How Modern Christianity has failed Christians

by Christ Alone 277 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  designs

  CA- Millions of Christians have been able to extract the teaching of 'Love your neighbor as yourself' and apply it to their lives and community. What is wholly unacceptable from a humanist perspective is the very obvious theme and claim of the Christian Leader and God along with the demand made by that leader to his followers for world domination and subjugation.

  Think of this in the same way you may object to the claims of Islam and its God for world domination and subjugation. Individual Muslims have and do contribute to the good of society and the welfare of all but this central tenant of Islam like Christianity cannot be ignored and is simply no longer acceptable.
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  bohm

  Ahem.

  I agree there is a large anti-intellectual undercurrent in much religion, but I think its there for a reason.

  It is not exactly like apollegetics and their interaction with eg. evolution and the flood for the past 100 years has been a constant streak of victories, on the contrary, I do not know of a single book on the flood which do not manage to get facts wrong.
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  PSacramento

  It is important to remeber that the whole "love your neighbour as yourself' is NOT what defines Christianity and is a STARTING point, not the end goal.

  Also important to understand that the Chrurch of God is a collection of sinners and not a museum of saints and if one is looking for perfection or even just "good people" ( whatever that may mean), they best look elsewhere because Christianity calls to itslef all those that KNOW they need redemption and salvation.

  Christ siad it palinly that His kingdome and ours are NOT of this world and warned against the pursuit of these things in this world.

  Christians are to follow only ONE PERSON and subject themselves to only ONE person - Christ.

  That Christians don't do this is a sign of needing MORE Christ in their lives, not less.
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  Christ Alone

  What is Christianity, designs? It's not a church. Some groups in Christianity have been responsible for some horrible things. I fully admit this. But Christianity is the teachings of Jesus Christ. And he did not teach people to do some of things that have been done. The overall theme of Christianity is to love. Is that the overall theme of Islam? I haven't seen that from my reading of the Quran. But yes, there have been individual Muslims and Muslim groups that have done some great things. But I don't see that same insistence on love in the teachings of Islam as I do in the teachings of Jesus.

  Fundamentalism is a branch that tries to force their worldview on the rest of the world. Yes, I do find that unacceptable overall. But Jesus didn't teach us to do that. We aren't to force out worldview on others. I've said it before, but I am very much conservative in my personal beliefs, while being an overall liberal democrat in my political leanings. Everyone should have the right to do anything as long as it does not violate the rights of another.

  Should Islam be eliminated? No. Freedom of religion is a major and important part of any free people's constitution. The teachings of Christ have led countless people to sacrifice their lives to help others out of love. Love should be the most important tenant of Christianity. That has not been true of many. The Westboro baptists come immediately to mind. But I do not believe they follow any part of the teachings of Christ.

  But again, if Christianity was eliminated, I think you would see very quickly how important it is to our society.
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  jgnat

  I suggest the anti-intellectual, radical trend is universal, and is a reaction to modernity and the threat to marginalize religion altogether. These are the fundamentalists, and they can be found in the other major religions as well. Karen Armstrong's book, The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (2000) is well worth the read to understand the fundamentalist mind. I even offer that it is in our best interest to understand the fundamentalists, so that we can effectively defuse this trend in society. It's belief based in fear. People who react in fear, IMO, are dangerous.

  Mainstream churches have bucked this fundamentalist trend, and we have modern churches such as the Unitarians, who synthesize belief. These churches suffer from stagnant or declining membership, however.

  Karen Armstrong suggests that the modern intellectuals lost an opportunity after the Scopes debate in 1925. The Creationist camp were thoroughly trounced back then, and have been acting like sore losers ever since. Armstrong suggests the failure was in not being gracious in victory, and declaring religion irrelevant. The reaction has been illogical, fearful, and fierce.
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  PSacramento

  Funadamentalists are the minority in Christianity, thank goodness, BUT if orthodox and mainstream chruches and preachers don't "ake up and smell the holy water", they will find the fundamentalist numbers growing.
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  designs

  'More Christ' is exactly the problem. Matthew chapters 25-26 is all about world domination and the killing of billions of humans, it is simply unacceptable. Jesus perpetuates the geo-centric and astronomical errors of the Bible- 'foundations of the earth' 'and the stars will fall from heaven to earth'. Belief that the earth was fixed and unmovable and that stars were simply points of light in the sky not thousands of times larger than the earth.
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  bohm

  CA: "But again, if Christianity was eliminated, I think you would see very quickly how important it is to our society."

  Why? Because people who do not belong to your faith is basically a bunch of barbarians who need christians to supervice them?

  Do you understand why it sound arrogant?
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  Christ Alone

  You, as did the Catholic Church in the past, read Matthew far too literally. Jesus, in these chapters, was largely speaking of jerusalems defeat by the Romans. He was not commenting on astronomy by any means. And even if he was, he would have been speaking of supernatural signs from heaven and was not commenting on science and astronomy. Those verses have been used by certain groups to justify their practices, but those practices just don't line up with Jesus teachings. Jesus never commanded us to overtake the world. That is his job, and I am more than happy to leave that to him. We were never going to convert the world. No were we to try and force people into Christianity. If that has been attempted by some, that is their doing and was not the teaching of Jesus Christ.
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  jgnat

  PSacramento, the attendance numbers have been telling their story for some time. What can a mainstream church do? Become more fundamentalist?

  Barna Study of Religious Change