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Token evangelical checking in now that the Liturgicals have schismed and been overthrown. *starts nailing theses to forum door*
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Sep 20, 2016 16:16
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 10:21 |
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HEY GAL posted:hot take: no they aren't Whatever gets butts in pews for your local church. Shop around.
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Sep 20, 2016 16:26
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HEY GAL posted:while looking for a soundtrack for a game i run, i found this loving thing Honestly, who hasn't raided with a Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas album blaring over vent?
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Sep 20, 2016 16:35
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Keromaru5 posted:Tear out the pews. Throw out the candles.
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Sep 20, 2016 16:38
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Mo Tzu posted:Yeah I guess it's less intellectual vs experiential and more visual vs aural/ something about being social maybe I've spent a while church shopping in four different cities, and for me it's the community that matters more than the theology - I'm a young person (well, relatively young these days), and I keep looking for a church with people my own age. It's always been hard to find one that also isn't hardcore right-wing.
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Sep 20, 2016 20:44
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Deteriorata posted:Be the change you want to see. Old congregations know they're old and know they need younger members. Join one and be the seed of a new generation in the church. They're all sick of being on committees at this point so in a few years you could be running the place. I'm in the fourth city I've lived in in the past ten years.  Maybe if I find the right one. Of the churches I visited, though, it was the ELCA Lutheran church I was happiest with. They certainly had the best food.For those new to this thread, I'm an Evangelical by background and general beliefs, but I no longer consider myself Southern Baptist per se - I have issues with how right-wing the SBC has become, and a lot of Evangelical churches in general.
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Sep 20, 2016 21:42
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HEY GAL posted:and he moves a lot, add that to the character sheet :p College, grad school, and two different jobs. Thought I'd mention my religious background for any newcomers to the thread since the old one was explicitly aimed at/about liturgical Christianity. At any rate, character sheet duly created. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Sep 20, 2016 |
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Sep 20, 2016 21:48
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Bel_Canto posted:although that did help cement the Poles' status as "too slavic for the west, too roman for the east" and the unfortunate military stomping ground of europe for several centuries Poland seems to be in the same unfortunate position as the Balkans and Israel: they're geographically sitting right in between historical military superpowers and so have become the place foreign armies go through to get to the people they actually care about fighting.
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Sep 21, 2016 15:35
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Paramemetic posted:At the Great Monkey Year Teachings the head of my Buddhist lineage talked about the meaning of taking Refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. He made a point that taking Refuge doesn't mean worship as such, and more importantly that it doesn't have to be an exclusive relationship. He stated unequivocally that if you want to practice and worship and make offerings to your local or family deities you should do that, so long as you recognize that they are also samsaric beings and cannot give you ultimate happiness or liberation. Generally it's recognized as being similar to taking a knee to an earthly lord or king - you do what you gotta do as long as you realize that they can only benefit you in this world. In the Evangelical view, questions of monotheism come down to a view of monolatrism - that there may very well be other gods, but God is a singular (well, triune if you want to get into the Holy Trinity) being above all others. The Evangelical view says that while other gods may exist, praying to them is a betrayal of your commitment to God. Incidentally, this same view is part of why Evangelical theology tends to frown on the concept of saints as intercessors - how could God be so busy he would need an advocate? God is above such petty limitations.
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Sep 21, 2016 15:45
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Tias posted:I wholeheartedly agree. Being syncretic means finding out your personal truth, doctrinal impossibilities be damned. This was never a problem for us pagans, but I can imagine it must be an absolute shitshow if you start from dogmatic liturgigal christianity. Personally, when I seriously explored other belief systems, the spiritual belief that appealed most to me was deism, believing that God or something like Him does exist but doesn't care for individual human lives. Why would such a being care about me, or any of us? To creation's grand watchmaker, we must be no more significant than grains of sand on a beach. Ultimately, I decided I couldn't accept that view and stay emotionally healthy. I grew up in a Southern Baptist home and family, but I only really started to understand and engage with religion as more than rote ritual and knowing the things I was supposed to say when I went through some hard times in my life. Coming to engage with and truly believe in an all-powerful god of mercy, grace, and love is what drew me back from those dark places. I personally find it comforting that my personal truth about what I believe may not measure up to who God really is and what He wants. I think I'd be disappointed if God was something human beings could readily understand, and I find it comforting that there are questions I don't know the answers to - and even questions I don't want to know the answers to. I can't condemn anyone for seeking the truth in a way that brings them peace. I have no doubt that if I'd been raised in a home that followed a religion other than Christianity or no religion at all that I'd probably be very partial to that belief system as well. Jesus himself said to work out your own salvation in fear and trembling, and don't worry so much about what other people believe - and especially don't presume to know whether someone is damned or saved (hi, Calvinists!).
