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The author left off the most important cause of declining church membership - education and the all-too-slow death of superstition.
Insisting on the literal truth of the bible just makes it far easier to reject the entire thing. Seriously - Jonah in the belly of the whale. Burning bushes that talk (somebody needed meds that wouldn't be available for another 3000 years). The ark. There is not one single decent idea in the bible that needs belief in the supernatural. In fact most of the best parts of the bible have direct analogues in Buddhist philosophy.
Thus it is easier to dispense with the superstitious idea of a magical Sky Wizard who clearly DOES NOT watch and reward and punish.
Studies show that children raised in "religious" (lets call it what it really is, stone age superstition) households have far greater difficulty differentiating between fantasy and reality than children raised in rational households. Where rational is defined as NOT subscribing to cave-man fears of thunder and lightning.
The sooner xtianity and all other organized religions collapse, the better. We are privileged to be at the beginning of the dawning of an Age of Rationality, and unfortunate enough to be early enough to have to live through the death throes of the Age of Unreason.
Yeah too bad we where lead away from Jesus' true teachings. Authoritarian religion will never stand the test of time.
4 years later and our church is experiencing phenomenal growth. We open our 29th location Easter Sunday. That will be the 8th state we are in. Our church online platform hasn't caused a decline in physical attendance either. We now have folks logging in every week from every single country in the world. Our church sponsored and developed Bible app has been downloaded over 330,000,000 times free of charge. If anyone says the church is dying they are simply looking in the wrong place.
I can say 5yrs later from the OP, and my church has even less and the same with our sister churches as well. maybe megachurches and online church is the big thing now.
I agree with points #3 and #6, but none of the others. America to a large degree is moving away from valuing religious worship and belief, and that's the overall dominating factor. In other words, culture is leading the trend and is responsible, rather than it being the fault of churches. Churches have opened up to offering an incredible range of options, so they've definitely tried. But when younger generations become increasingly disinterested, no kind of church will be sufficient.
1) No two Christians can agree on what Christianity actually is. Constant infighting among the faithful over what Christianity is all about and what it means to be a Christian.
2) My Church required me to believe things that are not true: all humans descended from a first couple created 10,000 years ago, with no death until Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Really? No death? What about overpopulation?
3) I realized that church was mainly about controlling people with fear and guilt. It’s about programming people with the fear of hell and guilt about sex. It’s psychological bullying, institutionalized. It took me several years to deprogram myself and experienced symptoms of “religious trauma syndrome” in the process.
I’ll never set foot in a church ever again, unless it’s for someone’s wedding or funeral.
...3) I realized that church was mainly about controlling people with fear and guilt. It’s about programming people with the fear of hell and guilt about sex.
It’s psychological bullying, institutionalized. It took me several years to deprogram myself and experienced symptoms of “religious trauma syndrome†in the process.
Yeah, that's why I only go to Charismatic services...full of positive messages recited from the Bible.
I also walk in late to miss 20 minutes of singing.
(Any swaying to politics or homosexuals...I stand and walk out. I'll go back, tho...
then stand and repeat if it happens again.)
1) No two Christians can agree on what Christianity actually is. Constant infighting among the faithful over what Christianity is all about and what it means to be a Christian.
But the foundation is the Bible, not what Person A believes vs. Person B. Though it sucks that there's any infighting - and that's an issue to resolve - it doesn't change the constant (the Bible) and what it means on a personal basis. The human/social element shouldn't rise above the Bible, which many seem to let happen.
2) My Church required me to believe things that are not true: all humans descended from a first couple created 10,000 years ago, with no death until Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Really? No death? What about overpopulation?
How did they "require" this of you? Sign a document or something?
3) I realized that church was mainly about controlling people with fear and guilt. It’s about programming people with the fear of hell and guilt about sex. It’s psychological bullying, institutionalized. It took me several years to deprogram myself and experienced symptoms of “religious trauma syndrome” in the process.
Sounds like a dysfunctional, lost, and unhealthy church. But does that mean all the rest are exactly the same? Did you not try any others? If you go to a restaurant that sucks, does that mean you'll stop go to all of them? Maybe there were/are thoughts inside you that made you want church to fail; to make it not work so you could abandon it?
I’ll never set foot in a church ever again, unless it’s for someone’s wedding or funeral.
It's easy to come to that conclusion. But on the other side of the coin, if people would stay and help fix the problems, it would improve. Running off never helps anything.
I haven't read through the entire thread but has anybody mentioned this?
Let's be totally honest here. Don't people not go to church because frankly it's the most boring thing in the world to do and practically anything else is more interesting?
Sorry I don't mean to offend anyone but that's my honest opinion.
When you do that, you make it nearly impossible for people to quote/reply to your comments.
Apologies, but I've never seen anyone make your point before, and/or that that approach is a negative. I've seen it done many times by others on this forum, with not a word of complaint.
Since the paragraphs/points were not numbered, that seemed the only way to link the original statements with related follow-up comments.
I thought it was clear and obvious, but my comments were directed only to Freak80. They were not intended as general statements to the community. I guess by the hand-swatting I should have done a personal message instead.
Maybe I shouldn't post here anymore. I contribute with good intention, but often sense a bit of hostility on the receiving end.
Last edited by Thoreau424; 02-13-2018 at 01:18 PM..
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