The whole Jesus as sacrifice for our sins thing has never worked for me, it just doesn't make sense to me.
The lesson above, in particular, seems to be as moral as a wife-beater. The abuser says she deserves it, but his loving nature is what prevents him from beating her most of the time, even though she really deserves it.
Even if you take the metaphor to mean you are always shielded, then it is at least emotional abuse. "You deserve death, but in my graciousness I'm not going to kill you right now, as long as you do everything I tell you to do".
A lot of Christian dogma about God appears to be highly disfunctional from the outside. I mean, you could write a very thick scholarly tome on how codependent the Church is.
no subject
The lesson above, in particular, seems to be as moral as a wife-beater. The abuser says she deserves it, but his loving nature is what prevents him from beating her most of the time, even though she really deserves it.
Even if you take the metaphor to mean you are always shielded, then it is at least emotional abuse. "You deserve death, but in my graciousness I'm not going to kill you right now, as long as you do everything I tell you to do".
A lot of Christian dogma about God appears to be highly disfunctional from the outside. I mean, you could write a very thick scholarly tome on how codependent the Church is.