Christian Church

You say non-denominational and yet behave very denominational like sharing beliefs and traditions. You even share common colleges and seminaries.

I still follow several churches on Instagram. Late last year, one of the church leaders just mentioned that Biden had actually won the US election and the comment section was horrifying. All of the content that is being posted is essentially ignoring all of the important things going on and I KNOW it is because if they mention racial injustice or COVID that they will lose membership. And that is playing in to their decision to avoid those topics.

White Christians are the largest demographic that are anti COVID vaccine but I have not seen a single faith leader in my network endorse, encourage, or even mention it. I still follow several churches on Instagram.

Faith leaders have an enormous responsibility at times like this. They exert an enormous amount of influence over their respective congregations and are failing.

I don’t know at this point that I would consider myself an atheist but I don’t think I am interested in going back after what I have seen.

I apologize if this is inappropriate for this sub but I have lurked for a while and this seems like a pretty open and understanding group and I just needed to get this off my chest.

For those that don't know, a Christian Terrorist shot up a spa in Georgia. If you listen to the Christian Terrorist speak, you can tell he's been raised in a Christian environment. No one talks about "Sexual Temptation" the way Christians do in the southern United States. These religions sell folks on the idea that sexual temptation is a real thing that will eat you alive, and then describe a normal and healthy sex drive as the bane of all that is good an holy. It really messes people up.

I'm not saying this is what made the terrorist do what he did. There are plenty of sexually repressed Baptists out there who live normal lives and deal with their frustrations in ways harmless to society.
But the terrorist's church recently decided that he's not a member of their church and not a member of god's elect. (For those of you that don't know, he goes to a Baptist Church, and Baptists believe in predestination, where god decides if you will believe in him or not. The elect believe, and the others live their lives and eventually die and go to hell.) Despite being accepted as a Christian before the shootings, he is now being called out as a "false believer".

I don't think these people realize what they are doing to their religion's "legitimacy". Either Jesus can forgive all sins or he can't. In the eyes of a Baptist, looking at porn is just as bad as shooting up a a bunch of people. Both are sins worth of hellfire. Any sin is worthy of hellfire. So if Jesus' sacrifice can forgive some sins but not others....then Jesus hasn't defeated sin, he hasn't defeated death, there is a subset of sin more powerful than Jesus. The entire religion falls apart if Jesus can't forgive murder. And the terrorist, in all of the tender coverage he is getting in that way that USA media covers white serial killers, seems to be remorseful. So can Jesus forgive him or not? If not, then Christianity is over for those that take it seriously.

What's the point I'm trying to get across? I'm not trying to say that we should forgive this man. I'm saying that this Baptist Church is willing to throw out all of their "legitimacy" in order to look good in a Public Relations disaster. If they are willing to throw out their entire foundation of faith for PR, then I have to say that the Christian Terrorist is displaying much more genuine faith than the Baptist Church.

What I'm trying to say is that we need to promote atheism, because the True Believers are dang

A young friend of mine just got saved (about a year ago). Zero background in the faith, attended a Charismatic megachurch for a short while before COVID.

He just moved state. I found a great reformed church in the town he's living in (also independently verified to be a solid and healthy church by two trusted friends of mine). I asked him last night how his first Sunday was, and I got this: "It wasn’t the best 🙁 I didn’t feel the Holy Spirit as much as I would have liked to."

How do you suggest I navigate this? He's very teachable and I've got a great relationship with him, which I'm leaning into. I want to lovingly guide him into Christ-exalting truth.

Update: his latest message to me this morning: "I didn’t feel welcome, the scripture did nothing for me, and the music was somewhat stultifying. I just know what it’s like to feel the Holy Spirit in other churches, which really allows me to understand the word of God through the sermon and worship. I didn’t feel that there " - I asked him if anyone greeted him, or spoke to him. His answer: "Not a soul."

Latest update: I contacted the church directly, and just got phoned by the senior pastor! He was very gracious, expressed regret that "not a soul" greeted my friend. It was a perfect storm of circumstances (legitimate and numerous) that led to him 'slipping through the cracks'. Nevertheless, I'll encourage my friend to return - and he will now inevitably be overwhelmingly welcomed! Please pray for the greater obstacle of feelings-oriented approach to this decision to be overcome.

An encouragement: read Tim Challies' excellent article on this theme: The First Two Minutes Matter Most

I'm hoping this isn't too theological to be answered here but with the focus on early Christianity I thought this might be a good place to ask.

Restorationists believe that the teachings of Christ were corrupted by things like pagan teachings, and commonly point to Constantine as one of the people responsible for this, is there any evidence that early Church teachings changed to the extent that it was an 'apostasy'?

I think in part the exercise was to show other people that the Mormon church really is Christian by joining in a decidedly not a Mormon holy day. I had to explain to more than one TBM exactly what Good Friday was. A few others thought maybe it was something that Rusty came up with.

This year it will a little more awkward, mainly because Good Friday is the day before general conference starts, which means that local congregations will be shut down on Easter.

