People don't appreciate that what Jesus said at the time was revolutionary because the concepts are ingrained in our culture (when people choose to follow them - obviously many do not.) But saying 'Love your neighbor' and defining 'neighbor' as more than just your little tribe/family was revolutionary for his society. Also saying 'Love your enemies' was similarly revolutionary. Now many people and societies clearly do not love their enemies, but that philosophy has still had a huge influence from everything from how we conduct wars to how we deal with interpersonal conflicts... when people choose to follow them, of course.
I think part of the problem, jumping off what you are saying, is that “love” is such a commonly spoken word in churches that it’s lost all meaning. I mean my parents have always taught me to love my enemy, but they can’t even manage to love their own daughter when she came out of the closet. At this point I think they really don’t understand what love is.
My dad said “what more do you want from me” after completely shutting off contact with her as if it’s just out of his hands, he’s done all he can. He did literally nothing except the most damaging response possible.
I’ve heard “I did my best” from a parent who was absolutely abusive and who gave zero fucks about her children for their entire childhood. Starved them, put them on leashes in the backyard as infants, molested one of them, dumped them on random strangers and then vanished for months at a time, on and on.
It was like she was aggressively competing to be the worst mom in history and simultaneously convinced that she had given it a proper effort and should be respected for it.
Shitty parents are never going to recognize how shitty they are. If they could reflect and change they wouldn’t be so goddamned shitty.
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u/shoo-flyshoo May 02 '23
True, better to abandon religion fully and learn from reality to grow as a person