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These are the one’s we’re trying to reach with the gospel. We’re having great success in our area.
Yeah, statistics don't back that up. Ask the Southern Baptists how many they are losing and how many fewer baptisms are occuring. Their loss of members is in the millions.
Yeah, statistics don't back that up. Ask the Southern Baptists how many they are losing and how many fewer baptisms are occuring. Their loss of members is in the millions.
My Southern Baptist church is growing by leaps and bounds. From 800 members when we joined 20 years ago to 6,000 today. We baptize 200+ a year. Non-denominational churches in my area are experiencing the same. To be fair, our area is growing in population rapidly.
Some of us view not taking the Bible "seriously" as a good thing.
So, are you able to cite reliable news sources or not? So far you have ignored the request altogether and cited articles from Christian sources.
Edit: You found one! So far you have cited one reliable source that one Christian in a Muslim country has been persecuted. Keep going, there was a lot of hyperbole in your claims which is still entirely unsupported. Of course, it is hard to say who is being put to death today because of the Bible. Perhaps you could tell us who was put to death yesterday?
More ho-hum slaughter of Christians Easter 2019 , but please take stuff like this and the holocaust with a
grain of salt . And it did come from that Christian rag the Wall Street Journal .
Only seething spiritual hatred and rage of Christians could cause someone to deny the well known slaughter of them like the well documented one of pilgrims in Egypt blaming the publication for being Christian and therefore lying .
To cowardly they are to own their own hate . Blame the reporting of it instead.
Same demonic technique used in the holocaust .
This is the spirit that comes straight from the pit of hell .
More ho-hum slaughter of Christians Easter 2019 , but please take stuff like this and the holocaust with a
grain of salt . And it did come from that Christian rag the Wall Street Journal .
Only seething spiritual hatred and rage of Christians could cause someone to deny the well known slaughter of them like the well documented one of pilgrims in Egypt blaming the publication for being Christian and therefore lying .
To cowardly they are to own their own hate . Blame the reporting of it instead.
Same demonic technique used in the holocaust .
This is the spirit that comes straight from the pit of hell .
My, someone gets downright nasty when called out on being less than honest.
A Pew study was conducted a few years back on those who professed no religious affiliation. I guess fewer and fewer people take the Bible seriously. You think?
"The big winner in terms of growing numbers is the unaffiliated, or the so-called “nones,” shooting up to about 23 percent of the total population from just 16 percent seven years ago. The 56 million adults not belonging to any faith tradition outnumber both Catholics and mainline Protestants; only Evangelical Christians comprise a larger share of the population."
Well, given the cross-section of whackjobs on this board as representatives of the faith, I could see why. The teachings of Christianity represent hope and a balm for our troubled world. However, its most vocal representatives often lend the opposite impression. Fundamentalists in particular do more to destroy faith in Christ than they do to bring people to Christ. Gargantuan megachurches, preachers zipping around on private jets, ongoing sex scandals, continued dabbling in politics, and ongoing attempts to legislate their own approach to faith would be enough to turn off any objective person.
Even now, in some backwaters, we have fundies buttonholing local school boards to prevent the teaching of evolution, despite overwhelming evidence, chiefly because they've painted themselves into a theological corner with literalism. We have them trying to mandate prayers in school, despite the fact that Christ Himself forbade us from praying in public. Or despite the fact that different denominations pray in decidedly different ways. Dominionists are hellbent on instituting a Christian-based government, ignoring the horrors of previous attempts. ISIS had nothing on the Puritans or Calvinist Zurich you know, which is why the Founding Fathers kept religious faith out of the Constitution. Fundies rammed Prohibition down our collective throats a century ago based on highly dubious scriptural arguments.
Then on the other side of the Reformation aisle, you have the Catholics with the festering sore of the sex abuse scandal. If you looked at any other organization on the planet and found it essentially behaved like a gigantic racketeering operation to abet and cover the tracks of thousands upon thousands of sex abusers around the globe, the leadership would have thrown in jail a long, long time ago.
I mean, all you have to do is look at Christian history with its jaw-dropping record of oppression and internecine butchery. For all our palaver about peace and loving our fellow man, we sure don't live up to the creed in our actions. Instead of seeing humility and a constant striving to love our fellow man, an outsider instead sees scandal, aggressive insertion into the personal lives of others, and the enrichment of a visible few. I have to constantly say to these critics that the headlines they see do not represent the Christianity many follow, one of quiet service to others and to God.
