Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here: I should clarify - I was raised Catholic and now I am sort of agnostic/leaning atheist. However, I do really admire the teachings of the Catholic church. I am pro-life and I admire the Catholics for helping the needy, etc. I admire so much about the Catholic church (except for all the recent problems.) These new Bible churches seem to be all about the members - not about helping others that I can see. Also, I feel like these church members are not willing to be friends with non-church members. I feel sort of excluded in this town. Plus, it seems like they are hyprocritcal. A friend of a friend recently got divorced. she had 3 kids under 5. Now, one year later, she is remarried to a man with 4 children under age 6 and he ex husband is remarried, too.

There have been serious problems for centuries!

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, what we are seeing in America is a new version of self-segregation. People seem to be finding communities where they are accepted and where they seem to fit. For many people today churches have become more than places to express religious devotion, they have also become a major part of their social lives as well.

People will naturally gravitate to social settings where they are accepted.

Anonymous wrote:OP here: I should clarify - I was raised Catholic and now I am sort of agnostic/leaning atheist. However, I do really admire the teachings of the Catholic church. I am pro-life and I admire the Catholics for helping the needy, etc. I admire so much about the Catholic church (except for all the recent problems.) These new Bible churches seem to be all about the members - not about helping others that I can see. Also, I feel like these church members are not willing to be friends with non-church members. I feel sort of excluded in this town. Plus, it seems like they are hyprocritcal. A friend of a friend recently got divorced. she had 3 kids under 5. Now, one year later, she is remarried to a man with 4 children under age 6 and he ex husband is remarried, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an atheist, but I do respect other people's right to believe and worship any way they choose. My opinion is that if people don't hurt anyone, don't try to impose their beliefs on others and use their church to help others then good for them.

Ha! If ONLY they weren't trying to impose their beliefs on others. Those fundamentalist churches are the backbone of the right wing, pushing Republican politics from the pulpit and funneling large sums to candidates. They are the bread and butter of the theocracy the right wing is trying to impose on this country. I wish they would stick to social activities and leave the rest of us alone!

Anonymous wrote:I am an atheist, but I do respect other people's right to believe and worship any way they choose. My opinion is that if people don't hurt anyone, don't try to impose their beliefs on others and use their church to help others then good for them.

Anonymous wrote:I live in a town (not DC) with many fundamentalist Christian churches. Lately, I have been talking to acquaintances who attend these churches and read some blogs and websites and done other research about them and my conclusion is that these churches are nothing more than big social organizaations. So many of them have "fellowship" meetings that consist of hikes or potluck dinners or breakfast meetings or ski trips or other fun outings. These churches also seem to have plenty of money to pay for a lot of full time staffers. One church has two full-time youth leaders. From what I can tell, all the youth leaders seem to do is host a weekly pizza night with the teens plus weekend outdoor outings such as camping trips and paintball. One of the youth leaders is approx. age 30 and he and his wife have a very nice house and are raising four young children. They look like models from Outside magazine. I'm thinking he makes a pretty good salary for a very easy job. I grew up in the Catholic church and it was nothing like this. The Catholic church emphasized helping the needy. The priests had volunteers (mostly older women) helping them run the church and rectory. These new age independent Bible church seems to emphasize the self. It just seems like religion-lite. They have many "ministries" - such as "divorce care" and "young parents group". These churches just seem so funny to me. The people only like to associate with other "Christians" and talk about "praying" for silly things. They do seem to have "mission trips" once a year to places like Guatemala, but even these trips, which are funded by the trip, seem like nothing more than a vacation with a little bit of praying or house-building built in. What does anyone else think about these Bible churches?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it appalling that a Christian school would send their students out door-to-door asking for donations.

not just the schools. We've gotten multiple requests from various friends and families to contribute to their forthcoming mission trips. One letter said something along the lines of how important the trip was as Christians because the only other missionaries in the region were Catholics and Muslims. Um, I'm Catholic and that's pretty darn Christian to me!