Religeons

[squareshot]

How many religions do you think there are. It must number in the thousands. I have heard of many of them. Some are real, some not so much. Do you know of any that seem to have God at their back. The Catholic Church seems to have the money, but they have been around since Christianity started. Do you know of any that believe in God and not the son. Tell me what you think of your Church.

 

[Jen]

How many religions do you think there are. It must number in the thousands. I have heard of many of them. Some are real, some not so much. Do you know of any that seem to have God at their back. The Catholic Church seems to have the money, but they have been around since Christianity started. Do you know of any that believe in God and not the son. Tell me what you think of your Church.

I am certain that there are good churches out there. I have not found one lately. The last one I belonged to didn't respect me or my wishes and so I just left. It seems that over the years churches have become social clubs and their goal is more of mass control than leading people to know their Creator. I choose not to be a part of that, but at the same time, I realize that it is a need and a good thing for many people so I am glad when I find that someone has found a church that encourages them.

No church is perfect, I am supportive of all, belong to none.

 

[ElGringo]

How many religions do you think there are. It must number in the thousands. I have heard of many of them. Some are real, some not so much. Do you know of any that seem to have God at their back. The Catholic Church seems to have the money, but they have been around since Christianity started. Do you know of any that believe in God and not the son. Tell me what you think of your Church.

I don't know how many different religions there are but I'd be willing to bet there are a lot of them.

I'm Catholic and I'm happy with it, every parish I've ever been registered in over the years has been really good. I did leave the Church for a few years when I was a young adult but I ended up going back and have appreciated the Church much more than I did when I was younger and the decision to belong hadn't been up to me.

I lived down south (in West Texas) for a few years and for part of that time I was in a very small town and I saw exactly what Jen was talking about. Everything in that town...business, religious, social...you name it, was decided through their church. In that town almost everyone was Baptist and I did end up semi-regularly attending services there because it really was a social/business club. I was shocked at the amount of politics in the sermons, I'd never heard that in a Catholic church.

 

[squareshot]

I am certain that there are good churches out there. I have not found one lately. The last one I belonged to didn't respect me or my wishes and so I just left. It seems that over the years churches have become social clubs and their goal is more of mass control than leading people to know their Creator. I choose not to be a part of that, but at the same time, I realize that it is a need and a good thing for many people so I am glad when I find that someone has found a church that encourages them.

No church is perfect, I am supportive of all, belong to none.

Hi Jen, Well I don't have a church that I attend. My family attended a southern Baptist church when I was small. But it didn't take long until I lost faith. To start with, most of the people we're clannish, and to be accepted you had to be a part of the clic, or you were looked down upon. And like you said, I didn't want to be a part of that club. So I began to look for my own way. To start with, I read the bible from cover to cover. I was amazed that anyone could believe in the stuff I found in it. So I started to look for something I could believe in, and someplace along the way, I discovered what I believe.

 

[squareshot]

I don't know how many different religions there are but I'd be willing to bet there are a lot of them.

I'm Catholic and I'm happy with it, every parish I've ever been registered in over the years has been really good. I did leave the Church for a few years when I was a young adult but I ended up going back and have appreciated the Church much more than I did when I was younger and the decision to belong hadn't been up to me.

I lived down south (in West Texas) for a few years and for part of that time I was in a very small town and I saw exactly what Jen was talking about. Everything in that town...business, religious, social...you name it, was decided through their church. In that town almost everyone was Baptist and I did end up semi-regularly attending services there because it really was a social/business club. I was shocked at the amount of politics in the sermons, I'd never heard that in a Catholic church.

It is so easy to find what you think is the real deal, only to find out it is mostly about money, power, and control. I make it a point to not discuss individual churches, and if you are happy with your church stick with it.

 

[NightSwimmer]

I was shocked at the amount of politics in the sermons, I'd never heard that in a Catholic church.

That's because you'll never hear a sermon in a Catholic Church. A homily is about as close as you'll come to hearing one. Most Protestant Churches, and certainly the Southern Baptist variety, don't operate under the kind of strict hierarchy that outlines the rigid structure of a Catholic Mass, and Priests are not preachers.

I too have been shocked in recent decades by the amount of blatant secular politics that has infested the more conservative strains of Protestant preaching. Still, to pretend that there are no politics nor social club atmosphere present in a Catholic Church is patently ridiculous. It simply expresses itself in a slightly different manner, due to the different environment.

 

[Renee]

I am certain that there are good churches out there. I have not found one lately. The last one I belonged to didn't respect me or my wishes and so I just left. It seems that over the years churches have become social clubs and their goal is more of mass control than leading people to know their Creator. I choose not to be a part of that, but at the same time, I realize that it is a need and a good thing for many people so I am glad when I find that someone has found a church that encourages them.

