Christianity is a spectrum

Everything is binary, good or bad, strict rules, harsh judgement. Few are actual fundamentalists though, evangelicals talk big and can sound like them. Painting all Christians as this type is a popular attack of atheists and the left. This does border on the main body of Christianity however because a good portion of those absolutist views are statistically correlated to better success (see Prager for child success and intact family stats) and dangers that exist (see STD transmission rates for various acts). Jordan Peterson also touches on some of these points as they help set boundaries in social interaction and promote hierarchies of competence.

This is the other end of the spectrum, accept everyone, hold no values, tolerate everything, play on emotions and give past the point of self harm. A popular projection to attack from atheists and the far right on the basis of feels over reality. Evangelicals like to play up this aspect to get converts from the left. Jordan Peterson gets deeply into this end via the psychology and imagery of biblical narrative.

The main body of Christianity is a blending of these two extremes, from Buddhism there’s conditional tolerance and acceptance, inquiry within and without and a weighing of possible outcomes, fairness, etc. From stoicism there’s a building of competency based hierarchical structure and a push for personal accountability and self improvement. This is why Christians seem wishy washy on issues, they aren’t extremists or absolutists for the most part. Issues are weighed based on risk/reward, benefit/harm.

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