Reply to Teen wants to attend church

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Teen wants to attend church "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Google 'cultural christians'.  There are a lot of folks who enjoy the community of a church but don't feel strongly (if at all) about religion.  You'd be welcome and fit in at my Episcopal Church.[/quote]

That's right, many mainline churches -- Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, could care less if you believe in God. These churches are losing members in droves and are happy to have new members.   They do teach their beliefs to children though, so your kid might learn some things as truth that you don't believe yourself.  You should be prepared for your child to learn things for which there is no evidence, but that the church believes as a matter of faith.  The mainline churches don't push very hard though.

An earlier pp was right that a UU church seems like a better fit.  It offers the  same strong community but without a set of beliefs that relies on faith, not facts.  It seems like the UU would be a much more natural choice for an unchurched child of an agnostic.[/quote]

First of all, I think you mean could NOT care less, but second and more important, that is an absolutely incorrect statement. For each of the mainline Protestant churches that you mention, to become a member, [b]you must make a statement of faith in Jesus Christ as your lord and savior.[/b] You must announce that you turn from sin and accept Jesus Christ. [/quote]

But a lot of them just consider that a formality --sort of an old custom.  It's not stressed that you actually have to literally believe it.

Also, some churches recite the creed every sunday - that also reiterates those beliefs. But some people just mumble through it and other don't say it at all -- they just stand with the others as they say it, showing support for the group, not those specific beliefs.  As someone stated earlier, doubt is a part of faith and churches are not going to reject someone just because they don't believe the basic tenets of the faith.   For most of these churches, it's enough to be a good person, an active community member, a pledge-paying member and accepting that not everyone believes the same thing in the same way.[/quote]

Well, you know, you can lie to courts or FBI too, if you want to. You can lie when you make your wedding vows. That says more about the kind of person you are, PP, than the church or other institutions.[/quote]

But some of the churches themselves encourage it -- and I don't mean lying -- but simply interpreting words differently.  For instance "resurrecting from the dead"  needn't mean resuscitation of a corpse, but instead living on in the hearts of humans.
[/quote]

Unfortunately, that is true, but it is not Christian doctrine. It is an off-shoot that has been around as long as Christ Himself that was originally called gnostic. It is a very good point that any church seeker needs to be aware of this, because it is now, as it was then, a corruption of the truth. A very important, central part of Christianity is that Christ literally rose from the dead, in body. It's not some mystic being. It is the body itself.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics