r/RadicalChristianity

The difference between micro-morality and macro-morality is key here. Gandhi definitely bridged that.

I have only recently learned about how western countries under capitalism exploit third world countries so they have to pay them less and I honestly found it horrible. I‘m not really educated on socialist theory or anything, and I disagree with many things Marx and Engels said (“religion being an opium of people”, being the most obvious one, because I am a follower of Christ) and don’t think strict communism would be good for society either, but I obviously dislike the thought of people being exploited because of capitalism. I mean if anyone could explain this to me or has any articles or books to recommend me it would be appreciated.

I have only recently learned about how western countries under capitalism exploit third world countries so they have to pay them less and I honestly found it horrible. I‘m not really educated on socialist theory or anything, and I disagree with many things Marx and Engels said (“religion being an opium of people”, being the most obvious one, because I am a follower of Christ) and don’t think strict communism would be good for society either, but I obviously dislike the thought of people being exploited because of capitalism. I mean if anyone could explain this to me or has any articles or books to recommend me it would be appreciated.

For Michael Passons, who famously shared his story of being ousted from Avalon due to his LGBTQ identity, this recording is more than just a cover; it is a restoration.”For years, I sang these words while hiding who I truly was,” said Passons.
https://youtu.be/z2r1RFcnnB8?si=PYdNNvoRNAbeixeL

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Hello! Im Blu, Im christian and deconstructing from some of this crazy awful cult like "Christianity" If you can call it that. Ive been getting back to things i use to be involved with more, art, music, serving people. Ive been getting into christian anarchist reading more. Its so fascinating! Ive been watching some CA youtubes and listening to some audio of Tolstoy. I like environmental stuff and helping the poor among other things. Been recovering from a tbi(traumatic brain injury)And just im getting to place where i feel i can help others more. I want to learn how to incorporate anarchism into daliy life. Im not new to alot of the subject matter but relearning of about current system struggles.. if that makes sense. Theres alot to unlearn from the cult too but some of the stuff ive read has been so freeing! But on the other hand it can get overwhelming to think about so many battle going on in the world. But a little at a time right?! Any beginner and simple resources or ideas? Im excited to learn more ;)

There just seems to be so much historical and scriptural evidence that Jesus and his earliest followers did not consider him to be God (eg traditional notions of messiah, Jesus saying that the Father was greater, explanations that early Christians saw the resurrected Jesus as an exalted being rather than God incarnate).

Am I completely missing the mark on this? How are we supposed to see Jesus?

1. Roman Catholic: 47.8% (1,290,600,000)

1a. Latin Rite: 47.0% (1,269,000,000)

1b. Eastern Catholic: 0.8% (21,600,000)

2. Protestant & Independent: 40.0% (1,080,000,000)

2a. Historical / Mainline: 16.0% (432,000,000)

2aa. Baptist: 4.0% (108,000,000)

2ab. Anglican: 4.0% (108,000,000)

2aba. Global Anglican Communion (Abuja): 3.3% (89,100,000)

2abb. Canterbury-aligned Communion: 0.7% (18,900,000)

2ac. Reformed / Presbyterian: 3.1% (83,700,000)

2ad. Lutheran: 2.6% (70,200,000)

2ae. Methodist / Wesleyan / Holiness: 2.1% (56,700,000)

2aea. United Methodist Church (UMC): 0.4% (10,800,000)

2aeb. African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME): 0.1% (2,700,000)

2aec. Methodist Church Nigeria: 0.1% (2,700,000)

2aed. Methodist Church of Southern Africa: 0.1% (2,700,000)

2aee. Global Methodist Church (GMC): 0.1% (2,700,000)

2aef. Other Methodist / Wesleyan Bodies(Salvation Army, AME Zion, Korean Methodist, etc.): 1.3% (35,100,000)

2af. Anabaptist: 0.2% (5,400,000)

2afa. Mennonite: 0.1% (2,700,000)

2afb. Other Anabaptist (Amish, Hutterites, Brethren,etc.): 0.1% (2,700,000)

2b. Denominational Pentecostals: 10.6% (283,500,000)

(Note: Strictly excludes Charismatics within parent traditions to avoid double counting.)

2c. Independent / Nondenominational: 11.5% (310,500,000)

2ca. Network / Community Churches: 7.7% (207,900,000)

2cb. African Initiated Churches (AICs): 2.4% (64,800,000)

2cc. House Churches (e.g., China): 1.4% (37,800,000)

2d. Other Traditions: 1.9% (51,300,000)

2da. Seventh-day Adventist: 0.9% (24,300,000)

2db. New Apostolic Church: 0.4% (10,800,000)

2dc. Christian and Missionary Alliance: 0.2% (5,400,000)

2dd. Church of the Nazarene: 0.1% (2,700,000)

2df. Restoration Movement / Churches of Christ: 0.1% (2,700,000)

2dg. Others (Moravians, Quakers, Waldensians,etc.): 0.2% (5,400,000)

3. Orthodox: 10.0% (270,000,000)

3a. Eastern Orthodox: 7.4% (199,800,000)

3aa. Russian Orthodox: 3.5% (94,500,000)

3ab. Romanian Orthodox: 0.6% (16,200,000)

3ac. Greek Orthodox: 0.4% (10,800,000)

3ad. Serbian Orthodox: 0.3% (8,100,000)

3ae. Bulgarian Orthodox: 0.2% (5,400,000)

3af. Georgian Orthodox: 0.1% (2,700,000)

3ag. Patriarchate of Alexandria: 0.1% (2,700,000)

3ah. All other national churches: 2.2% (59,400,000)

3b. Oriental Orthodox: 2.6% (70,200,000)

3ba. Ethiopian Orthodox: 1.7% (45,900,000)

3bb. Coptic Orthodox: 0.5% (13,500,000)

3bc. Other oriental orthdox(Indian Orthodox, Armenian, Syriac): 0.4% (10,800,000)

4. Restorationist & Nontrinitarian: 2.2% (59,400,000)

4a. Oneness Pentecostal: 0.9% (24,300,000)

4b. Latter-day Saints (Mormon): 0.7% (18,900,000)

4c. Jehovah’s Witnesses: 0.4% (10,800,000)

4d. Iglesia ni Cristo: 0.1% (2,700,000)

4e. Others (Unitarians, Christadelphians, Shakers, etc.): 0.1% (2,700,000)

Was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on Spanish translations that I could track down? I’ve been learning Spanish for a few months now and I’m still very much a beginner but thought it would be a fun way to learn.

My personal favorites in English are the NRSVUE for accuracy, the wide variety of deuterocanonical texts and inclusive language, the KJV because the language is beautiful and poetic and the Douay-Rheims for much the same reason as the KJV but also for being kind of an interesting historical text in its own right (and the occasional interesting wording choices like supersubstanial bread instead of daily bread)

Would prefer Latin America Spanish over Castilian and I’d prefer a Catholic Bible if possible - also I’m very interested in learning more about liberation theology. I saw that the La Biblia Latinoamérica originally had a lot of notes and commentary that were seen as too socialist and borderline Marxist (no such thing as too much of that imo but I guess it made some powerful people mad). I am very interested in checking that out but I’m not sure if I can track one down that is the right edition and the language barrier currently makes it hard, also I’m a bit worried it would be too far beyond my level to use as study material at this point.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

I've known this woman almost my entire life. If I didn't come visit her, she'd be taken advantage of and lost in delusion. She is convinced her neighbors are using witchcraft against her and are breaking into her tiny apartment and are tormenting her cats, robbing her, and poisoning her. Being around her triggers my paranoid thinking and my own religious delusions. I do not want to abandon her.

Can I please get prayers that she gains clarity and peace, and that I can continue to minister to her without incident?

I’m finally getting around to reading writers like Lenin and Mao. While this may not seem faith-related, I think there's a theory of change embedded within our society which is inherently liberal and doesn't have much interest in exploring larger, systemic power relations. But these relations impact our internal states, our relationships, and so on. If a landlord can evict you just because, this causes anxiety and maybe even PTSD in the long run. If you and a small group try your best to change power relations and fail, and fail again, you build a sense of hopelessness - now we have some symptoms of depression. And so on.

Ff Marx is correct to say that there is a dictatorship of capital within liberal democracies such as ours, this must have a trickle down effect on our collective mental health. Ultimately, I think that means within dictatorships of capital, our identities are shaped into being dependent upon 'what we do' as wage laborers as secondary to our more core, authentic, genuine selves which relate to creativity and our relationships to nature and our communities; we collectively have a more external locus of control when it comes to things like employment and housing -- and so on.

In theory, a dictatorship of the proletariat, which isn't literally a dictatorship I think it's more a metaphor, would hopefully create a network of democratic, collaborative, more equal relationships within neighborhoods and workplaces, and presumably improve mental health over all. Precisely what this looks like and how to get there is really the debate between, say, anarchists and communists, with regard to the more bottom-up lots and lots of unions and cooperatives idea (?) and the vanguardist 'take over the state by force' idea. I think that's the difference between anarchists and communists, somewhat, although overly simplified.

It's also difficult to conceptualize this grand idea because the examples we typically look at, such as the USSR and China, were up against global capital launching assaults on them for decades. Cuba was sanctioned and the CIA sent people in to assassinate people; Vietnam had napalm thrown all over its people living in jungles and on farms; the Korean war was heavily reliant on chemical weapons. So in every attempt where people, mostly third world people of color, tried to move toward this 'stateless, classless' ideal of communism, US/imperialist forces used extreme, extreme militaristic or economic violence to stop them.

The story was always that we must stop communism because it's so violent, but this was coming from, and is still coming from, the largest most brutal militaristic force in history, and on the planet. Like, it's perfectly fine for the US to send Marines in to shoot and kill and spray chemicals that burns off your skin, because communists are trying some revolutionary experiments to set up a more democratically run economic system that works for the vast majority.

Lenin talked about how imperialism is the most advanced form of capitalism in that it finds a way to use a global mechanism of suppression against any anti-capitalist project, and he didn't even live to see how eerily this played out over the 20th century. He also wrote about the need for an internationalist approach to achieve statelessness and classlessness, meaning if you "achieved communism" in only one or two or three countries, the dictatorship of capital would use its money/military/hegemonic powers to crush those smaller efforts. This also turned out to be completely true. I'm not familiar enough with Mao yet to see what he had to say about all this but at this point I'm beginning to assume he probably was really smart, his writings were probably at least somewhat on point, and there's a good reason we never learned what he and other Marxist thinkers wrote about in public school.

What I'm trying to say is that it's very difficult to know if communism is better for mental health and wellbeing, because the only examples we have, have been short lived and were brutally crushed by capitalism (mainly the US and its allies). On a systemic level it's pretty obvious to me at this point that capitalism - a dictatorship of profit- over- people - is built to be against good mental health. Mental health is centrally about connectivity; you are on good terms with and trust and can mutually rely on your family, neighbors, friends. There are basic, common interests among you and the rest of the people, and you all work to some degree toward common goals.

Under capitalism, since individuals are reduced as much as possible to units of capital accumulation -- how much value can you move upward into the pockets of owners and shareholders? -- there's inevitable competition \\\*\\\*\\\*against\\\*\\\*\\\* everyone else. You may become a "collective" as a couple, or a family, or you can even incorporate as a nonprofit and get a handful of people who wish to "do good" though that. But each of these units are still having to compete in the system of capital accumulation. Everyone is careful under this dictatorship as to not get fired or evicted, to not give ammunition to neighbors or coworkers, to let anyone know how you're trying or planning to climb the ladder above them, or against them, because they can't know your methods, and not everyone can win. It's an antisocial game and the more others lose, the more you may be able to win.

This, in every imaginable way, is bad for mental health. And so I wish we could conceptualize the optimal scenario of connectivity, freedom, cooperation, unity among the people. I'm starting to think that the communist thinkers and revolutionaries over the last century likely had these concepts pretty well thought out, but because they challenged capitalism with such seriousness to the point of actually threatening the capitalist order, almost none of us have ever read or even thought of reading their works. And so most of us just associate the word communism with genocide, murder, prisons, famines, propaganda/deceipt, power-over, control-over, miitaryism, violence. And we therefore completely forget, very conveniently that the capitalist US state has been actively engaging in every single one of these terrible practices against its own people, and billions of others on a global scale, for our entire lifetimes.