*BFD = big fucking deal.

This is a slightly amusing story of what happened when I decided to go to a church event last night. I hope it’s relevant for this subreddit and apologize if it’s not; I wanted to share and felt this subreddit would be a good fit. It’s also a bit long as a warning.

I’ve been an atheist for most of my life, now I’m sort of agnostic. I decided to join a faith study group this semester with my university out of morbid curiosity. I was invited to an event last night at a cathedral, and I figured why not go and see what it’s like.

I decided to go the whole nine yards, kneeling at the alter, confessions, et cetera. I’m highly critical of all Judeo-Christian thought but also appreciate trying new things and getting to see things from other people’s perspectives. My group knows I don’t practice Christianity so everything was out on the open.

All was going fine and dandy until I went to go stand in the lines for confessions. My faith studies leader stopped me and told me I had to be a baptized Christian. I assured her I was a baptized Greek Orthodox. She said she would have to go ask “permission” for me to go into confessions.

Baffled but not wanting to be disrespectful, and thinking maybe there was something I misunderstood, I followed her to one of the church organizers. My group leader explained that I was Greek Orthodox and wanted to go into confessions. The organizer explained to me, firmly but also apologetically, that I couldn’t go in. It was only for baptized Christians, so it would be forbidden for me to enter.

At that point I’m thinking I should say something, but I become overwhelmed by this fear that Greek Orthodoxy wasn’t actually a part of Christianity and I just got things mixed up. I already felt like an outsider in the church and didn’t want to make a scene or offend anyone. So I just nodded and went back to sit down, feeling like I’ve been marked as an outsider. I’m also having a bit of a crisis, since if Greek Orthodoxy wasn’t Christianity what the hell was it, right? Like, is it just Greek Orthodox, created in a vacuum somehow? Or maybe there was some rife between the Greeks and other Christians that I was unaware of. Was I being ethnically targeted?

While all that was going on in my mind, the organizer came and found me in the pew and told me one of the priests can still talk to me one on one if I want, we just can’t do the confessions because I’m not a baptized Christian. I figured why not. I was here to experience what I could, and

After reading a number of saddening posts about Christianity I thought to share a bit more positive one.

I'm atheist, hired as part time secretary at City Church mission in Norway. Here Christians tend to be way more liberal than in the US, but just how much so really hit me while working.

My workplace has a church with regular masses. No one asked me to attend. I was never asked about my beliefs.

The CCM is openly supporting LGBT rights.

My workplace embraces diversity. I think around half of the people working here are immigrants.

Sustainability is on the agenda. Around 85% of all the departments of CCM is Eco-lighthouse certified or on the way to become certified (Eco-lighthouse is a certificate in my country for companies to document their environmental performance and social responsibility.)

We have an abortion prevention program. It consist of sex education materials in different languages, free condoms and free prevention pills subscribed by a nurse. It does not include talking women out of abortion, neither moralising.

I wish religions around the world would be like this.

I have a vacant block of land at -112,-99 and I'm looking for a fellow orthodox christian to build a church where we can potentially broadcast services from real orthodox churches.

Send me a message if interested.

From an immigrant family. Family of 12. Grew up in one church. One religion. One language. One specific culture. Was in that bubble til I turned 21. Got a job. Met this girl, whom my heart has been Tethered to for the last five years. Been living a semi double life cuz I’m not in the church and my family knows that, but they don’t know I’m in love with this girl. They ask me if I still believe in God, when I’m gonna go to church, if I would get married one day.. yada yada. I do believe in God but I’m not living like they are. They’ve been wondering about me for some time. Wondering who their sister is, what she does with her time, money, who is she with, why don’t they see her (mind you that we were all super close because we did have a really hard childhood, Teen years, and early adult years). The church(was essentially our safehaven during those tough times) taught us many good things but It didn’t teach us to love the outside world and definitely not be apart of it, it taught us to stay in our comfortable bubble. My parents are now in their late 60’s and mid 70’s, Still in there same bubble. My siblings and their children are in a different community, same faith, still ultra religious. I can’t keep hiding my girlfriend from the world just to keep a part of my life I’m barely involved in (family life, even though they want me to be involved only in family and church life). I need to come out and I’m so fuckin scared! I can’t keep living a double life. Her life is intertwined with mine In ways you wouldn’t imagine. We meet through work. I know many people she knows or someone that she knows knows someone I know. There are a few people that work there from my old church and community (also ultra religious) that know my whole family. My family also know her and love her (they think she’s my friend). If I start hanging out with her friends or going to holiday parties, the news will spread that I am hers and she is mine and will definitely reach my family and the church (because the community is so small, and everyone knows about everyone). My parents are old and also very vocal about everything that is wrong. The love they have for their children is conditional, as long as they are Christians, married and with a job and active in the church they won’t say to much. The fear has paralyzed me for so long, I haven’t had the courage to tell them that I love her. And now I will lose my lover and best friend. And I need to tell them but I’m so scared! I’m scared