Another one try and read the whole thing this time

http://www.gotquestions.org/go-and-sin-no-more.html

I agree prosperity gospel is a crock

Intolerance yup intolerance to sin. Jesus calls us to sin no more and that includes engaging in homosexual behavior along with premarital sex, lying, cheating, gossiping, coveting etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My denomination and all other Christian denominations believe Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. I strongly suggest rereading the new testament again for some perspective.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-only-way.html

Glad you are striving to be Christ like. Have a good evening.

Yeah, the kind of craziness in your link is exactly why so many people are being driven away from Christianity.

I'm the PP who is a church admin. This is exactly what I hear over and over again. People are leaving evangelical churches (especially Southern Baptist right now) because they find it impossible to reconcile the teachings of Jesus with what these churches are teaching. Jesus was a long haired, middle-eastern, socialist, Jew who hung out with a rough crowd, to say the least. He spoke about love, compassion, and tolerance. A Southern Baptist church would call the police and have him arrested if he showed up on Sunday morning.

+1. Preaching a prosperity gospel and intolerance to "others" IS ignoring Jesus' teachings, IMO and in the opinion of many ministers and priests.

Don't see how they are mutually exclusive. Choosing to ignore the bible is not what Christianity is about though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My denomination and all other Christian denominations believe Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. I strongly suggest rereading the new testament again for some perspective.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-only-way.html

Glad you are striving to be Christ like. Have a good evening.

Yeah, the kind of craziness in your link is exactly why so many people are being driven away from Christianity.

I'm the PP who is a church admin. This is exactly what I hear over and over again. People are leaving evangelical churches (especially Southern Baptist right now) because they find it impossible to reconcile the teachings of Jesus with what these churches are teaching. Jesus was a long haired, middle-eastern, socialist, Jew who hung out with a rough crowd, to say the least. He spoke about love, compassion, and tolerance. A Southern Baptist church would call the police and have him arrested if he showed up on Sunday morning.

Anonymous wrote:My denomination and all other Christian denominations believe Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. I strongly suggest rereading the new testament again for some perspective.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-only-way.html

Glad you are striving to be Christ like. Have a good evening.

Yeah, the kind of craziness in your link is exactly why so many people are being driven away from Christianity.

My denomination and all other Christian denominations believe Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. I strongly suggest rereading the new testament again for some perspective.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-only-way.html

Glad you are striving to be Christ like. Have a good evening.

Anonymous wrote:To be clear Unity churches aren't Christian either.

New age live and let live not believing in Jesus being the only way for salvation.

Seems pretty close to Unitarian to me

Because....you said so? "Unity is a positive, practical, progressive approach to Christianity based on the teachings of Jesus and on the power of prayer and meditation." From their website. They also answer the question - Do you believe Jesus is the Christ with "yes". The difference is Unity teaches that there are many paths and one is no more sacred than another.

I attend a Unity church. And I am a Christian. To me, that means I strive to be "Christ-like". Wishing you peace.

I once compared notes with my niece. We grew up in the same town and ended up at the same university, 20 years apart.

Our observations of religious practice among our peers in high school and college were very different. When I was in high school only a small number of people (if that, at my high school) would have admitted to not being religious. Most people attended church, at least sporadically. In college I encountered more people who were not religious, but attendance at religious clubs and centers was pretty high.

My neice's observation was that, in the same high school and college in just the past few years, few people cared about the religion of others, including her religious friends. Much more of a live and let live mentality. Perhaps as a result, there was little societal pressure on her school peers to attend church, unless that pressure came from families. It's just not a part of the makeup of their lives, and they aren't societal outcasts if they admit to it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a twentysomething myself, I think most young people today have a finely tuned BS radar and are turned off by religious establishments that try to market to them and make religion "cool." I am interested in exploring my faith and spirituality but I don't like feeling like I'm being sold something. The praise bands, the hipster churches that have slick websites and are all over social media and have a marketing plan...those types of establisents are a big turn off. It feels like some middle aged Church leaders were sitting around in a conference room thibking, what can we do to get the young people to church? Let's hire a 38-year-old pastor who plays the guitar and wears jeans and has tattoos!

I think a lot of people my age are interested in the traditions and sacraments and rituals and liturgy and history of the faith tradition. But it's hard to find that in a faith community, especially if you're an outsider or newcomer and don't really speak the lingo. It's just a little awkward. But I think if more faith communities focused on going back to their roots and reviving traditional spiritual practices instead of tripping over themselves to make it "relevant," they would see more young people.

