In the first day of class we discussed Mitt Romney's religion. He is Mormon. He is the first of his religion to reach the position of presidential candidate. He has kept rather silent about his religion in recent months due to America's perception of Mormonism. A relatively new religion, Mormonism does not have a foundational influence in America the way other religions do. Because of this, many people have various negative views and uncertainties about Mormon believers. Romney could be making a very good call in not discussing his Mormonism because it could sway voters against him. Dr. J referenced a poll in which people said they ranked atheists' trustworthiness only above that of pedophiles. This means in a list of various attributes, the majority of Americans categorize atheists in a similar way to pedophiles- who as we know from yesterday's discussion, most people view in a very heinous way. What does trustworthy mean? For someone to trust another person based on attributes, it means they are generalizing what sort of people can be found reliable, truthful, or worthy of confidence. A trustworthy person is a person with virtues one would value. When choosing a presidential candidate, it makes sense to look for someone you would find trustworthy.
These associations do not end at the voting booth. When discussing Martin Luther, we discussed his definition of a faithful person or a Christian. Based on the conversations we had in class, I would observe that when most people think of Christians, they think of the good works those Christians do as a consequence of their faith. This is not an unfair association; churches are constantly helping raise money for charities, hosting group volunteer sessions, etc. Each of these actions would be defined as a good work by most people. He argues, however, that good works can do nothing for one's faith because nothing can be done that 'wins' forgiveness. As Dr. J mentioned, this theory sounds good until we have to conflate our preconceived ideas of a Christian person and Luther's definition. Using his definition, there are no 'good' Christians. There are those who are Christian and those who are not, and separately there are those who are good people and those who are not.
The problem with the association of a good person and a Christian is that people take correlations and turn them into assumptions. People would rather vote for a Christian than an atheist because they believe, based on previous notions, that the Christian will be a good person. The very fact that so many people kept trying to re-define a 'good Christian' and a 'bad Christian' proves that most people believe that the defining quality of being a Christian is synonymous with 'good person'.
Do you all think Luther's definition is correct? Do any of you think Christian is synonymous with good person?
I do not think there is a thing such as a good/bad Christian. Luther would say a Christian is a person who has faith and that alone is what defines a Christian. It’s either you are or you aren’t. I do agree that there is a connotation with being a Christian and being a good person. Almost always someone would choose to ask a Christian for advice or anything that involves trust, good judgment, or something similar over someone with no faith. This is because we as a society expect Christians to hold themselves to a higher standard because they believe that they are judged for their actions. This association doesn’t always hold true as we saw in our pedophilic priest example in Thursday’s class. The priest would be a Christian by definition because he believes in God, but (in my eyes) he isn’t a good person. So, for me, we should ask is that particular Christian a good/bad person instead of is that a good or bad Christian. That seems like something strange to ask because by default you would think that a Christian is by nature a good person, but by Luther’s definition of a Christian that doesn’t necessarily have to be so.
ReplyDeleteCheck out this ABC article on Dr. J's reference. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/12/14/religious-believers-dont-trust-atheists-says-new-study/
ReplyDeleteI have not been able to find the actual study release itself, but there are plenty of articles such as this one about the matter. Atheists are frequently referenced as the least trusted. Notice also the line that reads- "Atheists also tend to trust religious people more than they trust other atheists" in the ABC article. It seems that the public opinion truly does lean towards Christianity as a stipulation of goodness.
I agree that people probably vote for Christians because they believe a Christian is normally a good person, and thus are willing to trust them because of their ideals. But I think many times in the modern world people use the term Christian in order to make them appear to be a better person. Sometimes I just hear people citing bible verses attempting to prove their Christian faith and that they are morally sound, but in reality I think they are not moral people. A politician saying he is a Christian at this point for me makes that politician no different from any of his colleagues, and has caused me to question my past judgements on politicians.
ReplyDeleteBefore this class I believed that it was possible to be either a good Christian or a bad Christian. Although I had not put much thought into it, I assumed that a good Christian had fad faith and did good works while a bad christian did not have faith, sinned regularly without repentance, and did not do good works. However, after our discussion I agree that there is a difference between how you act as a person and how you are as a Christian. I believe that as long as a person has faith and truly believes in God for the benefit of him or herself then they are a Christian even if they are not morally sound. Although maybe not as drastic, I believe there are many other cases of people with faith doing awful things simply because they do not have a moral code. I do not think that this takes away from their Christianity, it takes away from how people view them as a person.
ReplyDeleteAgreeable: people do tend to gravitate towards people that they admire and who are Christian. However, I kind of think that in some way it is kind of sad that people put so much faith in someone just because they are labeled as being a christian. I don't necessarily agree with or identify with atheists, who do not believe in God. But, I don't think that just because someone is a christian, they do not do bad things. Why should we trust someone who is a christian more than someone who is an atheist? There are plenty of politicians who get into positions of power and unrighteous things behind the public's back. So even though I don't agree with atheism, I don't think that an atheist would necessarily do more wrong than a person who is a christian.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that people do associate good deeds with Christians. People do positive deeds as a result of their faith. I don't necessarily know if I agree that there are no "good" Christians. I don't know. I think that there are genuine people who perform good deeds and have faith. They do so out of the goodness within their hearts. These people don't seek to be justified in everything that they do. I think they recognize that as humans, we are imperfect. Thus, they realize that their is some "badness" within us. The fact that they recognize that humans are incapable of being without sin is what makes them good in my opinion. I just think that faith guides their actions no matter if they are good or bad.
I believe that someone could be a good person regardless of their religious views. Whether or not that means they can reach "salvation," under whatever context that may be, is beside the point. There are too many religions and beliefs in existence to declare one as the Only means by which the soul can be free. I think the more important task is to determine that there is something to believe, without necessarily knowing what that is. I think if the individual is working towards goodness, they can believe what gives them security.
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