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Protestant Churches have always been like this. Every little disagreement leads to a schism so people can be with like minded people in their little "perfect world" of total agreement. This is why there are 30,000 protestant denominations.
The authority of God has been usurped by man when man created the protestant church; people worship on their own terms.
How segregated are churches in the US are churches the last bastion of segregation in the country espacially evangelical churches.
Churches the "Last bastion" of segregation? The U.S. must have changed radically since I lived there.
The upper-middle class suburbs I worked in and sometimes visited when I lived there--most recently in the 90s--were places where one would very rarely see a black face. Same for the affluent "urban neighbhoods" in any major US city. Racial segregation is the norm in the U.S.
I was very happy to return to Europe where society is generally far more integrated. In many neighborhoods people of various races live side-by-side in very close proximity. On my own road there are several African families, one Roma family, South Americans, and an Indian family, for example. It's by no means utopia, but it is far preferable to the "Pleasantville" surrealism I often felt when in the U.S.
Last edited by DreamingSpires; 09-24-2010 at 04:50 AM..
Reason: grammar
There are some cultural issues that seem to make church integration hard at times. For example majority black churches may prefer religious music or preaching/ministering styles that white members find foreign or unappealing and vice versa. Some Mexican churches are done in Spanish, even if many of their members speak English, so the members can "feel at home at church." So even among us Catholics you may have mostly Hispanic, mostly White, or mostly Black parishes.
I remember reading an article on it and, although this was a pretty liberal group, they almost threw their hands in the air and said "it's too hard so don't bother integrating a church." I think that's too defeatist, but the difficulties are real. They also, I think, somewhat reflect that much of community life in general is not integrated. In many cities people of different races do not live in the same neighborhoods or go to the same schools. They may not be treated, or see themselves as being treated even if that perception is erroneous, the same by society. And sadly churches sometimes get overly "cliquish" or "clannish." The group, black or white, feels it is "their church" and does not take kindly to "new people changing things." I'm resistant to change myself, at least to a degree, but I think I'm flexible on most inessentials. For many though religion I think is mostly about the inessentials, it's cultural more than anything. If they feel their culture is "under siege" by "interlopers of another race" they may react in negative ways.
Still I know of a white woman who attends a majority black church and my last priest was from Burma.
Protestant Churches have always been like this. Every little disagreement leads to a schism so people can be with like minded people in their little "perfect world" of total agreement. This is why there are 30,000 protestant denominations.
The authority of God has been usurped by man when man created the protestant church; people worship on their own terms.
Which conforms that gods have no authority, as they are all the creation of man. The agenda driven greed and corrupt of man has used religion to play the masses like fools, even today when superstition should not have such a powerful hold on the masses.
This post has nothing to do with the topic. But since you chimed in I have to say that you are so close to the truth lurking on this forum; most that are lost like you are wasting their time talking about TV or other prattle on other forums, but you are in the right place. Deep down you must see a pattern of divine inspiration in this world and that it why you lurk here. I am praying for you that you will have a breakthrough and you will lose your spiritual tone deafness and drop the false neo-pagan vision that see many have been trapped into.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Asheville Native
Which conforms that gods have no authority, as they are all the creation of man. The agenda driven greed and corrupt of man has used religion to play the masses like fools, even today when superstition should not have such a powerful hold on the masses.
This post has nothing to do with the topic. But since you chimed in I have to say that you are so close to the truth lurking on this forum; most that are lost like you are wasting their time talking about TV or other prattle on other forums, but you are in the right place. Deep down you must see a pattern of divine inspiration in this world and that it why you lurk here. I am praying for you that you will have a breakthrough and you will lose your spiritual tone deafness and drop the false neo-pagan vision that see many have been trapped into.
I directly responded to a point you made, about man usurping gods authority. Your main point was spot on the mark, man is the problem.... but, I added clarity to the statement in that there are no gods, and that gods and religion are all a creation solely of man, for power. Some people crave power over others and some likely rather sharp chap saw the power of superstition over those less enlightened, and crafted the ultimate superstition, and his success is staggering, though still only a superstition. The processes continues unabated to this day.
I see no 'pattern' of anything but the power of fear driven programming over the masses. Sadly the imprint of religion is deeply imprinted before a child develops the power to truly reason, and it takes the exceptional person to de-program themselves.
Nor is it neo-pagan vision, I don't believe in any gods, major or minor. Nor am I trapped, I have a freedom you can't even comprehend.
"When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." – Stephen Roberts
How segregated are churches in the US are churches the last bastion of segregation in the country espacially evangelical churches.
We attend an Assembly of God church in North Carolina. It is large. We have Africans, who often come dressed ethnically, African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, a small group for French speakers, a small group for German speakers - we have many nations represented, as well as a cross section of the US. Folks seem to get along. Our commonality is our faith.
How segregated are churches in the US are churches the last bastion of segregation in the country espacially evangelical churches.
The Baptist Church of which I was a member for about 35 years had a congregation of approximately 1300. There was never a Black member. Then about the early 1990's I changed to a large Church of God with about 2000 members and the last time I attended there one seldom saw a Black on Sunday morning but there were six members.
That's what I don't like about the south.
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off topic neo-pagan
