Ok, I’m a Christian. Presbyterian. And most other Christians piss me off. Don’t get me wrong, I fuck up like crazy, but the people who talk like everything outside of what the specifically approve of will send you Straight to Hell, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200. Then there’s the Wackos who sin to prevent sin. Anyone see any logic here? There’s the nuts who dress all in black and listen to Korn and call themselves Christians. It would appear as though we are brought together and torn apart by our own religon. Hmm…
This is an interesting trend. I don’t object to people listening to Korn being Christians. I object to people who simply do not follow Christ’s words. The people who would rather throw their daughter out of their lives than allow her to date even a different variety of Christian than them. What happened to love everybody? Or casting the first stone after judging yourself to be without sin? When did Christ say it was your job to judge humanity?
Of course, here I am doing that as well. The grandness of hypocrasy.
On the other hand, it has been interesting to see some of the major sects kiss and make-up. This weekend the Episcopalians and the Evangelical Lutherans agreed to “create an alliance in which the churches will share clergy, sacraments and strategy.”
Late last year the Roman Catholics de-excommunicated Martin Luther and basically capitulated on all of his 99 theses, making the existence of separate religions moot. Of course, this was closely followed by a new Jubilee Year indulgence, but you can’t expect miracles.
The Second Vatican Council of the Sixties paved the way for these reprochements with its Ecumenical Council. As a Catholic boy growing up then I expected resulta sooner, but you can’t yadayadayada.
[hijack]Now that I belong to an ELCA church I asked the pastor why there are two ELCA churches within blocks of each other.
“One’s Swedish and the other’s Norwegian.”
Okay, I’m from Minnesota so I can understand this. I hazarded a guess, “And the Missouri Synod church in between is German?”
“Right.”
“Ours is the Norwegian one?”
“Yes, but our other pastor is Swedish.”
Apparently, miracles can happen.
Am I the only one whose first thought was Tom Lehrer singing, “National Brotherhood Week”?
As a Presbyterian, I also sometimes find it hard to accept other religions. Maybe it’s a Presby thing? ;^) I went on a mission trip three weeks ago (just got home last Sunday) to Costa Rica. Everyone on my mission team was VERY charismatic, speaking in tongues and raising their hands in the air for the songs. I accepted it but at the same time it made me feel awkward and uncomfortable because it wasn’t what I was used to. I guess we just want to cling to what we are brought up with, and since we think it’s the best way to go (if it wasn’t then why would you even want to be involved?) we’d want other people to be part of that, too. And what’s wrong with people that dress all in black? I think you’re a little out of line there. As for Korn, well, I don’t listen to Korn, in fact I don’t listen to secular music anymore, so I really don’t have an opinion on them.
I ran into a funny thing in Oklahoma City.
They ran ads every saturday for the InterFaith council. Only different Baptists were included. Talk about outreach.
I heard a good Korn song on the radio just today, as a matter of fact.
Hey, I have an idea. Let’s build a big arena and we can throw the Christians to the Christians! 
Woo hoo! Throw me some Catholics and Pentacostals! :^D
Hypocrites who don’t follow what they preach piss me off too. I went to a lutheran private school for 10 years, and it pissed me off that all they did was tell me what I couldn’t do or believe, and that it was evil. Personally, I hate it when people try to push their beliefs on other people. I mean, hasn’t the crusades and all the “holy wars” that several religions caused taught us anything about just leaving each other alone and not trying to make everyone just like us? I hope no one ever tries to make me believe something that i don’t follow personally. Let’s stop “burning the witches.”
[psycho]
As an off-and-on Catholic I am sometimes disappointed that we didn’t do a more thorough job of killing you heretics. All this namby-pamby “Martin Luther wasn’t so bad after all” crap when we should have burnt him at the stake when we had the chance. And you Calvinists, with your predestination–what’s up with that? There should be a cut-and-dried reward system. Hell of a way to run a religion!
Oh? This isn’t the Pit? Sorry!
[/psycho]
Fell in with some Pentacostal Catholics once. Almost spoke in tongues. Not sure what was stranger, speaking in tongues or the whole concept of Pentacostal Catholics. Something like Fundamentalist Unitarians; an oxymoron.
Hey, if y’all all kill each other, we atheists win. 
True, some christians do a pretty good job of stone throwing but it isn’t allways that way. Some of us are not graduates of the Jack Chick school of theological tolerance. Sometimes we wise up to what the lord was trying to teach us and we drop a grudge after a few hundred years. The evangelical Lutheran church I go to even hosts a catholic service after our own.
Dropzone, one of the reasons I started going to an ELCA church recently was because they are working for unity between demoninations, not fighting over differencs.
Padeye, isn’t it COOL?
I am SO SICK of the exclusive nature of most (numerically) “Christian” churches. The Baptists are especially fascinating, fragmenting over the slightest disagreement. The ELCA is different. I’m an agnostic bordering on an atheist (but want to keep my bets covered) and I STILL feel welcome in the ELCA. It is the most modern church I’ve found. And my wife, who, like the AP, started out as a Methodist, is even more flabbergasted and delighted by it.
The Missouri Synod seems to be completely unrelated. My nephew goes to one of their schools and is being taught Creationism, fer cryin out loud.
I tend to agree, but I’m sure the collateral damage will put a severe damper on the victory celebration. If that’s all you see of Christians, I can’t blame you for thinking we’re all crazy.
As far as crusades/holy wars are concerned, I’ve always held the opinion that these were not fueled by religion, but by greed and lust for power. Quite often, people claim authority to do things they haven’t a right to do (invade the holy land to free it from the heathens, collect money for charity then buy large, expensive homes and cars, etc.) People will use whatever ploy they think will get you to buy into their program, whether it’s “All scientists say that…” or “It says so in the Bible that…”. I’m a skeptic. I’ll go look up the reference myself.
“Converting” heathens by conquest is about as effective as setting fire to a house to keep it from burning down.
I think it doesn’t matter if Reverend So-and-so says everyone who isn’t a Brand X Christian won’t get into heaven. He isn’t the gate keeper. He is blocking some people’s path to the gates, however. He’s also convincing others that there’s nothing worthwhile behind the gates (and perhaps that the gates aren’t there to begin with). That, I do not like.
~~Baloo
Somebody has a really good sig line here that says (paraphrased) “If every Christian would act like their Jesus, then the world would be a better place.” It’s by Ghandi.
That quote is so true. I truly believe with all my heart that if every Christian on earth acted just like Jesus, then the entire world would be saved. We’d all be Christians. That’d be a dream come true.
BTW, would Jesus have said the “F” word? I’m not throwing stones. I’m just asking.
…most of the people who are the first to tell you they are Christians are the last ones you’d expect to be from their actions.
Now, Phil. Atheism isn’t the only religion besides Christianity.
I believe it was Mark Twain who wrote, “If Jesus Christ were alive today, there is one thing he would not be: A Christian.”
Doesn’t make you wonder what your Christ would say if He returned? I agree that often the basic elements of Christianity are lost among the Christians.
However, I think that the judgement of these people should be left to a higher authority. I think that the intent that they have is more important in a spiritual sense than their actions. Their actions are what ultimately impacts on their physical exsitance, but their intent in what is in thier heart. And, who are we to know another’s intent.
I stick to “Do as ye will, An it harm none”
True, Lib, but it’s the only one that counts. 