Until we were “conrirmed”, my parents required us to attend church and Sunday school. One December when I was 13, Reverend Philip (last name omitted) had the audacity to give a sermon at my church in which he told all the little kiddies that there was no Santa Claus and that “Jesus was the reason for the season”. That’s a bunch of BS as the concept of giving presents on December 25th predates the Christian era. During the sermon, I heard one kiddie say to his mom, “See, I told you so”. For many reasons, I stopped going to church a few months later.
I forgot about this for fifty years until … I was at that same church attending a wedding. During the religious part of the ceremony, my mind went into hibernation. All I could think of was Reverend Philip’s sermon. I wanted to write Reverend Philip and tell him how much I hated his chutzpah. So I googled him. Alas, the SOB died in March. If there is life-after-death, I will have to wait a few more years to call him an S.O.B.
Religion isn’t about beliefs; religion is about domination of the believers. So, what BS have you been told by priests/rabbis/ministers?
When I first moved here, about 20 years ago, I attended a Lutheran church for a while, until the lead preacher did a sermon about abortion. I don’t think that’s the place or time for something like that, and chances are, there were women in the congregation that day who’d had an abortion and felt they had done the right thing.
ETA: I wasn’t one of them. That didn’t make it any less offensive.
To list it all would take a week or three of typing. Father, at my former church, used a funeral of a beloved uncle to basically tell me I was going to burn for changing faiths. And there have been some other real serious clinkers over the years. But there have been some good things as well - such as our personal relationship should be with God and what He puts in our hearts no matter what the fellow in the pulpit says; said by a guy in a pulpit. I’m in a pew somewhere say 35 weeks a year. If 30% of the sermons are basically OK I figure Pastor did a good enough job. After all, a .300 average is outstanding in MLB and I’m not feeling a need to hold him (or her) tom a higher standard.
I used to believe, big-time. But I had some questions and no one would/could answer them. Best response was from my Sunday school teacher, who called me a godless little heathen for even asking and yelled at my mother about it.
All of that set me off on a personal quest to find the truth, and I did. And boy, it wasn’t anything like what I had been told before. Bizerta, it’s not just domination, it’s the accumulation of wealth as well. Religion is quite possibly the single most dangerous thing we humans have ever dreamed up to inflict upon ourselves.
… you do know that there really isn’t a Santa Claus, right? I’m as militantly atheistic as they come but this is the most mundane thing anyone has ever been mad about for 50 years.
You’re comparing apples and oranges and God. A .001 average is fantastic if one is playing PowerBall, but the FAA would not accept a .999 average for the Grace L Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Company). I’m surprised that you’re satisfied with a .300 average I would tend to distrust anyone that lied to me 70% of the time.
Also, I don’t think a preacher saying “Jesus is the reason for the season” is all that controversial either. Regardless of whether there were festivals for giving presents before the establishment of Dec 25 as the Feast Day for the Nativity of Our Lord (or Christ’s Mass), it is undeniable that the reason it’s become such a massive event is due to our culture being so influences by the Christian tradition. Why be so mad over that?
I’ve actually never heard anything truly dumb said at the pulpit, at least not dumb in a way that was inconsistent with the religious beliefs of the congregation. If anything, the most controversial things said are the ones that are obviously true: such as there is no Santa Claus.
I can’t remember a single sermon I ever heard. Even when I was actively working in a church I was usually surreptitiously checking out the ladies. (my, my, do the ladies like to get dolled-up before sunday go-to-meeting) Or making sure someone didn’t come charging down the aisle and stick a sharp object in the preacher.
Even then I knew it was pretense, I was an atheist long before I admitted it to myself.
Not exactly heard from the pulpit since I don’t attend any regular service…
but I once received a Christmas letter in a Christmas card, the kind that updates you on the the things the family has been doing for the past year. This particular letter had my jaw hanging for years afterwords.
The author (the wife) stated that her husband had been struggling with job and money woes and had turned to taking out his frustration on her. And that her pastor had taught her how to support her husband without nagging him and showed her how to pray harder and more decisively. :eek:
So a woman is getting beaten by her husband and the pastor’s advice is to stop nagging and pray more? :smack:
So you are saying that the reason for Christmas is the exchange of presents? I disagree. Sure, midwinter celebrations preceded the Christian era, but they weren’t Christmas, were they? I do agree that the pastor was an ass for outing Santa Claus though.
Technically speaking, telling kids that Santa doesn’t exist is not BS. He was telling the truth.
I have heard BS from the pulpit before - when I was a kid my family attended a church whose pastor was really interested in creationism and often presented “evidence” for creation or against evolution from the pulpit. That’s why I’m an Episcopalian now.
He did tell one of my favorite pulpit jokes of all time, and I’ve never been sure if it was intentional or not. He started talking about creationism and stuff, and then got off on a tangent about the Shroud of Turn. He caught himself and said – “regarding the shroud… I really don’t want to get wrapped up in that right now.”
What was the actual phrased used? While “taking out his frustation on her” could certainly be read as “beating her” I think it could also mean “said something mean to her.”
Also… if her effort to stop nagging is to inform the entire world of her husband’s faults in a Christmas card… then I’m kinda thinking he has a lot of frustrations in his life and that job and money are probably not at the very top of the list.
Saturday we had a guest give the sermon. It was about the Charleston shootings and was a right barn-burner when the barn really needed burning. Our pastor is getting close to retirement and I suggested her as his replacement. He agreed. I don’t know how the rest of the congregation felt, but most of them were even older than I and maybe this jarred loose their memories of a more-activist youth. Sometimes Lutherans need a little kick in the kiester. They can be too nice.
…And there is absolutely No Reason to give gifts to a wicker-basket every Sunday to anyone making it harder to raise their kids either, right Rev Philip…?
“Well, the God I believe in isn’t short of cash, mister.” -Bono, 1987