No church is perfect, I am supportive of all, belong to none.

Most churches have become political and should not be tax exempt

 

[Renee]

Hi Jen, Well I don't have a church that I attend. My family attended a southern Baptist church when I was small. But it didn't take long until I lost faith. To start with, most of the people we're clannish, and to be accepted you had to be a part of the clic, or you were looked down upon. And like you said, I didn't want to be a part of that club. So I began to look for my own way. To start with, I read the bible from cover to cover. I was amazed that anyone could believe in the stuff I found in it. So I started to look for something I could believe in, and someplace along the way, I discovered what I believe.

I discovered what I believe in....me! I control my behavior and morality

 

[Corruptbuddha]

I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church. I think I was about 13 when I realized that Christianity was as full of shit as any other religion.

My wife, on the other hand, is a Catholic (Mexican) and as devout as anyone in this day and age can be. She saw to it that the kids were raised in the Church, went to a catholic school and catechism. Both have made final communion. She did her part, as it were.

They know I am an atheist and don't give me crap about it.

 

[Jen]

Hi Jen, Well I don't have a church that I attend. My family attended a southern Baptist church when I was small. But it didn't take long until I lost faith. To start with, most of the people we're clannish, and to be accepted you had to be a part of the clic, or you were looked down upon. And like you said, I didn't want to be a part of that club. So I began to look for my own way. To start with, I read the bible from cover to cover. I was amazed that anyone could believe in the stuff I found in it. So I started to look for something I could believe in, and someplace along the way, I discovered what I believe.

Try prayer. Not some lofty Our Fathers, just talk to your Creator and see what happens. And remember that there is a certain amount of faith required in anything we do whether we are atheist or religious. So allow yourself to have just a tiny bit of faith that you have an intelligent Creator that would be open to communication with you if you were willing.

Religions are clubs. I'm not a club person and maybe you aren't either. But God doesn't need for you to be in a club in order to find him. Something has happened in my own life just in the past month that is no less than a miracle..... and it happened because I just had a little faith. Seek your creator. He's there.

 

[squareshot]

Try prayer. Not some lofty Our Fathers, just talk to your Creator and see what happens. And remember that there is a certain amount of faith required in anything we do whether we are atheist or religious. So allow yourself to have just a tiny bit of faith that you have an intelligent Creator that would be open to communication with you if you were willing.

Religions are clubs. I'm not a club person and maybe you aren't either. But God doesn't need for you to be in a club in order to find him. Something has happened in my own life just in the past month that is no less than a miracle..... and it happened because I just had a little faith. Seek your creator. He's there.

Would you tell me what happened. If it is private I will understand.

 

[ElGringo]

That's because you'll never hear a sermon in a Catholic Church. A homily is about as close as you'll come to hearing one. Most Protestant Churches, and certainly the Southern Baptist variety, don't operate under the kind of strict hierarchy that outlines the rigid structure of a Catholic Mass, and Priests are not preachers.

I too have been shocked in recent decades by the amount of blatant secular politics that has infested the more conservative strains of Protestant preaching. Still, to pretend that there are no politics nor social club atmosphere present in a Catholic Church is patently ridiculous. It simply expresses itself in a slightly different manner, due to the different environment.

I didn't say that I had heard a sermon in a Catholic church, read it again, I said I'd never heard politics discussed there. Nice try though, gotta give you credit for beating that dead horse across multiple threads. Oh Noes! I left out a word which wasn't necessary due to the context of the statement...I must not know what I'm talking about! Oh woe is me, you caught me! Good Job!

I can't speak to the amount of politics in Protestant church services but I have noticed an increase in the amount of people recently willing to state that they think certain things should be done in the secular world due to their religious beliefs.

As for what happens in Catholic churches, yep, obviously my opinion doesn't matter and should be automatically discounted as patently ridiculous since my experience doesn't at all jibe with what you so obviously want to be seen as true. The only time I've ever noticed anything political at all take place at a church I was a member of was last year when flyers had been placed on our windshields. They had to do with a perceived attack by the federal government on Catholic health care providers, and the parish wasn't responsible for that, that came from higher up.

 

[squareshot]

I don't know how many different religions there are but I'd be willing to bet there are a lot of them.

I'm Catholic and I'm happy with it, every parish I've ever been registered in over the years has been really good. I did leave the Church for a few years when I was a young adult but I ended up going back and have appreciated the Church much more than I did when I was younger and the decision to belong hadn't been up to me.

