re: #211 William Lewis

Calvinism as filtered through John Knox. Calvin actually disliked the implications of his ideas and downplayed them as a result. It is arguable he spent much of his life trying to argue his way out of believing in them. The worse one was Knox who took Calvin’s predestination and made it the core of Scottish Presbyterianism while twisting it fully into the modern idea that Only X will be Saved and you can know who they are because they’re the rich and powerful. That heresy (for lack of a better word) is what is destroying Christianity in America as more and more people see it for the BS that it is.

Didn’t know that about Calvin and Knox. Even though, I’m no longer religious, I can definitely say the Catholic tradition has played a role perhaps indirectly in shaping me for who I am. You’ve talked about Coach Lombardi before, he practiced a similar kind of Catholicism that my Dad’s parents did- a love and tolerance for all regardless of their differences and a deep desire to see helping humanity as the primary goal rather than saving souls.