My personal observation is that “casual” Christians (I am more familiar with Christians, but this may be true of religionists of other faiths, as well) speak of people who are more interested / active / serious about their faith as “more religious.” They say things like, “I’m not very religious myself, but my aunt goes to church every Sunday and reads the Bible daily; she’s very religious.” They may even refer to “religious people”, by which they mean, “People who are more knowledgable or serious about our shared faith than I am.”
This is a casual observation from RL, not necessarily a reflection of what goes on at the SDMB.
I love going into Barnes & Noble and observing the juxtiposition of the bookshelves labled “Religion” and “Judaica”
:rolleyes:
I don’t think of a building when I think of a church. A church, as I believe it was supposed to mean, is just a gathering of people together to worship God in fellowship. Today, at least in my circle, they tend to be known as homegroups.
(slight hijack)
Does anyone remember the story of Jesus getting angry at the moneychangers in the temple? Well, my mom just took a trip through Europe, and she stopped at the Vatican. She told me about how in the main lobby, there are nuns running around trying to sell souveniers. Anyone else find this profoundly disturbing, or is it just me?
(end of hijack)
I understand your point Lord Ashtar, but there are some differences that may or may not make any difference. In the first place, I am not sure that you can entirely equate the Temple in Jerusalem in the time of Jesus and the Vatican, today.
Also, as commerical as selling the souvenirs may be that also doesn’t exactly equate to the moneylenders. Many of those souvenirs will be taken home and given an honored place. The money changers on the other hand were more like these store front bandits that are popping up to cash poor people’s checks (for a fee, of course). There would have been no souvenirs in the Temple, since these would have been in violation of the ban on graven images.
Then there is the question of whether what Jesus did may have been a sign that the day of animal sacrifice was over.
Whether or not it can be equated to Jesus throwing out the moneylenders, I agree the selling of souvenirs in the main lobby shows a lack of respect and class on the Vatican’s part.
A sin I am guilty of, having posted such a thread not too long ago. I should have entitled the thread, Who is “better” in the eyes of people who follow ideologies based on the concept of the Biblical God(or derivatives thereof)? rather than Who is “better” in the eyes of the religious? 
I suppose my subconcious has been so thoroughly innundated by a procession of Christian/bibilical people professing their beliefs that on some level I just began to associate them with the word “religious” and the notion of organized religion in general. Perhaps this wouldn’t happen if I ever ran into a Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, ect. on the street or if these alternatives were even somewhat visible on my side of the world. But, this is not the world’s problem-- its mine. Thanks for the perceptual adjustment and sorry for the vague thread title.