Marcus wrote:I assume you mean my statement that "devout Christian sociopath" is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, an impossibility? Revise it? Not at all . . why would I?
I have no way of knowing what was in the hearts of the Inquisitors and no way of judging the morals and ethics of past ages. What have such things to do with sociopathy? They were what they were in terms of the times in which they lived:
"New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth; . ."
Marcus, I thought that one of the hallowed advantages of being a Christian was the belief in the existence of an immutable divinely ordained set of morals and ethics, more durable and unchanging than even Pharaoh Akhenaten's granite coffin. My knowledge of Christianity is a bit hazy, admittedly, but I thought there were some stone slabs or something with things like "Killing people is BAD" written on them, weren't there? How can you possibly say that you have "no way of judging the morals and ethics of past ages" especially since we're talking about fellow Christians?
Do your fundamental Truths change a lot that way?
We all know what a sociopath is—a person with no social conscience—and such a condition is an impossibility for a devout
Christian* individual.
- *You understand that I am differentiating between a nominal Christian and a genuine Christian:
"A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code." —St. Paul
Yes, I understand perfectly, and I gave you literal examples of devout people, so devout that they were sanctified and are revered many centuries later, who advocated the killing of people on the basis of what they thought. Was Martin Luther not a devout Christian? He surely was. Yet he wrote the infamous "Von den Juden und ihren Lügen"
First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. ...
Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. ...
Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb.
Luther's Works, Volume 47: The Christian in Society IV (Fortress Press, 1971)
So, either advocating something close to genocide is not a marker of sociopathy, or Church Fathers like Luther were not devout enough. Which is it?