šš» https://x.com/SandraXFreedom/status/2044056142247075873
šš» https://nitter.net/SandraXFreedom/status/2044056142247075873
(Copypasta follows.)
Excellent article!!āŖļø
Misunderstandings Have Created Weak Catholic Men
By Black Monk Rosaries on FaceBook
Two common modern biblical misreadings have done real damage to Catholic men: first, the lazy notion that āturn the other cheekā means be a doormat; and second, the sloppy translation of Exodus 20:13 as āThou shalt not kill,ā which muddies the actual command: You shall not murder. And yes, those errors have consequences. They do not produce saints. They produce spinelessness dressed up as piety.
The Cheek Slap in Jesusā Day
In Jesusā world, a slap on the cheek was not āviolenceā the way we use the word today. It was public humiliation, a dominance move. Jesus gets even more specific. A strike on the right cheek implies a backhand. That was not just rude. It was the kind of insult that could carry a doubled fine because it was considered a severe public assault on dignity.
So what does Jesus say to do?
Not to stand there and take it forever.
He says to turn the other cheek.
That move is not submission. It is defiance with restraint. Turning the left cheek refuses the shaming script. It forces the aggressor to choose: either stop, or escalate in a way that treats the other person not as a lesser, but as an equal. A palm strike is not how you smack a subordinate. It is how you strike someone you are willing to recognize as a peer.
In plain terms, you do not cower. You deny them the power to degrade you. Your honor is not granted by the bully. It comes from somewhere higher, and you act like it. Yet Christians have managed to misread this into a spirituality of total passivity, as if holiness means quietly absorbing abuse, never resisting wrongdoing, never confronting evil, and never defending the innocent. That is not meekness. That is moral paralysis, and it has been sold to men as virtue for far too long. But that reading does not fit the Jewish moral universe Jesus spoke within. Judaism teaches that preserving life, pikuach nefesh, is a supreme duty, and stopping harm is an obligation. āTurn the other cheekā is about insult and domination tactics. It teaches dignity, self-control, and refusal to retaliate ā not submission to actual violence.
Exodus 20:13: The Hebrew Did Not Stutter
Exodus 20:13 says: ×Ö¹× ×ŖÖ“Ö¼×ØְצÖø× (Lo tirtsach) ā You shall not murder.
The verb ×ØÖø×¦Ö·× (ratsach) is not a blanket ban on all killing. It condemns killing marked by malice, treachery, and injustice the shedding of innocent blood. It is a command to uphold the sanctity of life, not to surrender it through cowardice or confusion. If āThou shalt not killā meant all killing without exception, then how did the Hebrews fight wars? How did Israel defend itself? How did David fight Goliath? The Old Testament is filled with warfare, commanded at times by God Himself. Either Scripture contradicts itself, or the commandment has been misunderstood. The Hebrew did not stutter. The prohibition is against murder not against justice, not against defense, not against protecting the innocent.
Just War: Not Dogma, a Moral Framework
Here is where modern minds get sloppy again. Catholics hear āJust Warā and assume it is either a triumphant permission slip or a concept that is automatically un-Christian. It is neither. Just War is not a doctrine you ābelieveā like the Trinity, and it is not dogma you recite like a creed. It is a moral framework a set of guardrails meant to help fallen human beings navigate a fallen world. It exists because real life is not a childrenās book where every villain twirls a mustache and every hero wins without blood.
The world is not simple. It is not clean. It is messy. Sometimes the choices are not good versus evil, but evil versus worse evil. In that kind of world, refusing to resist aggression is not holiness. It can be complicity. If evil men invade, slaughter, rape, and burn, you do not fix that with slogans. You stop it. If stopping it requires force, even lethal force, then the moral responsibility is not to wring your hands. It is to protect the innocent.
Defending your country, your family, and your people can be justified, even if it means going to war. Not because war is good, but because allowing murder and tyranny to roam free is worse. Just War thinking, at its best, is the Church insisting that if you must fight, you must fight justly with discipline, with limits, and with moral clarity. It is the refusal to become what you are fighting.
