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Good points, also there are people who like to draw attention to themselves by the way they dress and the bling they wear, how is that pointing towards God or there are the ones who want to make it a social hangout. People should come to worship the Lord it is His House
Actually, the Christian bible says that God's "house" aka "temple" is people, not a church building.
Acts 2 and Acts 4 is the church... the people of Christ freely giving to one another in need out of love for one another. It is not a forced government wage program. The purpose of that love is for outsiders to see it in order to attract them to believe Christ.
John 13:34-35 - "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
The "one another" here is within the family of God. I am not saying outsiders are to be mistreated. Romans 12 states that we should be at peace with all men. But the John 13 love is familial love... one family. Just like an earthly family would give and support a sibling regardless of the circumstances, the same should be the cases for those in the family of God.
The goal in Acts 2 and 4 is not a level playing field... it's ensuring the family members has its needs met similar to the sharing that takes place in earthly families. This type of sharing occurs without coercion.
Nobody is hindered from doing exactly what you posted and I encourage people to do that on their own. It simply should not be mandated.
I don't disagree with the position. I do disagree with the implementation.
While you quote Jesus as recorded in John you do not mention His own illustration of who a neighbor really is--someone who is like us or someone who may be everything we oppose--or both. Jesus told a story about a hated Samaritan stopping to help a Jew who had been ignored by the religious folks. Was not the conclusion of that story that one's neighbor may very well be our "enemy?" And did it not point out that an unbeliever is as likely to be our rescuer as a believer?
What you are doing is creating a THEM or US environment. That is conducive to one or both sides feeling superior to one another. It is not in the spirit of Christ.
John Donne knew the spirit of Christ when he wrote:
Quote:
No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Death may not always be physical. It may be of spirit and will as well. That is where marginalized people are. One certainly votes on issues based on where their own heart lies. Mine lies with the twenty percent of the world's population that own 1.4% of the world's wealth. I'm not sure where yours lies if it isn't about doing the things the Bible emphasizes 500 times more than at least one of the exclusionary topics in the main thread.
You may not have said the words directly, but you are there with the others who do that.
"Spawn hateful behaviors"... kind of subjective, don't you think? If I am railing against minimum wage, for example, then I am spawning hate. If you rail against it, you are not - just because you say you are not spawning hate?
That just goes to FinnJ's point that I am not on the correct team. Isn't that why you and Mystic are addressing Sparrow in this thread? She's supposed to be on your team. She doesn't hate (like DRob). We can't lose her to the evil fundies? Let's try and keep her from walking the plank?
You nailed it. You are not in the team, so you'll always be a hater and a bigot no matter what you do.
Last edited by Finn_Jarber; 10-23-2015 at 02:11 PM..
You nailed it. You are not in the team, so you'll always be a hater and a bigot no matter what you do.
Can i be in your team...... accepted by you that i am a believer, even though i hardly believe anything you do other than there is a God and Jesus Christ was sent by him. Or to be in your team do i have to believe everything you do ?.
What is it about fundamentalist ideologues and their need to be hated?
In Ronk World, I see most of you as the equivalent of an annoying brother. Still a brother. No brother is capable of being annoying 24/7. Not even my own brothers were capable of being that annoying, and sometimes they really worked at it.
Being annoying never hurt anyone, or caused irreparable harm. Annoying has never translated itself into hate.
What is it about fundamentalist ideologues and their need to be hated?
If there was no persecution, there would be no reason to condemn others.
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