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Sep 21, 2016 16:01
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Pellisworth posted:2) also let's not talk abortion or call each other heretics Schism.
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Sep 22, 2016 14:25
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Pellisworth posted:if ur so mad mayb u should start another thread punk I very well might. With blue carpets instead of salmon, and getting the after-service donuts from Dunkin Donuts, not the grocery store. Not that I'd ever expect an outmoded traditionalist like you to understand.
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Sep 22, 2016 14:56
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System Metternich posted:We may have different opinions on things, but one constant remains: the love of cool religious hats Evangelicals don't wear religious hats. Checkmate, liturgical.
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Sep 22, 2016 17:37
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dk2m posted:I'm a non-christian immigrant, but I've lived in America long enough that I want to visit a church just to observe and get a general sense of it all. A few questions: 1. Nope, go wherever strikes your fancy. Different individual churches within the same denomination can be strikingly different (more so for Protestants than for Catholics and Orthodox) in how they conduct services, much less in beliefs. 2. I think it's unlikely you'd be chastised for dressing that casually, but most church cultures in America tend strongly towards wearing a collared shirt at least (assuming you're a guy). If you're in a college town, churches that cater to the college student audience tend to be far more relaxed. 3/4. Just bear in mind that Christianity is an astonishingly diverse religion in how it's practiced. I'm a Southern Baptist by background and would absolutely be fine going to church in a t-shirt and shorts, but look at some of the ridiculous costumes some other folks in this thread have posted being associated with their denomination. You can visit five different churches in one small town and get five very different experiences. Most churches in America have a social meet'n'greet before or after services, often with coffee and snacks, so if you're curious it's a great time to chat up people. Most American denominations tend to be very welcoming of interested strangers, be they Christian or no.
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Sep 22, 2016 18:35
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Lutha Mahtin posted:easter bonnets. Easter bonnets? This is the first I've heard of them.
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Sep 22, 2016 22:27
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HEY GAL posted:cythreal, isn't your ex black? what did the women who were like...three times her age wear to church? those hats are more like wedding cakes We dated for three months and people dressed like any other college students going to church - t shirts and jeans were the rule.
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Sep 22, 2016 23:00
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Churches are also big social events down in the American South where I live.
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Sep 23, 2016 14:57
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Southern Baptists usually have a Wednesday night meeting as well as Sunday, and IIRC some congregations have an afternoon service on Sunday that you are expected to attend as well as the morning service. Yup. In my experience, the Wednesday night meetings are usually aimed at youth programs and also invent something for the kids' parents to do. The after-church rush is real and it is a pain.
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Sep 23, 2016 15:42
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JcDent posted:How big are those churches where you have coffee and potlucks? Because I can hardly imagine my downtown church's 200+ congragants gathering together. Also, do you do it somewhere around the church or go places? I'm in the American South, and I have never seen a church of any denomination not do coffee and snacks, from the Lutheran church with 20 people in most services to the college-aimed nondenominational Protestant college church with hundreds. Every church I've been to has had a lobby area if not a big utility room used for the purpose. Digging out an old post from when I was in my first job I moved for and was visiting local churches and surveying the food: quote:Southern Baptist megachurch: granola bars, orange juice, lovely coffee.
