I have not been in several years, but had made a promise to a friend that I would attend. I loved the sermon, it was about one of the commandments, "Thou shall not commit adultry" The guy was really good, snuck in some playboy and Monty Ptyhon bits about keeping promises etc. I have always liked the message of church, but I have so many contradictions to it. Like all the books left out of the bible because they did not fit the church's thoughts at the time, or that Mary Magdalin was a companion of Christ but was later labled a w****. Or that it is very hard for me to believe in emmaculate conception, or that Jesus actually rose from the dead. I think a lot of it is mythos, but my wife thinks I need to not worry about the inconsistencies and concentrate on the message and community. I have always been about truth, and am much more of a hisorian than theologin.....not sure what I think right now. I believe in God, but religion still seems like something contrived by man, and what makes today's religion any different from the Roman or Greek gods? Is today's religion tomorrows Mythos? I just don't know. DD
I have the same questions and concerns that you've listed and thats why some weeks when I walk away from church the sermon was great and it delivered the message right on the money and other times it seems to completely miss. My wife also tells me the same thing about not sweating the details, but to take the message from the sermon and apply it to outr lives. Either way I'm glad I decided to go back after laying off for about four years.
Maybe you need to realize that you don't know everything, and understand that. A hard concept for you, I guess. You realize we use 5-6% of our brain's capacity, right? Let me ask you this. If you scored a "5" on a test, would you think you were smart? You'd be a moron, then. Fact is, we can't possibly understand everything. Much the same as trying to make an animal learn how to read.
Actually this isn't true. For me, the key to being content with Christianity was learning to seperate the message from the messengers. Of course people have screwed up Christianity. That's kind of the big picture message. That's also why Martin Luther did his whole thing. Let he among you who has commited no sins cast the first stone, etc. Anyway, I'm happy for you that you can get beyond the negative surface bits, and see that there are two sides to the coin. For me what you see as a conflict is no conflict at all but instead the naturaly complexity of something as big and old as Christianity.
I don't think you need church to be a good person. I see too many people use church selfishly as a way of making themselves feel good, when in actuality, they're complete, pompous arseholes who look down on most other people. Don't get me wrong.. there are many good things done in the name of the church, but in my opinion, you don't need the church to do this stuff, so let's just cut out all the nonsense. Also, when you get high up in the administration, it's just as corrupt as any other ruling organization. Plus, I don't believe in god. It just seems silly to me. But.. meh, whatever floats your boat.
I think Da, that this is something you need to figure out for yourself. It's just too personal to share with random people who will try ot interject their own beliefs or disbeliefs on you. Remember, this has consequences in the way you see the afterlife or lackthereof should you decide to go that way. If the message drew you in, and you want to find out more but have problems understasnding many things in the Bible, then ask someone who is able to speak to you personally about it, not just on a message board Like Mr. Meowgi said, there are other religions also. If you feel you want to do some research, then by all means, go right ahead. Just give Christ a fair shake at it before going to other religions. Noone is going to force you to become a Christian or even to go to CHurch again. It's a personal decision between you and God. I have my hopes on which way you turn, but ultimately it is your life and your decision. Just make sure you talk to someone personal (maybe your friend) before you accept or reject anything.
I use 5-6% of my machismo. Anymore, and I would violate my order to stay 100 yards away from Victoria's Secret. The gov't doesn't like too many riots
The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823 By the way, I too went to church today and we talked about rainbows.
We had a visiting pastor today; he used to be a professional wrestler-- on of three masked villains. He said that he was the small one... His name was Marbry.
God's Covenant... God's promises... hope and support... first Sunday of Lent... Communion... then lunch with the family at Cracker Barrel (kid's choice). You should try it out sometime FFB. Oh, and in reference to your sig... As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves. --Daniel J. Boorstin
