I'm a newbie to this forum but I am bored and feel like posting. Every thread on the first page of the Christianity forum has an anti-Christian title. I have read a lot of them and am pretty saddened, for many reasons. I am a Catholic Christian. My boyfriend is Jewish. My father is a fundamentalist Christian. I have very few Christian friends. My father and his wife are evangelical Christians, and some of the nicest people you have ever met. They donate to charity regularly, volunteer, and pretty much confound everyone with their niceness. That said, they are the only evangelicals I know like this. I attended a few of the churches they did and came out resenting Christianity a lot. The worship services are a joke-3 hours of singing horrible music followed by a sermon and an altar call in which the same people get "saved" week after week. People profess to be overcome with the Holy Spirit and "prophecy" or babble in an unknown language they claim is the voice of God, and they are considered the same as Biblical prophets. My disgust at the evangelical movement led me away from Christianity, where I learned the value of other faiths. I eventually realized that I did believe in Jesus and went through the process of conversion to the Catholic Church. I fully believe the core teachings of the Catholic church, though some of the things that are taught now I do not really follow, not to be hypocritical but because I do not think they are central to Christianity and that I trust myself to make those decisions. (contraception being an example-I think the church should allow its use and the prohibition against it is not dogma but a behavioral thing, so hypothetically that teaching could eventually be changed. i am against abortion and think that contraception prevents them-common sense. that said, i know at least eight girls who have had abortions and I don't judge them. i could care less-thats their life and their business and not my place to even attempt to judge.) yes I know the catholic church has some shady history but speaking as someone on the inside, we're pretty ashamed of it : ) there have been saints in history who condemned the evil practices of the church and effected real change-Catherine of Sienna wrote letters to the pope criticizing many of his decisions in authoritative language a lowly nun wouldnt normally use to the most powerful man in Christendom at the time, but she was heard. My personal patroness is Joan of Arc. She got screwed over because Church and State got too chummy. Her story and influence on my life have affected my political views because of this. I guess I am just posting all this to justify myself and see how the rest of you judge me. FedUpAmerican's posts have made me truly think about my religion and why Christianity does suck, but I want to be one of the good ones. When I went to Europe I saw a Christianity completely different than this idiotic evangelical/fundamental version America has. Europeans tended to assume that all Americans are like that and it scared the hell out of me! I do yoga for hours a day, meditate in the Buddhist metta bhavana style; I voted for John Kerry (because he wasn't Bush, like the rest of us did); I believe that Christianity should put poverty and social justice on a higher level than abortion and gay marriage and the like. I am in the theatre-all my friends are gay! Let them marry, who cares! I smoke a ton of pot and have campaigned for marijuana law reform. My senators have recieved countless letters from me on environmental issues and I have marched with the rest of the hippies on these issues. Reading this forum makes me feel like I cannot be a "real hippie" because I am a Christian. (not that i always identify as a hippie and I suppose the only real hippies were my age forty years ago) Am I an anomaly for being open-minded? Am I going to be bashed here for my beliefs? Should I stop calling myself a Christian?-I am also attracted to indigenous religions and Hindu philosophy, perhaps I should nto define myself by religion. Obviously it is dangerous in these times to be associated with Christianity. I do feel shame at being associated with many "christians" but I feel proud to be associated with Jesus Christ.
Welcome and yeah, what he said And there are a few that aren't what you called "anti-Christian" (Trippin's Holy Spirit Thread, my Icons thread, JD4U's Church attendance thread) but I do understand what you meant...
You sound like a Catholic girl with her head on straight. But you're still just catholic. Hehe. Well consider that Americans are all capitalistic idiots and it'll make more sense why we have an idiotic faith system. Well Awomen to you! +1 point for mindfulness meditation +5 points for thinking that Kerry sucks but that Bush sucks even worse +2 points for putting social justice and poverty higher than abortion +1 point for having gay friends +5 points for smoking ganja +10 for writing your senators and campaining like NORML. How are you still Catholic? :O Yes! Welcome to the Black Hole, where all anomalies end up. Lol ... maybe for your sake, but if Christianity seems to work for you then let it. Just don't discredit the truths in other religions -- but it doesn't seem like you are doing that at all anyway. Yeah, exactly. Nothing I said here is the truth. Just kidding. They might as well all be. =( Sad state of affairs, IMO. I am just glad I didn't start any.
You go girl! You alone have your own personal relationship with the DIViNE creator consciousness, and no one else in the world can be in your shoes. So honor what you believe in and take other peoples judgements especially on here as a grain of sand. Peace Cosmic
Welcome and don't fear the animals. Even heathens like me who might believe in your God, but don't worship him. I mean, even He admitted that he wasn't the only god. Some of us who take pleasure in pointing out the futility and ludicrous behavours of Christians and monotheism are not anti-Christian. Pagans do not recruit, we aren't interested in saving your soul, we're just friendly people who sometimes get tired of being pushed and we push back a little. That's all.