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Sep 23, 2016 18:15
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System Metternich posted:I've never seen a church with a kitchen anywhere, at least not Catholic ones (not sure about the local Lutheran church). You've got a fully-equipped kitchen in the Pfarr- or Gemeindezentrum (a larger building near to the church where there are rooms and facilities for the various parish groups and usually also a large hall for theatre productions and stuff) and also wherever the priests live, of course, but the average church around here is only for prayer/dusty hidden rooms we don't tell the tourists about that've got tons of ancient stuff in there that nobody ever needs I've never seen a church of any denomination without a kitchen, either in the church building itself or part of another building on the church property for church events. I have no trouble believing it's an American thing.
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Sep 23, 2016 22:22
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Pellisworth posted:I'm sure there are lots with detached buildings too but I can't think of any I've seen. I've been to a few churches with kitchens and fellowship halls in detached buildings. Seems to be not uncommon when the initial sanctuary building is small or old and then they saved up enough money to add a second building on the church property which usually includes a fellowship hall, kitchen, and Sunday school/office space.
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Sep 23, 2016 22:35
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HEY GAL posted:project defenestration is a go, repeat it is a go Defenestrate this, ye of the pikes and fancy hats.   
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Sep 24, 2016 23:23
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Sadly my computer is out of commission for a while thanks to Windows somehow getting corrupted from a brief power outage so I can't post regularly. Happily, everyone's already covered Baptists 101 already. It's the denomination I grew up in and it still powerfully informs my religious beliefs, but I've personally broken with the SBC due to its political conservatism. I've personally become very liberal politically and religiously, and I can no longer tolerate the SBC's patronage of what boils down to racism, homophobia, and misogyny.
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Sep 26, 2016 22:12
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HEY GAL posted:if cythreal decided tomorrow that there was no god, he'd still think like a protestant. it is ingrained in him. because that's a way of life too. If I decided I didn't believe in any form of Christianity whatsoever, I'd be a deist rather than an atheist.  Much more intellectually appealing to me.Or more to the point, if I nominally converted to Catholicism or Orthodoxy for a girl, I'd probably still think like an Evangelical Protestant. Can't shake a life growing up in that environment so easily.
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Oct 3, 2016 21:57
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JcDent posted:I don't think I have thought about it this way or I don't remember doing so. Still, OCD is means all doubts, all the time. And it comes from wanting to have power/be prepared for the worst. Like, one time, we basically WebMD'd that I might possibly have parkinsonitis or something. Doubts about God, life and everything? Gone with the wind, I have to think about how I'll live out my last 5-15 years! If it's any consolation, I've never stopped doubting my faith. Back when Jastiger was trolling the old thread, I put it like this: I acknowledge that I may very well be wrong about my belief in God. Maybe Christianity is correct. Maybe some other religion is, be it one that exists right now, one that once existed but has since been extinguished, or one that has yet to be founded. Maybe there is no God. Maybe God exists but he's a deist's god who cares nothing for us. All of this acknowledged, I still believe in God as a Christian (specifically drawing my theology mostly from Evangelical Christianity, especially pre-right-wing-nutjob Southern Baptism). Not because of any absolute certainty, but because I choose to. As for my avatar, it's from an old Star Trek Online thread in Games courtesy of goons deciding that my discomfort with the totally ironic racism and genocide jokes was a sign I was insufficiently getting into the spirit of things.
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Oct 4, 2016 15:33
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JcDent posted:Back when I was playing STO, I no joke saw someone recruiting people for a Christian guild. Yup. One recurring dude who still plays who the STO thread still makes fun of is a hardcore Christian fundamentalist furry who never shuts up about his fursona and was permabanned from the Star Wars: The Old Republic official forums for his nonstop flaming and trolling of the thread discussing [the absence of] homosexuality in Star Wars. And I am ashamed that I know this.