Christianity is a person-to-person conversation, not something shouted through a megaphone. Our faith spread quietly under the watchful eye of the Romans. You know the symbol of the fish? It was a code. If one were in a public space, one drew one arc of the fish in the dirt with your foot. The other person would then complete the other half of the symbol, and you then knew you were in the presence of a fellow Christian. So despite oppression, Christianity grew slowly, humbly, and without opulence, without the shortcuts of Chautauqua tents or strongarming politicians into codifying one's theology into law.
So small wonder people look at Christianity from the outside and say, "No thanks."
Last edited by MinivanDriver; 06-11-2019 at 06:26 AM..
Well, given the cross-section of whackjobs on this board as representatives of the faith, I could see why. The teachings of Christianity represent hope and a balm for our troubled world. However, its most vocal representatives often lend the opposite impression. Fundamentalists in particular do more to destroy faith in Christ than they do to bring people to Christ. Gargantuan megachurches, preachers zipping around on private jets, ongoing sex scandals, continued dabbling in politics, and ongoing attempts to legislate their own approach to faith would be enough to turn off any objective person.
Even now, in some backwaters, we have fundies buttonholing local school boards to prevent the teaching of evolution, despite overwhelming evidence, chiefly because they've painted themselves into a theological corner with literalism. We have them trying to mandate prayers in school, despite the fact that Christ Himself forbade us from praying in public. Or despite the fact that different denominations pray in decidedly different ways. Dominionists are hellbent on instituting a Christian-based government, ignoring the horrors of previous attempts. ISIS had nothing on the Puritans or Calvinist Zurich you know, which is why the Founding Fathers kept religious faith out of the Constitution. Fundies rammed Prohibition down our collective throats a century ago based on highly dubious scriptural arguments.
Then on the other side of the Reformation aisle, you have the Catholics with the festering sore of the sex abuse scandal. If you looked at any other organization on the planet and found it essentially behaved like a gigantic racketeering operation to abet and cover the tracks of thousands upon thousands of sex abusers around the globe, the leadership would have thrown in jail a long, long time ago.
I mean, all you have to do is look at Christian history with its jaw-dropping record of oppression and internecine butchery. For all our palaver about peace and loving our fellow man, we sure don't live up to the creed in our actions. Instead of seeing humility and a constant striving to love our fellow man, an outsider instead sees scandal, aggressive insertion into the personal lives of others, and the enrichment of a visible few. I have to constantly say to these critics that the headlines they see do not represent the Christianity many follow, one of quiet service to others and to God.
Christianity is a person-to-person conversation, not something shouted through a megaphone. Our faith spread quietly under the watchful eye of the Romans. You know the symbol of the fish? It was a code. If one were in a public space, one drew one arc of the fish in the dirt with your foot. The other person would then complete the other half of the symbol, and you then knew you were in the presence of a fellow Christian. So despite oppression, Christianity grew slowly, humbly, and without opulence, without the shortcuts of Chautauqua tents or strongarming politicians into codifying one's theology into law.
So small wonder people look at Christianity from the outside and say, "No thanks."
Even the fundies from the backwaters of Japan are getting in on the Christian execution fakery trend .
Again, tragic as it is, it has nothing to do with the premise of the thread. If the persecution of Christians is of importance to you (As it is to me, by the way), then start a thread about it. But if we're talking about why Christianity is losing traction in this country, then your transparent attempt to muddy the waters with a completely different subject in this thread makes a handy Exhibit A on why it's happening.
Last edited by MinivanDriver; 06-11-2019 at 09:24 AM..
Again, tragic as it is, it has nothing to do with the premise of the thread. If the persecution of Christians is of importance to you (As it is to me, by the way), then start a thread about it. But if we're talking about why Christianity is losing traction in this country, then your transparent attempt to muddy the waters with a complete different subject in this thread makes a handy Exhibit A on why it's happening.
" losing traction " all over the world by the way .
You seem to believe that if everything were being done according to Christ's Word then Christianity
would be growing all over the place .
This shows your biblical knowledge to be miles wide and inches deep.
Christ foretold the exact opposite .
The world will only grow more and more hateful and hateful towards those who love Him .
To the point of murdering those who love Him .
It hated Him " first " after all .
The " broad way " is not full of Christians according to Christ .
The " narrow gate " is however .
Your thoughts of things being done according to Christ's Word resulting in a world overwhelmingly made up of Christians more closely resembles the theology of the money grubbing televangelists .
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