I went to a conservative Christian church yesterday

Mauricio_Magus · Jul 3, 2018

RSena7 said:
Still, I find that many posters in this forum will be offended by at least one thing said by a pastor in virtually any church in the United States. Ultimately, it is a relationship with Jesus that is most important; if you don't have that, you don't have anything.

Speaking for myself, but I'm against bigotry and teaching stuff without evidence, you might be right that I would have a problem with basically any religion over these things, but there's levels of how bad these "teachings" can be. I also wouldn't use the word offended, I'd say disgusted is more appropriate. I don't see how basically promoting Nationalism is a Christian thing for too.

Use this rule: Are these "teachings" promoting hate to groups like other religions, other nationalities, LGBT, or any minority in general?

If you say yes, then yeah they can kindly fuck off.

I also have a problem with not teaching proper critical thinking and accepting things without evidence but the hate part is the thing I have a BIG problem with.

Also, as an atheist, this idea of being nothing without jesus just sounds really really sad.

Kyser73 · Jul 3, 2018

RSena7 said:
Still, I find that many posters in this forum will be offended by at least one thing said by a pastor in virtually any church in the United States. Ultimately, it is a relationship with Jesus that is most important; if you don't have that, you don't have anything.

As an atheist If I could be bothered I'd find this really offensive, and typical of the kind of 'We're inclusive except for the godless' mentality many theists exhibit.

Which is a shame because the rest of your post is actually pretty good, and you sound like you go to a church which actually gets the central tenets of Jesus' message of being decent to each other and yourself.

Ganzlinger · Jul 3, 2018

Doesn't sound that bad. Thought OP was gonna tell us some crazier stuff.

RSena7 · Jul 3, 2018

Mauricio_Magus said:
Speaking for myself, but I'm against bigotry and teaching stuff without evidence, you might be right that I would have a problem with basically any religion over these things, but there's levels of how bad these "teachings" can be. I also wouldn't use the word offended, I'd say disgusted is more appropriate. I don't see how basically promoting Nationalism is a Christian thing for too.

Use this rule: Is this "teachings" promoting hate to groups like other religions, other nationalities, LGBT, or any minority in general?

If you say yes, then yeah they can kindly fuck off.

I think there are things you might consider bigotry within the widely accepted teachings of Christianity. For example, homosexuality is nearly universally considered a sin in Christianity which may be offensive to a multitude a people. I believe, and the Bible affirms, that love and kindness are more important than identifying the sin in others (Mark 12:31, 1 Peter 4:8, Matthew 12:7, Matthew 5:39-47, and countless more). In fact, there is very little to no value in pointing out the sins of non-believers in Christianity -- this is a concept I believe is missing in many contemporary Christian churches.

Mauricio_Magus said:
Also, as an atheist, this idea of not being anything without Jesus, assuming you were implying that, just sounds really really sad.

I wrote this in context of Christianity. Even if one knows the law and can cite every scripture in the Bible by heart but don't have the spirit of God in them, they have nothing. Everyone is something uniquely special by virtue of their humanity (endowed by a loving God).

Pearljam and Earl · Jul 3, 2018

Bengraven said:
Did you tip your pastor?

Sure did. The whole plate, right over his head.

RSena7 · Jul 3, 2018

Kyser73 said:
As an atheist If I could be bothered I'd find this really offensive, and typical of the kind of 'We're inclusive except for the godless' mentality many theists exhibit.

Which is a shame because the rest of your post is actually pretty good, and you sound like you go to a church which actually gets the central tenets of Jesus' message of being decent to each other and yourself.

You misunderstood my post. I cleared it up responding to another poster on post #204 on this page.

Mauricio_Magus · Jul 3, 2018

RSena7 said:
I think there are things you might consider bigotry within the widely accepted teachings of Christianity. For example, homosexuality is nearly universally considered a sin in Christianity which may be offensive to a multitude a people. I believe, and the Bible affirms, that love and kindness are more important than identifying the sin in others (Mark 12:31, 1 Peter 4:8, Matthew 12:7, Matthew 5:39-47, and countless more). In fact, there is very little to no value in pointing out the sins of non-believers in Christianity -- this is a concept I believe is missing in many contemporary Christian churches.

I wrote this in context of Christianity. Even if one knows the law and can cite every scripture in the Bible by heart but don't have the spirit of God in them, they have nothing. Everyone is something uniquely special by virtue of their humanity (endowed by a loving God).

Thanks for clarifying(the 2nd part), and yeah, I will always have a problem with religion for being anti-LGBT, simple as that. I'm too disgusted by bigotry and hate to ever be part of a religion that promotes it, plus there's no evidence so I just ignore it.

You seem like a good Christian and not like the insane ones(like the one from last page) so you're cool.

MasterYoshi · Jul 3, 2018

Southern Baptist funerals are rough. Buried my grandmother a month ago and had forgotten just how dreadful a sermon could be.

Shig · Jul 3, 2018

Visited a small-town church on vacation with my dad last year, during the call-response prayers the priest dropped something along the lines of "please help the mainstream media be fair and truthful," which from the general Fox-hardwired politics of the area pretty clearly translated to "please stop those liberal meanies from not bowing before the wisdom of Republicans and God-Emperor Trump."

How people can devote so much of their time and their identity to Jesus but still fervently cheerlead for people and parties that openly spit in the face of almost everything he exemplified, I'll never understand.

If there is a heaven, I like to imagine it starts with the actual decent people ushered to a nice seat with a bag of popcorn. Their seats look towards a sprawling line of the self-righteous, point-missing "faithful", blithely walking through the center of the place thinking they've actually done Jebus proud and they're gonna waltz right through the gates. Then the lights dim, the steel cage lowers, and St. Peter and J to the C come swaggering down the walkway, pyrotechnics blazing...

"WHERE D'YOU THINK YOU'RE GOIN', BROTHERS?"

Kyser73 · Jul 3, 2018

RSena7 said:
You misunderstood my post. I cleared it up responding to another poster on post #204 on this page.

All good my friend.

Not · Jul 4, 2018

You guys ever notice that "The Lord works in mysterious ways" is ultimately synonymous with "The ends justify the means"

Which explains a lot

Mathieran · Jul 4, 2018

Ganzlinger said:
Doesn't sound that bad. Thought OP was gonna tell us some crazier stuff.

I know it just sounds like the kind of run of the mill crap but it is infuriating to sit through. If it was on tv I'd just change the channel. It's also compounded by the fact that I have relatives sitting through this and agreeing with it. They think people like me are the problem with this country.

Rivenblade · Jul 4, 2018

I went to one where they said "Let us pray for the babies murdered by abortion." Literally did one of these...

HotHamBoy · Jul 4, 2018

You gotta hussle for those greenbacks.