I don’t claim to be a Bible scholar. I’m an atheist nowadays. But here’s what I do claim:
I grew up Blue Collar. We never worried about food or clothes, but we had little discretionary income. So when I was 9 years old, my brother and I each memorized 100 Bible verses to earn our way to summer camp. We did it again the next year. And I did it again at 11 to earn a Christian bookstore gift certificate.
(Please take a moment, imagine yourself at that age, standing in front of a group of church elders, reciting 100 Bible verses from memory.)
There was some overlap, mainly what Evangelicals call “The Romans Road,” centered on “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:23); And “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (10:9).
That overlap aside, all told I memorized roughly 250 different verses from ages 9-11. And started reading them in context. By age 18 I’d read the entire Bible, most of the New Testament several times over. In my early 20’s I spent an hour every morning in what Evangelicals call their “prayer closet,” alone with the Bible, a Strong’s Concordance, and God.
I read in Mark 12:28-31, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” And this from 1 Thessalonians 5:22, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”
These are examples from a Bible filled with calls to righteousness, love for all people, kindness, and mercy. Especially from what Jesus called “my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.”
These are the guideposts by which I was taught to measure Christianity.
As an atheist, I don’t care whether people are Christian or some other faith. Politically, I can accept the argument that God ordained Donald Trump to be President. For “hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Romans 9:22, which would also mean God made me to be an atheist Democrat).
But to those who cheer when Donald Trump insults or mocks his opponents, or say “Boys will be boys” to his sexual escapades, or call misogyny “locker room talk,” or ask him to autograph your Bible, please don’t bullshit yourself and others by calling yourself a Christian. RTFM