What is your experience with Christianity?

If they didn't, would they bother to espouse it? I wouldn't.
I believe that my religion (Christianity) is the true one. That's why I worship in the way I do. My parents were Jehovah's Witnesses, and they believed very firmly that THEIRS was the one truth. They believed it so thoroughly that I was disowned for leaving "the truth". My parents are now deceased, but my brother still doesn't associate with me.
The truth as it exists within each heart is a powerful thing!

 

I like your last sentence.

 

It's easy to make fun of people who are believers and it's easy to make fun of those who don't believe. It's also easy for me to accept that people should be able to believe what they want, short of harming others. The human condition.

 

how about all of them being in some sense true, and most people not really very well understanding what any of them are actually saying.
(or have the intellectual honesty to actually dig in, explore, analyze, and find out)

an honest critique of christianity, an honest understanding of how it got to where it is, is NOT dissing on it.
(and very much NOT an accross the board, dismissal of ALL belief and religious thought)

the problem with christianity is not with the name it now takes in vane, but how it distorted and perverted it.
as for "what god says", nothing human has ever seen or heard "what god says" other, possibly, those, once every thousand years, give or take a few hundred, whom 'god' has chosen to be channeled by. and yes, your christ was likely one of them, but by no means neather the first nor the last.

here's another idea that occurs to me. what if god and satan were mates, (neither looks very much like pure good or pure evil to me), and their disagreement were in the nature of a domestic disturbance, where the wise and sensible thing, were to take no sides, avoid getting dragged into it, but instead, take care to be logically and honestly considerate of all things, and i do mean all things, not just those that look like humans or live on this earth.

 

I live in a country that's 65% Christian, in a state that's 77% Christian, in a county that's 96.2% Christian. While my interpersonal experience of some individual Christians has been very, very positive, growing up and living in "the buckle of the Bible Belt", my overall experience of the psychosocial and sociopolitical construct of Christianity, with it's inherent misogyny, homophobia, racism, bigotry, and outright misanthropy, has been one which I can only characterize as pervasive, threatening, oppressive, and hostile.

 

Whoa! My church must be very atypical. None of that there. Jesus did not teach any of those things. He didn't hate anyone, but taught that we should love everyone and judge no one. We are all sinners, and He died to redeem us all from our sins, no matter what they are.
That is the spirit of the Agape Christian Fellowship Church. Maybe you need to find one like that. Surely it can't be the only one!

 

By the way, blessed Palm Sunday to all

 

Yes; our local Episcopal Church is a wonderful place; a community that truly embraces and transparently reflects 1John 4:7-8. I'm neither Episcopal nor Christian, yet I count many of them as friends, including their pastor.
However, the last service I attended with my mother featured an angry venomous rant about the fall of America from grace due to tolerance of abortion, homosexuality, and Liberalism, and the resultant tragedy of "the great White race" being relegated to minority status. A Christian friend of mine who's been 'church shopping' around here says that many of the local Sunday services are actually Trump rallies, with all that entails.
Yes; I've known some individual Christians who truly reflect the teachings of the synoptic gospels with brilliant clarity. However, that has not been my experience of the all-pervasive milieu of Christianity as a whole. In toto, I've experienced it as oppressive, vindictive, and hostile.
I'm very glad if your experience does not mirror mine.

 

May the peace of Christ be with you.

 

And also with you, brother.

 

I'm a Christian, too, but I happen to think all of the major religions contain spiritual truths and I've found their perspectives useful in gaining a better understanding of my own religion. I happen to have come to Christianity as a result of a conversion experience that was something of an ecumenical trip--including atheism. I still think we can learn from all of them. I prefer Christianity to the others, but the Christianity I prefer is radically different from the narrow-minded, bigoted kind that puts the others down.

 

Amen to that!

 

I am a Christian, but I am a Sinner Too! Lord please Forgive me for my wrong ways! My thoughts and Desires. In the Name of Jesus Christ I Pray!

 

Amen.

 

When we talk about Christianity, I think we are talking about something truly universal.

