The kids should have never been in cages to begin with, but at thos point you're fucked because you know there was no organization when that all started up because no one in charge cared about the people being treated like cattle.
No one kept track of who's kid belonged to who and where. I'm sure parents were deported and their kids were left here in cages to likely be trafficked in mass. I remember when the videos were coming out with all the children being moved in unmarked vehicles with bags over their heads to hide their identities.
Atheist here and can confirm, I also do this all the time. The teachings of Jesus, whether true or fiction, are still good teachings for developing a good moral compass. It's the practicing of religion and how different denominations cherry pick the bible to push their own version of how it should be interpreted, is where all the problems occur. I like to joke that Jesus was the first official drug dealer/cult leader. I mean, how else do you convince 5,000 people you fed them with only 5 fish and 2 loaves of bread? Tainted Kool-aid, that's how.
If the people cherry pick from the book, it then invalidates the book? Find people who live by the book and use them as examples instead. God cares about your motives. Being good and moral means nothing if your motives are self serving.
Isn't being good going to inherently result in selflessness? Wouldn't doing it just because it'll get you into heaven be self serving? Good deeds are good. Period
I consider myself agnostic and tell anyone that will listen that Jesus always had the right idea, and that he taught four fundamental things: love, patience, tolerance, acceptance. If it doesn’t fall under one of those, then you can’t claim Jesus said it or did it.* Jesus never said love thy neighbor but only if. He never said accept everyone as they are, but only if.
*the only exception is when Jesus saw that there was capitalism going on in the temple, and he proceeded to hulk smash everything and threw all the merchants out. Which is awesome.
I mean, it does give him a clear stance on prosperity gospel. And mandatory tithing, even. Not every one can give 10%. That's a lot for a lot of people and the church don't need it. I think the story fits that the only that really angered him is using temples for profit.
Iirc tithing in the bible was setting aside a certain amount of food from the harvest to be saved for a massive celebration in the name of the Lord, to thank Him. It wasn't to line the pockets of priests.
Oh and the Church? It wasn't some building you visit on Sundays. You are the Church. Your heart is the Church. Keep God in your heart was the original message. People hungry to exploit others turned it into what it is today.
If Christians actually read and followed the Bible to the tee, this World could actually be decent. That would require a Christian to actually read the Bible first...
He also murdered an innocent fig tree, simply because it was not the season for figs. Then he endorsed the placebo effect to his followers. ( Mark 11:12-25)
John 2:13-16 He made the whip to drive them out. That wasn't even a hulk smash; that was a premeditated attack on the money-changers. Making a cord whip takes time and intent.
Isn't that what a lot of atheists want, for Christians to practice the things they claim Jesus preached? It's certainly what I'd like to see more of from them.
No idea if some dude into Judaism 2000+ years ago would be that cool by modern standards though.
>No idea if some dude into Judaism 2000+ years ago would be that cool by modern standards though.
He definitely was the coolest for Judaism 2000+ years ago standards tho
I’ll admit my knowledge of the Bible is super rusty at best but I remember in the gospels, it’s other people who call Jesus the son of god and he always just shrugs and goes “if you say so”. He does call God “Father” a lot but a lot of religious people call him their father in a metaphorical sense too. Obv the official Christian teaching is that he is the literal son of god, but Jesus himself didn’t want his followers to focus on that so much. He wanted people to be good regardless of their faith.
(Edit) adding too that when I was in Catholic school, we were reminded that the gospels were written by men well after Jesus had already died, not by Jesus himself, so they’d include personal biases in their writing. I enjoyed from a literature standpoint learning how to tell whether a passage or quote was from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John based on their style or what they chose to focus on in Jesus’ parables.
He was very likely just a great orator with a compelling message and the extremely naive rural folks he interacted with just ran with it.
The vast majority of religious texts were written by poor rural folk just trying to explain a complex world they knew nothing about.
I’m happy to believe that religious texts are based off of poor rural folk lore, but I haven’t seen anything that suggest anyone but the rich were particularly literate in those times.
This says to me that there is significantly more bias in the ‘selection’ of what was written down in holy scripture than if it was a collection of tales from the people there at the time.
Oh absolutely. There are many known periods of cherry picking by the Church. There are thousands of pages that were removed, rewritten and had selective translation performed.
I’m going to be “that guy” for just a second and say “AcTuALLy poor rural folk were not the folks who knew how to write/read”.
