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I have never been hurt as bad as when the "church" hurt me. I felt raped, betrayed and abused. This is not a pitty party, I am doing fine thank God
It amazes me the lack of love, caring, understanding and plain COMMON SENSE that "church" goers (NOT ALL) can have. To ask me to return to that system, would be like asking an abused wife to return to her husband. To not take the time to AT LEAST understand, it's an insult and I would much rather that you kept your distance, instead of having to hear to your senseless bickering about how wrong and bitter I am.
It's so important that we realize that true church is about people. It's not about religion or denomination or any of our petty arguments. Religion that is pure, according to the scripture, has everything to do with people...
There is no church building that can substitute "loving on the least of these." This might sound harsh, but until we find our identity in Christ, and allow His love to flow through us and onto others, we will never fully grasp the concept of true church. WE are many parts that make up the Body of Christ. IF we can't even get along with one another, then we aren't functioning as intended. Christ is the Head of His Church. No man. No building is a substitute for a relationship with Christ. In the same way, these things aren't a substitute for loving people. Ecclesia - the Spiritual body of Jesus Christ - the true 'church'..
I have often witnessed pastors preach to their congregation and reprimand them saying:" How many of you have extra rooms in your house or clothing that you don't wear any more, but don't open your home to someone in need of a place to stay or give that extra clothing or food to someone in need?" Then immediately after the service these very same men turn away someone who comes to them for assistance! Pastors, deacons, ministers, lead by example!
Someone somewhere along the line got the idea of putting on a "play" for people and calling it church. The spectators sit quietly waiting for the performance to begin. Each week they start with colorful music and someone leads them in four or five songs. Then the spectators sit down and wait for the announcements. Once that’s finished, the spectators are encouraged to give money to the "playhouse". Then the spectators sit quietly and listen to a guy stand up and tell them what God is saying.
When he finishes, all the spectators file out the door, pick up their children and head for home. On the way home they discuss the play. How the worship team did, how the Pastor preached and so on. Seven days later, they return and experience it all over again.
I call it a "rerun" of a play because if you have been to church for three years or more, that’s exactly what it is.
They basically quit filming new episodes, and are now playing the spectators reruns of old episodes. It’s the same thing every week. Perhaps this is why Christ’s ministry was only three years.
Some Christian religious groups, after presenting salvation as a free gift of God’s grace, turn right around and teach new believers that their continuing relationship with the Lord now depends on their performance. If they don’t live holy, go to church, read their Bibles, and pay tithes, etc., then the Lord won’t bless them or answer their prayers.
That kind of thinking will block a person from receiving the love of God. When their performance falls short, and it always does, their own hearts will condemn them. They just can’t believe God could love them. The truth is that God’s love for us has nothing to do with our performance. He loves us because He is love (1 John 4:8), not because we are lovely.
Understanding that God’s love is unconditional will revolutionize your life. It certainly has mine.
Understanding that God’s love is unconditional will revolutionize your life. It certainly has mine.
First of all, a complete boldface type is considered shouting like all caps.
Secondly, leaving organised religion and still holding to it tenets, you remain religious. The acceptance you sense is you accepting yourself for who you are. There is no one "out there" It is all You. You are the god you think you revere.
The last paragraph begs the question, what make You sooo special were there really a god? This unconditional love should be paramount and this should not be happening.
The only real help they get are from other humans with empathy.
Surely the god you believe in should not allow this?
Even presuming that there was a Jesus of some sort (and I do) and that he is as described in the Bible (and I don't), you are invariably dependent on man-made ancient texts and the man-made translations into a language you understand for all that you know about the ancient figure we know as 'Jesus'.
The idea that you can 'know' anything about him otherwise is fantasy, not to mention conveniently escapist. And fantastic escapism is precisely what we have in religion.
Understanding that God’s love is unconditional will revolutionize your life. It certainly has mine.
Can God's love truly be unconditional if he sends people to hell for failing to worship him?
Some of us, like myself, for instance, are simply incapable of believing in this stuff. I could no more make myself believe than I could make myself fly to Chicago by flapping my arms.
Heh, when it comes to religion, I often think of those drug advertizements on television; at the bottom of the screen in small print it will often say, "Individual results may vary."
I guess we atheists are that small subset of people on whom the drug had no effect.
I see the "church" as you do, in many respects, but I went a step or two further and got rid of deity-worship altogether.
If I were you, I wouldn't throw out God's love, per se, but dumping the religious baggage stretching all the way to the Bronze Age, would be a very good idea.
If I were you, I wouldn't throw out God's love, per se, but dumping the religious baggage stretching all the way to the Bronze Age, would be a very good idea.
It can be done and still maintain faith, but good thought.
Can God's love truly be unconditional if he sends people to hell for failing to worship him?
By definition a benevolent God does not send anyone to hell. To send someone to hell is un-Godly.
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Some of us, like myself, for instance, are simply incapable of believing in this stuff. I could no more make myself believe than I could make myself fly to Chicago by flapping my arms.
You take this too seriously. You must be an ALL or NOTHING person. In other words a Bible literalist or a militant atheist.
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Heh, when it comes to religion, I often think of those drug advertizements on television; at the bottom of the screen in small print it will often say, "Individual results may vary."
I guess we atheists are that small subset of people on whom the drug had no effect.
You don't get. religion should not be like that. At best religion should be part of your cultural heritage. If religion is not part of your ancestry and cultural heritage I suggest you become a quiet Atheist.
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I see the "church" as you do, in many respects, but I went a step or two further and got rid of deity-worship altogether.
If I were you, I wouldn't throw out God's love, per se, but dumping the religious baggage stretching all the way to the Bronze Age, would be a very good idea.
As I said. If not part of your heritage then run as fast as you can.
If God has any say in the creation then God created MAN with free will.
And children that are starving are part of a free will creation.
That is beside the point and, in part, inaccurate.
The inaccurate part is that not all famine (or other calamities) is caused by humans. Some of it is, as they say, "acts of God". One example I happen to remember, Hurricane Gilbert destroying crops and causing widespread famine in Mexico, particularly the Yucatan peninsula, many years ago. Unless you want to rationalize that god was just punishing Mexican peasants for being particularly sinful, that was just s__t falling from the sky on innocent people. To the extent it was ameliorated, it was by the quick action of humans, not god.
The "beside the point" part is that even to the extent humans are involved, suffering is still the result and no amount of suffering is acceptable to a fully benevolent, all-powerful, all knowing god who is supposed to "know our frame, that we are but dust" and have compassion on us. Unless he's not one or more of those three things. Tap dancing around that you can produce flawed rationalizations (usually, some variation on free will being a necessary evil) called theodicies ... but none of them work. In part, because you claim to be headed for heaven where everything is perfect and suffering somehow is NOT necessary -- nor, apparently is free will, since no one will be capable of sinning and therefore will be ROBOTS, as you folks often like to claim about what life on earth would be like without free will.
If god is capable of producing your version of heaven then he is capable of making earth that way or at least bypassing that nonsense altogether by simply removing our instinct for self-preservation so we can all slit our throats and walk the streets of gold.
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