FWIW, the Seven Deadly Sins are more of a Catholic thing than a Christian thing. Gotta remind yourself that “Christians” is a name for a fairly diverse group of sects which all have different rules. Some sects like their rules better than others.
We’re all humans with free will and we’ve all decided to interpret the scriptures differently. Hell, if you noticed, the Gospels are all different guys interpreting the same events in Jesus’ life differently!
Saying that a fat Christian is a fail is as weird sounding to me as going to a Colts/Cowboys football game and declaring a lack of football fans in attendance because no one is wearing a foam cheese hat.
The original question was about church attendance specifically, and asked what the difference is supposed to be between Christians and atheists if the Christians don’t go to church. Since she already said they behave similarly in many ways, I was pointing out the beliefs issue, which some atheists claim is evidence of a Christian’s delusion/insanity. (And, conversely, some Christians claim the opposite is evidence of delusion or being misled by Satan.) So the mere presence of belief (or lack thereof) ought to mean a lot in distinguishing the two.
And as stated by ZipperJJ, the Seven Deadly Sins are a Catholic thing to the best of my understanding. Protestants, or at least the variations I’ve seen, don’t really acknowledge them as a religious thing.
Just as not all Christians acknowledge the Seven Deadly Sins, some don’t acknowledge the need to attend a church to fuel their faith or show their devotion. It’s as simple as that.
I participated with the music ministry at two Masses last night and one this morning. I don’t know about people who don’t go on Christmas, but sometimes they might feel like they’d be at odds with a parent/grandparent/other relative harping them to come more often.
A lady friend of mine I’m presently smitten with goes exactly once a year, at Christmas, for the sake of pleasing her mother. I’m not sure to what extent she’s atheist or just apathetic, but Christmas is the time of year a lot of my friends, like her, sorta just “take one for the team.” With the new Roman Missal and a particularly pointed homily from the pastor this year, though, a few of them said they might not even do that. You’re not going to bait the lapsed Catholics back by talking down to them…
Actually it was considered pagan not papal. Christmas on the 25th was an accomadation to the converted pagans in northern Europe to replace the Solstice celebrations.
I do not attend church regularly. However the Christmas Eve service in the town I grew up in is something of a Homecoming for those of us who went to High School together.
My parents are the two most devoted Christians I know. Today they went to service.
But growing up, we never did.
For some Christians, Christmas is not very religious. Easter is the big, we-gotta-go-to-church-and-be-serious day, but Christmas is for fun and celebration.
I consider myself a Christian, and in fact I go to church every Sunday.
I didn’t go today (I’m out of town, but wouldn’t have gone if I was at home). There’s just too much hustle and bustle going on at the moment, and the place would be practically empty if I went, anyway. All the families with small children are going to drag them away from their presents to go to church? Puh-lease.
Just for **Indygrrl–**we had a lovely Christmas service that we really enjoyed a lot (it was full of children who were well-behaved–but by the end of the hour they were dying to go home and open some gifts already!). It was nice to go to church and to see so many friends. I would be happy to do it every year.
Christmas Eve mass at the Catholic church we attend was at 4:30. Nothing later than that on Christmas Eve. (and it was packed with chairs set up all over, and people standing in the back and along the sides.) One mass on Christmas Day. These have been the christmas mass times for years at our church..whether Christmas fall on Sunday, Monday or any other day.
Years ago we had the actual midnight mass, at midnight.
To the extent this is true (and I don’t think it is), perhaps it’s related to the reason many real partiers stay home on New Years Eve and St. Pat’s Day: it’s amateur hour.
mmm
ETA: The large church I attended was literally SRO.
In my experience, Catholic churches in this area use their Sunday schedule on Christmas. There are some modifications - instead of a 5 pm Sat Mass there might be both a 5 pm and another , later Mass on Christmas Eve, and if a parish has a Sunday evening Mass, there may not be an evening mass on Christmas. But around here, no parish goes from one Mass on Saturday and and four on Sunday to four on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas (like Guinastasia’s experience) or from one on Sat and four on Sun to one each on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Just pointing out (since I don’t see that anyone has) that for Catholics, Christmas is a Holy Day and there absolutely will be a mass on any holy day, regardless of how many convenient vigil masses are scheduled. This year was unusual since Christmas was on Sunday; you got a twofer with Sunday/Holy day mass.
And also I would like to state that people’s stated beliefs that don’t match up with their practices annoy everyone, not just atheists. Hypocritical behavior is hypocritical behavior — just as human nature is human nature. You’re going to get it whether people call themselves Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Purplish, Bluish … or atheist.
