The Father and the Son
Disclaimer: the following are just the naive midnight musings of a nonbeliever with an incomplete understanding of the deeper faith-based meaning contained within the Bible. These thoughts are not meant to be offensive and I’m genuinely curious to hear what my Christian friends think about these ideas. That being said, I recognize how they might be construed as offensive to some, so I’d like to apologize in advance if they offend you. Also I might suggest that if you are easily offended by questions about the Christian religion, you consider skipping the rest of this post. I don’t think that most of my Christian friends will be offended but I do recognize that religion can be a very sensitive topic.
We often criticize many right-wing Christians for not following the teachings of Jesus Christ which seems to me to be a valid criticism.
On the other hand, his father, who most Christians also hold in high regard, seemed to be pretty into the whole law and order, smiting, punishing, ostracizing, judging, and killing side of things.
Looking at much of the Old Testament, the gun-toting evangelicals and alt-right folks seem much more on brand.
Based on my reading, Jesus would probably be considered a pretty extreme liberal by modern standards while The Father seems pretty solidly in the hardcore conservative camp.
My understanding of the Holy Trinity is that the three constituent members are all forms of the same God but they are not representations of one another. I used to struggle a little bit with that concept but after giving it some more thought, there’s something elegant and almost extra-dimensional (in the mathematical sense) about that model of the Trinity. What I still have trouble with is how to fit what seem at times like the opposing philosophies of The Father and The Son into that framework.