This is how I feel too, but unfortunately the churches that do offer this (think Episcopalian, Presbyterian, etc.) are in steep, steep decline to the point where there's doubt whether they'll even exist in a few decades - while the hipster, "relevant" churches are booming. So IDK.

This is how I feel, too, but I am Jewish. I don't really feel connected to a synagogue. I enjoy the services but I never click with the people I meet there. It's not a matter of not knowing the lingo for me, since I am attending synagogues in the same tradition in which I grew up (Conservative), but it seems like all the rabbis preach about is Israel and every activity focuses on Israel and I am not really that into Israel, at least not in the concrete sense of visiting or raising money for Israeli causes. So I don't fit in at shul, I don't enjoy the activities they do outside of services, I don't like the people I meet there ... and therefore I don't go except for the High Holidays which fall once a year. Add to that the fact that a lot of traditional Jewish practice is in the home, unconnected to a synagogue (keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath, eating holiday meals) and I don't really need to go to synagogue even if I found one I liked.

We'll join ... somewhere ... once our oldest is old enough to suffer through Hebrew school. Not looking forward to paying $3000 a year for the membership fee. But it's the price of a Jewish education.

I am 35. Not sure if that counts as the "young people" who are non-religious. But to the extent it does, for me it's not so much that I'm non-religious, as that I don't like the options for practicing my religion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Nope, no church in my life! However, calling people "ugly and mean-spirited" for the crime of taking on all the trolls and self-absorbed morons on the Religion forum is itself... ugly and mean-spirited. In case it needed to be said. It also undoubtedly serves your purpose of defending the atheist trolls and self-absorbed morons.

You're welcome.

You have absolutely no self awareness, do you?

Right. Beat up on the people who are trying to shut down the bad behavior. That won't be obvious at all, will it?

To be clear Unity churches aren't Christian either.

New age live and let live not believing in Jesus being the only way for salvation.

Seems pretty close to Unitarian to me

Anonymous wrote:
Nope, no church in my life! However, calling people "ugly and mean-spirited" for the crime of taking on all the trolls and self-absorbed morons on the Religion forum is itself... ugly and mean-spirited. In case it needed to be said. It also undoubtedly serves your purpose of defending the atheist trolls and self-absorbed morons.

You're welcome.

You have absolutely no self awareness, do you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nope, not a lunatic. Just sick and tired of all the self-absorbed idiots who hear the word "religion" and think the world wants/needs to hear their personal views on religion=myth. Sorry if this is the first time you've been caught out being a self-absorbed moron. But, as you can see from the posts above, you have plenty of company among other self-absorbed morons who think the question "why are youth uninterested in religion?" is a plea for their personal views.

Have a wonderful day.

Wow. Get thee to a mirror.

Translation: "I'm going to continue spamming my personal opinions about religion writ large into every topical thread. Because I can. Because it serves my interests to disrupt serious conversations about religion. Because my opinions are so wonderful that nobody would want to have a serious conversation about some boring little facet of religion when they could listen to me."

New poster. Not sure where (or even if) you go to church. If you do either (1) you really need to pay attention better or (2) There is something really ugly and mean-spirited going on in your church.

Spiritually mature people, regardless of faith, just don't talk like that.

Nope, no church in my life! However, calling people "ugly and mean-spirited" for the crime of taking on all the trolls and self-absorbed morons on the Religion forum is itself... ugly and mean-spirited. In case it needed to be said. It also undoubtedly serves your purpose of defending the atheist trolls and self-absorbed morons.

You're welcome.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nope, not a lunatic. Just sick and tired of all the self-absorbed idiots who hear the word "religion" and think the world wants/needs to hear their personal views on religion=myth. Sorry if this is the first time you've been caught out being a self-absorbed moron. But, as you can see from the posts above, you have plenty of company among other self-absorbed morons who think the question "why are youth uninterested in religion?" is a plea for their personal views.

Have a wonderful day.

Wow. Get thee to a mirror.

Translation: "I'm going to continue spamming my personal opinions about religion writ large into every topical thread. Because I can. Because it serves my interests to disrupt serious conversations about religion. Because my opinions are so wonderful that nobody would want to have a serious conversation about some boring little facet of religion when they could listen to me."

New poster. Not sure where (or even if) you go to church. If you do either (1) you really need to pay attention better or (2) There is something really ugly and mean-spirited going on in your church.

Spiritually mature people, regardless of faith, just don't talk like that.