Grappling with being Christian

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound Episcopalian.

Kinda non sexist Catholic-lite.

fwiw - God and Jesus aren't sexist. Those teaching came about as a sign of the times. I sometimes wonder how they consider the Pope only being male and only being white in all the years since Jesus (except 3). This can't possibly be regarded well that PEOPLE still believe God only wants to speak through white males. Oh well, human nature sucks.

Consider that for centuries, the Catholic Church was only in Europe and is still patriarchal. That explains all the white guys.

And for centuries it hasn't been, yet nothing has changed. Catholicism started to spread in the 1400s, so 700-800 years and . . . Nothing changed.

It started to spread, yes, but until the 20 century, there were no Cardinals outside of Europe.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-how-the-conclave-of-cardinals-will-chose-next-pope/#:~:text=For%20many%20centuries%2C%20the%20College,in%20the%201903%20papal%20election.

"For many centuries, the College of Cardinals was dominated by Europeans; Italians, in particular. In fact, the first time a non-European cardinal actually cast a ballot in a conclave was only in the 20th century, when Baltimore’s archbishop, James Gibbons, voted in the 1903 papal election. Now, the College of Cardinals has members from over 90 countries, with Francis having appointed nearly 80 percent of them. "

I am not defending the Catholic Church. Just explaining, accurately

You guys are conveniently forgetting the Eastern, browner half of the church. OP should consider Orthodoxy. All this nonsense about European Cardinals, conclaves, etc. has nothing to do with them. Until 1054 there were five patriarchates in the Christian church: Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Rome. As you can see, only one of those is in Europe. The other four were retained by the Eastern church following the schism in 1054.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand OP's quandary. Believe in Jesus and what he stands for, but not crazy about organized religion. The Episcopal Church seems to bring in a lot of Catholics who had enough and want a church more understanding of various types of people

I could never get that excited about Jesus. Yes, he's a good guy, but there are lots of good guys throughout history. Jesus just managed to found a major religion. Without intending to, apparently. That supposedly was Peter's doing. Then Rome, the major political power at the time, got into the act.

A good guy who was crucified, died and was resurrected to show the path to eternal life. Sounds pretty good to me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I had to guess, your politics are far outside the mainstream and so you view statements that others consider mainstream as political.

I can’t speak to Protestantism or other parts of the country but I have not seen this as an issue in Catholic churches in MD/DC or Boston when I used to live. Typically the most overtly political churches are the mainline ones with political flags and signs everywhere.

Boston Catholic churches full of either Magas or Christmas and Easter Catholics. It’s either cultural or political. Not a lot of living the faith types.

Catholics are among the most mainstream people in the country in terms of their voting practices and views. You can look it up. Again, it is more likely that many of the posters on this thread actually do not have mainstream views and are projecting by calling those that do “political.”

{The 95% of the country that is more right leaning than me is SOOOOO political.}

Sure. I’m sure that’s it. :/

I always wanted to be a Catholic growing up because I always thought the people were so much more normal. They seemed to have more fun.

Maybe where you grew up. Not where I grew up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand OP's quandary. Believe in Jesus and what he stands for, but not crazy about organized religion. The Episcopal Church seems to bring in a lot of Catholics who had enough and want a church more understanding of various types of people

I could never get that excited about Jesus. Yes, he's a good guy, but there are lots of good guys throughout history. Jesus just managed to found a major religion. Without intending to, apparently. That supposedly was Peter's doing. Then Rome, the major political power at the time, got into the act.

A good guy who was crucified, died and was resurrected to show the path to eternal life. Sounds pretty good to me!

If you believe it.

[Anonymous]

I have the struggle of the original poster also. Once I became more educated and open, church community got hard. As Christians, you want to make your closest friends other christians or people with like-minded beliefs. Church people are often very shallow and narrow-minded. I have to give up the desire for a community and start just looking around and accepting the community God was making for me in daily life. I found a church I don’t love but I like the pastor - and just accept that I probably won’t be best friends with anyone. I have to trust God to bring my community to me, and I work to be the most authentic expression of myself so I attract the right people. It’s hard and not at all like my church as a kid growing up, where all community things centered around church. But I do talk to a lot wider range of people and I have had deeper and better opportunities to share my faith than I ever had with a feel-good church community. It’s gritty but it’s real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a Christian, I love Jesus and I seek to live as he did. I want to be a soldier of the lord and follow scripture. But I have always, always struggled with church teachings: I’ve been to Catholic and Protestant services across the spectrum and have ALWAYS found the minister/priest to imbue their teachings with some political speech, and the level of sexism I’ve found is astounding.

I would love to find a community of Christians that don’t become co-opted by these political agendas. I don’t like how many people use Christianity as an excuse to demean and dehumanize others. In short, I have a very hard time relating to other (mainstream, American, white) Christians yet continue to yearn for community. I just find so much wrong with the “Christian” communities I encounter.

I would love any suggestions for readings, podcasts, or churches that might help me find meaning and community as it relates to my misgivings. Thank you so much. God bless you.

Can you give examples of what you found disturbing in the homilies at Catholic churches? I spent a lot of time exploring christian churches years ago and I found catholic ones to be the least political. The focus is usually on self improvement. The priests don't get to pick the readings and their homilies are supposed to focus helping you understand those readings, not just whatever he feels like talking about that day.

If you mean they pray for respecting life from conception until natural death, you will just have to accept that is a core teaching. They are not meaning for it to be political in the sense of telling you which political party to align with.