The Correction Catholic Men Need
Let us say it plainly. Wimpy Catholicism is not Catholicism. It is a modern wimp wearing a crucifix. Men have been taught that being nice is holiness, that confrontation is unchristian, that strength is suspicious, and that the only safe virtue is softness. That is not the tradition. It is not Scripture. It is not the saints.
The faith that built cathedrals, founded hospitals, converted nations, and produced martyrs was not powered by men afraid of conflict. It was powered by men who feared God more than they feared discomfort, and who knew that love sometimes looks like a shield, not a slogan.
So yes, the passive misreadings need to be corrected. Not to make men cruel, but to make them clear. Not to make men violent, but to make them capable. Not to make men arrogant, but to make them steady. Because the world does not need more Catholics trained to flinch. It needs Catholics who can stand between evil and the innocent and say, without apology: Not here. Not today. Not while I still have breath.
So in short. Donāt answer every juvenile insult and slight with Violence. But donāt be afraid to kick ass and take names should it escalate. Avoid putting yourself in a situation where you might be forced into taking a life unnecessarily. But be ready to stack bodies like cord wood if it escalates to that point.
Essentially rehashing the age old advice of donāt be a harmless man. Be a Peaceful Man. IE be capable of Great Violence. But choose to be peaceful.
What happened to the Catholic Church is in part something that happened to most Christian Denominations to varying degrees as Religiousity declined. It adopted in whole or in part Enlightenment era politics and social causes as defining features. In an attempt to rebrand and become more appealing to the increasingly secular populace. Which only furthered the problems they were trying to address.
Good summary.
They went away from the gospel and kept adding layer upon layer
I think this can extend to all Christians in general. Im 31 with a family now, but growing up Christians really just felt like walking doormats for the rest of the world, and I grew up in the church. Turn the other cheek just felt like a cheap cop off to let wrong doers do wrong to you without consequence, and people wonder why non Christians call the 'old testament God' violent. They dont understand the context for any of it. They just see "thou shalt not kill" and then a few chapters later a whole war waged on an entire region that comes with total annihilation of city's and people. Like thats pretty jarring if all you've heard about is the fee fee good tingles you get when they talk about how nice Jesus is.... there's more to it than that, and now we have Christian men that can hardly throw a punch, and yet young David had killed wild animals and slayed a giant in the Name of his Lord, our Lord! Jesus is a warrior! The patriarchs were men made of steel, refined in the fires and honed to an edge by The Almighty. We used to be made of sterner stuff and i would like for us men to get back to that. Peace be with you, and im glad someone else sees what I see.
Correct.
That IS NOT just a Catholic problem. All branches of the church (though not all specific churches) teach that same thing. Learning and overcoming that teaching was not necessarily fun, either.
Hereās a good question, u/penisse - how did all branches of Christianity come to misinterpret both of those two commandments in the same wrong way?
Mine nose doth smell a conspiracy of The Adversary.
Iām glad to see this post, by the way, because I didnāt know that this false doctrine was prevalent in the Catholic Church as well.
Exactly, this aināt just a Catholic problem. I myself have fell victim to this ānicenessā before. But the words ālukewarmā are ringing true into my ears. This post has amazing timing for me. Only a few years saved and am still growing. Have a voice like a lion and learned recently Iām being measured up as something a Christian isnāt. A doormat. Perfectly said. Great post penn. šā¤ļø
I really believe the "niceness" has been pushed hard into all of Christianity. Especially any church (most mega churches) that uses the Schofield Bible (commissioned by rothschilds). The same Bible could probably be linked to why "Israel is our greatest ally" came from since it is definitely modified to up-play Israel's importance in current day.
