  • vxx@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    I met a group that called themselves ‘Jesus Freaks’, but they were just annoying trying to indocrinate people on music festivals.

      • vxx@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Ha, they weren’t a band though, just people that walked the crowd trying to convince people of jesus.

        I was a ruthless teenager questioning their beliefs until they got pulled away from me by a higher up.

        They somehow couldn’t answer why I would need jesus, when I’m already doing all the things they claim they only do because they found jesus.

        Today I’m different and don’t question people’s believes as long as they don’t start harming others in the name of their god.