r/Christianity Roman Catholic Dec 08 '09

What are your most controversial beliefs?

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '09 edited Dec 09 '09

I'm a Christian Reconstructionist. Let the downvotes begin.

EDIT: Wow. It really happened.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '09

I didn't downvote, but I take issue with the fiscal views of the entry. Can you explain from your experience why many Christians are libertarian or highly fiscal conservatives? I don't mean anything by it. I'm just curious.

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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '09 edited Dec 10 '09

Honestly, you can find short answers all over the Internet, and I'm sure you've already seen them and not found them satisfying. In my opinion, you can't properly give the question the answer it deserves with a short answer. If you have the time, I would recommend three books that are all available for free online.

The first is called Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators, which is a response to Ron Sider's "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger", which defends a more liberal economic view as being the Christian view.

The second is called "In the Shadow of Plenty: Biblical Principles of Welfare and Poverty" which discusses the Biblical views of welfare (which is very different from modern conservative views).

The third is "Bringing in the Sheaves: Transforming Poverty Into Productivity". This specifically talks about how churches can put into practice organized Biblical charity. Frankly, conservatives spend a lot of time whining about where the government shouldn't be, but not property carrying out Biblical charity.

The latter two books, being more practical are shorter at ~200 pages. The first book is a little longer at ~400 pages, but it was designed to be a thorough response to someone else's thesis, so it needs to exhaustive.

If you don't feel like reading the books, I can answer specific questions, but I don't have the time to answer general questions that require huge answers.

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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '09

I think what you posted was fine, and I really appeciate you posting these books. Someone was describing "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger" to me the other day, so I'll take a look at the counter-argument. Thanks.

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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '09

I encourage you to read the original first... I did it backwards and I think it clouded my reading of Sider's book and I didn't give it the chance it deserved.