Naw I didnāt get it from the Bible readings. Itās like I just adopted it. I didnāt always do this of course. I fought against everything before. Enough where I was exhausted even. After being saved I learned to let go. Lay it at the foot of the cross. So I think to be changed, I needed to stop fighting or standing up to so much. Problem is, I feel Iāve been way to passive and not using Godās word to speak for itself. Leave āmeā out of it. And thatās been hard to do. So Iāve been docile. But I need to step it back up but this time remember, be a servant to others. As Jesus was. Jesus helped everyone. Not in an angry way, but firm and truthful. Iāve got to learn to let His words speak for me, and the best way to do that is learn scripture better. So, because i talk so much, instead of ramblings, wait for the heavyweight of Godās word and the teachings of Jesus to do the heavy lifting. I always say we can do better. And for myself, always. And Iām always so thankful for Jesus. Truly. The love of my life. I have nothing without Him.
u/#Correct
IMHO, and much of it comes from disregarding the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith, seeing the Older Testament as inferior to the New Testament. I could go full rant on how the Antique Testament was fulfilled, not nullified through Jesus, and how the Law is both a restraint and a reflection of God's moral standard, but that would likely break the 12000 character limit and go beyond.
Here is a decent article on the topic from Bible Project:
https://bibleproject.com/articles/what-jesus-meant-turn-other-cheek-matthew-539/
and one thorough one from Our Daily Bread:
https://ourdailybreadministries.ca/questions/what-did-jesus-mean-when-he-said-to-turn-the-other-cheek-matthew-539/
I think the honorable, classically-educated founders of the U.S.A. and the generation that followed the war of independence understood these things.
The 4th verse of the National Anthem:
Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved home and the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust": And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Excellent.
Men of honor with great courage and greater bar bills. š„³
Iāve been preaching this for years. Weak people in positions of power continually dilute plainly written documents such as this, the constitution and bill of rights.
We tend to forget that Jesus made himself a whip, tipped over some tables, and went after the moneychangers.
John 2
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
you might just be identifying why many men left the catholic community.
If Mods would be OK with this, this could also be posted to c/Catholic and c/Christianity, or at least linked to those forums.
Catholicism is another two tier religion and was meant that way since the formal foundation of the papacy. It wasnāt until Martin Luther forced translation of the Bibleinto common vernacular that the uneducated could actually study the Bible. It was almost secret knowledge up to that point.
Vatican II was the first council of the Catholic Church that was conducted to popularize Catholicism based upon social movements at the time. You can point towards Vatican II as the ultimate loss of direction of the Catholic Church.
Well done. I learned those two truths 40 years ago. Decided to become a Christian Instead of a catholic. The priest saw me after he heard and said im sorry yku decided not to be catholic. He said od be damned even as a Christian for leaving that oppressive mess. Gods Word says different.
Good move.
All of the Christian denominations have "misunderstood" these two parts as well as other aspects and teachings. And somehow they denounce those of us who have chosen to stick to the original translations.
It's upsetting, maddening, and disheartening. However, we were told this would happen to us. We've been repeatedly warned to stay away from those leaders who have contaminated and corrupted The Word. And that this is all part of His Plan for us.
So stay strong. Stay faithful. Stay vigilant. And keep preparing yourselves and your families for what's to come. And ALWAYS put your trust in God and Jesus.
The concept of just war itself emerges from classical Greece and Rome and it ->as you describe it<- through Catholic doctrine written by Thomas Aquinas. Even now the actual catechism reflects this(see CCC 2309).
The wuss version of both war and self defense is a Communist perversion oozed carefully into modernist (wrong) ideology in the last century and change for the explicit purpose of rendering Christiandom defenseless.
Tl;dr I agree; but different on the history.
So what does Jesus say to do? Not to stand there and take it forever. He says to turn the other cheek.
I never read that Bible verse in that matter, but it sure makes sense. The next time someone backhands me or tells Jesus to turn the other cheek, I will let them know Jesus said to turn the other cheek. But if they hit that cheek, it means you will not be a cuck and continue to take it. Just when you think you have the Bible understood, someone shows a different point of view. That is the beauty of the Bible.