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Oct 4, 2016 15:48
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Bel_Canto posted:Oh sure, they totally can, it just won't happen overnight. It's like integrating into a new country that speaks the same language as you, at least on the surface, but people use some words differently and look at the world in very different ways. The part where we get annoyed (and this happens with converts to many religions, not just Protestant-to-Catholic) is when they start getting their undies in a bunch about how none of the people around them are sufficiently Catholic because they don't read the Catechism for fun. Not only is this deeply uncharitable and skirting close to mortal sin, but the breathtaking arrogance required to be a newcomer and tell people who were born and raised in a religion and have practiced it most or all of their lives that they're doing it wrong really beggars belief. It's like coming to live in Britain and telling the residents that they need to be more like the cast of Downton Abbey. But at least, like HEY GAL said, we have big enough numbers that an rear end in a top hat convert isn't going to be made a bishop: instead they just congregate on CatholicAnswers and r/Catholicism to bitch about their insufficiently-orthodox RCIA instructors. None more zealous than a convert, as they say.
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Oct 4, 2016 16:07
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Tias posted:E: Can I just add that my favorite heresy is the Horus Heresy? I'm a fan of the Cathars. The Catholic Church could do with more feminism. When I play a Catholic in Crusader Kings 2, I almost always make sure Catharism supplants traditional Catholicism and turns Catholicism itself into a heresy.
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Oct 4, 2016 17:00
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my dad posted:Why, whyyyyy do so many Paradox games players believe that the mechanics of Paradox games are how the world actually works? It was a joke. I do seriously believe the Catholic Church should emphasize women in the church more (come on, it's past time to let women into the priesthood), and I sympathize greatly with liberation theology regarding Catholicism, but no I don't actually want to resurrect the Cathars.
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Oct 4, 2016 17:14
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:Because they're filthy Simulationists. Also, I think we'd know if the world worked like Paradox.  
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Oct 4, 2016 17:26
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Caufman posted:Indeed, when all along it's been Rockstar whose really understood the machinations of man... Nah. Rockstar generally tries to make you feel bad for being a psychopath in game. I'd say look to Volition and the Saint's Row series. One major character is even strongly implied to be a priest or pastor of some Christian denomination.
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Oct 5, 2016 15:50
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JcDent posted:Johnny Gat? Benjamin King. He's based out of a church and wears a stole.
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Oct 5, 2016 19:08
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Jedi Knight Luigi posted:This is good stuff! On the other hand, I maintain that the best drat church after-service food and coffee I've ever had was at a Wisconsin Synod church I visited.
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Oct 11, 2016 23:20
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Jedi Knight Luigi posted:Honestly this right here would be a compliment to a confessional Lutheran. Do I need to start lumping you together with the Catholics and Orthodox, too?
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Oct 13, 2016 01:35
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Bel_Canto posted:if we're posting music, wanna know how to make gregorian chant even more catholic? set it all polyphonic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wZud4MT3uw Does Trans-Siberian Orchestra count as religious music? Because that's what my family listens to every Christmas.
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Oct 14, 2016 00:28
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Personally, I find the idea that man is innately tainted to be comforting. No matter how badly or often I screw up, I can remind myself that we simply aren't capable of being perfect and I'm not special for screwing up.
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Oct 17, 2016 16:04
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I'm seeing y'all talk about Mysteries with a capital M as something relating to prayer, so I can only assume this is yet another weird high church thing the Protestants ditched.
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Oct 19, 2016 00:04
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Interesting, thanks. I had no idea the Rosary was anything but that beads-and-cross thing itself. That being said, no wonder the Protestants ditched it. We have a very different view of what prayer is supposed to be about, but that being said if it's spiritually meaningful to you then knock yourselves out.
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Oct 19, 2016 14:33
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Smoking Crow posted:It's amazing that people were angry at first about public schools because it would indoctrinate kids, and then immediately hated catholic private schools...because they were indoctrinating kids And support their own private or home schools... so they can indoctrinate kids. To this strain of person in the US, it's not about the religious (or secular) indoctrination, it's about the wrong kind of indoctrination.
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Oct 19, 2016 17:55
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 10:21 |
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Smoking Crow posted:It's crazy because people got mad at Horace Mann over this It's a sad but all too true joke that that strain of Christian fundies and Islamic fundies would actually find they have a lot of common ground if only they could agree on what to call God.
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Oct 19, 2016 18:09
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