I would focus on teachings on the particular churches instead of random one off pastors you encounter. People are all sinners and imperfect and have their own ticks. Actually go read up on what the churches believe in and go with that.

[Anonymous]

Try Episcopalian or perhaps Methodist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand OP's quandary. Believe in Jesus and what he stands for, but not crazy about organized religion. The Episcopal Church seems to bring in a lot of Catholics who had enough and want a church more understanding of various types of people

I could never get that excited about Jesus. Yes, he's a good guy, but there are lots of good guys throughout history. Jesus just managed to found a major religion. Without intending to, apparently. That supposedly was Peter's doing. Then Rome, the major political power at the time, got into the act.

A good guy who was crucified, died and was resurrected to show the path to eternal life. Sounds pretty good to me!

If you believe it.

Yes, of course. It’s harder to follow the path if you don’t believe there is one.

[Anonymous]

Presbyterian? Best in Prayer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand OP's quandary. Believe in Jesus and what he stands for, but not crazy about organized religion. The Episcopal Church seems to bring in a lot of Catholics who had enough and want a church more understanding of various types of people

I could never get that excited about Jesus. Yes, he's a good guy, but there are lots of good guys throughout history. Jesus just managed to found a major religion. Without intending to, apparently. That supposedly was Peter's doing. Then Rome, the major political power at the time, got into the act.

A good guy who was crucified, died and was resurrected to show the path to eternal life. Sounds pretty good to me!

If you believe it.

Yes, of course. It’s harder to follow the path if you don’t believe there is one.

Some of us don't even think about following the path of a supposedly crucified, come-back-to-life fisherman from 2,000 years ago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand OP's quandary. Believe in Jesus and what he stands for, but not crazy about organized religion. The Episcopal Church seems to bring in a lot of Catholics who had enough and want a church more understanding of various types of people

I could never get that excited about Jesus. Yes, he's a good guy, but there are lots of good guys throughout history. Jesus just managed to found a major religion. Without intending to, apparently. That supposedly was Peter's doing. Then Rome, the major political power at the time, got into the act.

A good guy who was crucified, died and was resurrected to show the path to eternal life. Sounds pretty good to me!

If you believe it.

No. It’s true, whether you choose to believe it or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound Episcopalian.

Kinda non sexist Catholic-lite.

fwiw - God and Jesus aren't sexist. Those teaching came about as a sign of the times. I sometimes wonder how they consider the Pope only being male and only being white in all the years since Jesus (except 3). This can't possibly be regarded well that PEOPLE still believe God only wants to speak through white males. Oh well, human nature sucks.

Consider that for centuries, the Catholic Church was only in Europe and is still patriarchal. That explains all the white guys.

And for centuries it hasn't been, yet nothing has changed. Catholicism started to spread in the 1400s, so 700-800 years and . . . Nothing changed.

It started to spread, yes, but until the 20 century, there were no Cardinals outside of Europe.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-how-the-conclave-of-cardinals-will-chose-next-pope/#:~:text=For%20many%20centuries%2C%20the%20College,in%20the%201903%20papal%20election.

"For many centuries, the College of Cardinals was dominated by Europeans; Italians, in particular. In fact, the first time a non-European cardinal actually cast a ballot in a conclave was only in the 20th century, when Baltimore’s archbishop, James Gibbons, voted in the 1903 papal election. Now, the College of Cardinals has members from over 90 countries, with Francis having appointed nearly 80 percent of them. "

I am not defending the Catholic Church. Just explaining, accurately

You guys are conveniently forgetting the Eastern, browner half of the church. OP should consider Orthodoxy. All this nonsense about European Cardinals, conclaves, etc. has nothing to do with them. Until 1054 there were five patriarchates in the Christian church: Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Rome. As you can see, only one of those is in Europe. The other four were retained by the Eastern church following the schism in 1054.

1054! That's a thousand years of the Roman Catholic Church alone. (And it was all Roman Catholic, not simply "Christian" as stated above. And although the people may be browner, they are still caucasians - like Italians. Protestantism didn't come in until much later, in 16th century Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Protestantism

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand OP's quandary. Believe in Jesus and what he stands for, but not crazy about organized religion. The Episcopal Church seems to bring in a lot of Catholics who had enough and want a church more understanding of various types of people

I could never get that excited about Jesus. Yes, he's a good guy, but there are lots of good guys throughout history. Jesus just managed to found a major religion. Without intending to, apparently. That supposedly was Peter's doing. Then Rome, the major political power at the time, got into the act.

A good guy who was crucified, died and was resurrected to show the path to eternal life. Sounds pretty good to me!

If you believe it.

Yes, of course. It’s harder to follow the path if you don’t believe there is one.

Some of us don't even think about following the path of a supposedly crucified, come-back-to-life fisherman from 2,000 years ago

Yes, we are aware. How could we not, seeing as you come on threads about our religion specifically to harp about it anonymously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand OP's quandary. Believe in Jesus and what he stands for, but not crazy about organized religion. The Episcopal Church seems to bring in a lot of Catholics who had enough and want a church more understanding of various types of people

I could never get that excited about Jesus. Yes, he's a good guy, but there are lots of good guys throughout history. Jesus just managed to found a major religion. Without intending to, apparently. That supposedly was Peter's doing. Then Rome, the major political power at the time, got into the act.

A good guy who was crucified, died and was resurrected to show the path to eternal life. Sounds pretty good to me!

+1

[Anonymous]

Try a Unity church (not Unitarian).