I lived down south (in West Texas) for a few years and for part of that time I was in a very small town and I saw exactly what Jen was talking about. Everything in that town...business, religious, social...you name it, was decided through their church. In that town almost everyone was Baptist and I did end up semi-regularly attending services there because it really was a social/business club. I was shocked at the amount of politics in the sermons, I'd never heard that in a Catholic church.

Did you go back to that church.

 

[NightSwimmer]

I didn't say that I had heard a sermon in a Catholic church, read it again, I said I'd never heard politics discussed there.

I have. Maybe you just don't attend church all that often.

 

[ElGringo]

Did you go back to that church.

Which one, the Baptist one? Yep, but the only reason I went is because all of the towns business was handled there. BTW, I'm not picking on Baptists here, I think the reason it worked the way it did there was due to the small size of the town, not due to the fact that they were Baptist.

 

[ElGringo]

I have. Maybe you just don't attend church all that often.

For those of you who don't know, NS is in more than one thread trying to show that I'm not really religious because I don't fit in with his preconceived notions of who I should be and what I should believe, so there's going to be a lot of this juvenile bullcrap from him after every post I make in this Religion forum. Sorry about that guys but I believe in evolution and the heliocentric solar system so some people think I'm not really Christian.

In fact, I'm just going to go ahead and do what has to be done here. I'm tired of you playing 'gotcha' games. It's too bad because I don't have much of an issue with what you say in the other forums on the board but your childishness in this one is something I'm just not willing to waste my time dealing with anymore so congratulations, you are now the one and only occupant of the iggy bin, and it's permanent.

 

[ElGringo]

I sent it to you in a PM. To me it is quite amazing. And I'm living it right now. It's not some story that happened long ago about someone else that was told to me. It's my story and it's happening now.

I don't know what happened with you but it must have been pretty powerful. I wonder how many people have things happen to them which are clearly outside of the realm of coincidence but don't even want to entertain the thought that it's anything other than an accident.

 

[Jen]

That's because you'll never hear a sermon in a Catholic Church. A homily is about as close as you'll come to hearing one. Most Protestant Churches, and certainly the Southern Baptist variety, don't operate under the kind of strict hierarchy that outlines the rigid structure of a Catholic Mass, and Priests are not preachers.

I too have been shocked in recent decades by the amount of blatant secular politics that has infested the more conservative strains of Protestant preaching. Still, to pretend that there are no politics nor social club atmosphere present in a Catholic Church is patently ridiculous. It simply expresses itself in a slightly different manner, due to the different environment.

The Catholic church seems to be a little more about crowd control than social club, but at present, they are weak on the crowd control aspect since most people are only nominally catholic. The social club thing comes from the feeling of community where one says "I am Catholic" and is immediately linked with the millions of people who are also Catholic. There is nothing wrong or even bad about that group identification. But it has absolutely nothing to do with a personal relationship with God. Any relationship with God has to be one-on-one and unique to be real.

 

[Jen]

I don't know what happened with you but it must have been pretty powerful. I wonder how many people have things happen to them which are clearly outside of the realm of coincidence but don't even want to entertain the thought that it's anything other than an accident.

I don't believe in coincidence. But that's just me. This sort of thing has happened more than once. I will tell you one of them that happened a number of years ago. My husband's workplace was downsizing and he hadn't been there very long so he knew he was going to lose his job. His boss told him that we could relocate to Alaska and his job would be saved. The relocation would be pretty swift .... no time to sell our house. So we figured it couldn't happen. We pray and trust about everything. So we did that in this case too.

We told some friends about the possibility of moving to Alaska and they said they wanted to buy our house, but it would require that they sell theirs and that would take time. Just a few days later, a man at our friend's work [who was relocating here from Japan] said that he needed a house for him and his family, and described our friends house exactly. So the Japanese guy moved into our friend's house [and made the payments until closing], our friend paid the payments on our house while his was being bought. Then he bought ours. We moved to Alaska and bought a house.........and all the closing dates were exactly right so all of that could happen.

That is far more than coincidence, my friend.
The idea is not to pray and tell God what you want then expect it to be handed out. The idea is to put your life into God's hands and accept each challenge with relish and ask God to work his miracles in whatever way he sees fit. And believe me, God has way more cool stuff in mind for you than you can imagine, so it will work out a lot better than you could expect.

I have many examples in my life and I know it's true.
Jen

 

[Renee]

I don't know what happened with you but it must have been pretty powerful. I wonder how many people have things happen to them which are clearly outside of the realm of coincidence but don't even want to entertain the thought that it's anything other than an accident.

There are also horrible things that happen outside of coincidence so do we blame god or let him off the hook with ..."he has a reason"