The values are universal. One man died and forgave the sins of humanity. One man? That's sort of inadequate, isn't it? We have a relationship with Jesus as Christians, don't we? So often we don't get to express that, but it's still there. And in our story (I'm freely saying story, even though I suspect some might feel that term is cavalier) He died for the sins of mankind. He was the son of God in our story. We hold him sacred as our God, but also as a personal friend. The one who forgave and forgives us when we fail.

That friendship and fellowship make us wholesome. That makes us credible and thoughtful.

Are there some things that disappoint me about Christianity? No. What about the way it's portrayed or misused? Yes, absolutely.

But that isn't what this thread is about. Sadly, you cannot separate one from the other anymore. There we are... the good with the bad.

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Okay... also, in the interest of honesty and transparency with you, my friends... I have stopped being a Catholic or Christian in any meaningful way. That's really sad to say, isn't it?! I think that sentence is difficult to read without coming to some conclusions that lead somewhere unpleasant.

But I have chosen to move in a new direction with my spirituality. I feel a real connection with the universe, yes... it isn't missing, nor is it empty. I feel whole and loved, and also, I'm not ready to say "there is no God" or anything like that. Nothing like that in fact.

I honestly think of religion as a vehicle for spirituality. In that way, I see Christianity as my old car. It has seen many miles, huh? Yes...

My wife is Muslim, and I told her, "We'll be Muslim when you come to the United States". But her heart is in that... In her love of God and her faith, you can't just "say" you are Muslim. A convert? Might as well be a traitor. What I mean to say here is that to her it isn't just a "vehicle for spirituality". It's bound to your soul, and you are with it until you go with God to paradise (to heaven).

If you've been here long enough, you may have heard me mention televangelism. The old televangelism is a little quaint, but what I like about it is an effort to modernize our interpretation. I may not like the medium or the venue (TV has a reputation for not being trustworthy) but I like the opportunity to understand, modernize, and internalize something that is very important.

I am not Christian. That is very difficult to say, because I have always been... I was baptized and confirmed Catholic. It's irreversible, right? Well, there isn't a way to 'notify' the Vatican that you want to be taken off of the roster. But I'm not practicing, and I have no meaningful plans to reunite with the church.

If you know me, or if you're used to know me and remember me as being a faithful congregant

I'm sorry. Honestly. It has meant so much, hasn't it? It's been confession and communion both. I won't accept either anymore. I don't want either, no.

I feel at peace, and I know my way without direction from faith or clergy. I keep a sense of universal values in the front of my mind...

But I resent it when I get the sense that some church goer is hoping I'll come around to conclusions because 'they were lost and now they're found'. Does that make me arrogant? An elitist? Sometimes I feel like that is necessary in order to divest from the full-scale onslaught being delivered by the community at large. I want to scream and kill and murder and fight when they force their foolish ignorance into the context of my surroundings. How dare they be so presumptuous?! I'm only safe if I'm sleeping some days, but then it's Easter or Christmas. Well, at least there's that...

Anyway, I'm not really big on the direction with religion at the helm if I'm honest - as you can see, I'm agitated by the very thought of some behaviors I encounter as a result...

But how else do we show children that we absolutely depend on our values to get us through each minute of every day?

I am lucky enough to be pretty creative about teaching that message, and also, I don't have children. But I think that becomes the difficulty, our moral failings as parents and mentors. We need to demonstrate that it means something for them; not only to us, but to every conscientious adult.

Religion is the traditional way to do that, and I think it provides at the very least a false sense of security that allows socialization to occur, or even genuine confidence.

 

According to the Bible (which I absolutely believe), our perfect condition and our right to Paradise was lost by our first parents, Adam and Eve. One man to bring us all down-- one PERFECT man, created in the image of God-- one man, again, a PERFECT man, to redeem us. Like for like, so no, not inadequate in the least. A perfect man lost it all. A perfect man, the only begotten son of God, is adequate to balance the books.
I cannot find any reason not to trust and believe in the promises put forth in the word of God, no matter what anyone might say. It just resonates in my heart as absolute truth.

 

The word “religion” is best described in what you do and say everyday ...

if a man believe in a burrito who am I to say that what he believes in is not true ?

 

I say that because on the radio years ago I heard of two men fighting over a microwaveable burrito in the 7-11 and the guy shot the other guy over the burrito ...

Wow that must of been a very heated argument and did either of them really win that argument?

total truth ^^^