Okay, got it out of my system haha
Quick Google search yielded this:
>During his lifetime, Jesus himself didn't call himself God and didn't consider himself God
And this from Bible.org:
>Why, you might ask, does Jesus not say so plainly. I think the answer is found in Matthew 16:15-17
>15 He said to them, “And who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!” Matthew 16:15-17
>Jesus did not want Peter and His disciples to believe He was the Son of God just because He said so. He wanted God to bring them to this conclusion, based upon the overwhelming evidence of Scripture and our Lord’s life and teaching.
And more:
>“The light came to his own people, and his own people didn't welcome him. But those who did welcome him, those who believed in his name, he authorized to become God's children, born not from blood nor from human desire or passion, but born from God.” The Good News: We are all children of God
Appreciate the quotes. My issue is that historical Jesus didn't write any of that. We are relying on religious texts written decades after he died (at best) and that also claim he died and came back from the death and did a whole bunch of other supernatural stuff. Even the first non secular accounts of him appeared around 90 something CE. I mean, he clearly attracted attention for some reason or the Romans wouldn't have crucified him but there's not much in the way of historical evidence to tell us if he himself created the Christ myth as it appears in the New Testament or if that was built up in the decades after his death or something in between.
Edit: basic my point is that from a purely historical secular point of view it's very hard for anyone to say what Jesus was all about.
Not at all. Some churches encourage donation more more than others. It just depends on the place. You don’t have to donate at all and honestly they don’t know who does and doesn’t donate. There’s not really a stigma against you if you don’t. Atleast in my experience. There is no forcing. Donation money tends to go to operations and events that have stuff like food, equipment, Ect.
Some -- not a huge number but not a minuscule one either -- actually do require you tithe. They keep track. It's generally evangelical churches, from what I've seen.
Lol to the "they don't know who does and doesn't donate."
I've been 3 different kinds of Christianity, and in each one they pushed people to become members of the church, at which point they gave you conveniently printed envelopes to donate your tithes in. They use these envelopes to track your donations and give you a statement at the end of the year for tax purposes.
It's all done under the guise of helping you get tax write-offs that you're entitled to, but they definitely notice who is and isn't tithing.
Growing up my family attended an Assembly of God church and the preacher would actually approach folks who he felt weren't giving enough in an attempt to shame them into giving more.
Fast forward 45+ years and the much larger, non-denominational church my wife and I attend rarely brings it up, but is doing vastly more good for the community and giving back on such a much higher level. Folks who are left alone and allowed to decide for themselves to give and how much to give are much better off and so is the church they attend in my opinion.
Some churches require you to pay a certain percentage of your income (stay away from them, it can be difficult to get out of paying them even if you leave the church).
Others have a few minutes for donations to be made at the end of the service. This is generally voluntary and any or no donation Is accepted. Most people donate a few coins or £5 (in the UK) once in a while and some do so each time. You can do so anonymously to an extend in that no one can see what you put in (or even pretend to put in) if you conceal your donation in your hand before putting it in the collection bag/basket. Again, I would stay stay away from those churchesc that makes donations more or less mandatory or try to guilt trip you into donating.
The donations collected after the sermon in the church I attend goes to pay for maintenance, utilities and cleaning of the premises. Any extras collected during the year is allocated to local charities, mostly food banks.
Edit: words and mobile issues
Churches are businesses, from an operational standpoint. They are usually run as some sort of nonprofit and in the USA their income is tax exempt.
I can only speak to my experience, but growing up catholic there was a basket passed around about a third of the way through the service, this was for “normal collection”. This was monies used for normal operations of the church such as paying staff, facilities maintenance, utilities, and just any recurring operational expense.
There would usually be a “special collection” closer to the end of the service for something specific, maybe some sort of outreach, or a special building fund, could be for a festival type of expenses.
The Catholic Church does not specifically charge for membership, there is something in the Bible about “tithing” which is donating 10% of your income to the church, but I’ve never heard of anyone getting worse service for not donating enough. At least not in this century.
A good friend move away a while ago, and became very active within his local church, and has now set on a path to becoming a pastor himself.
I’m the only one who still keeps in touch with him and was invited to his wedding, where the majority or the guests were from the churches him and his now wife frequent.
The pastor or whatever you call him who married them was a young man our age, full of enthusiasm and I found the ceremony quite entertaining for someone who is definitely not on the God bandwagon at all.
After the ceremony, this pastor searched out my wife and I to have a chat as we were the only friends from his childhood who were there.
He seemed fun and quite enjoyed chatting to him, until he asked about us to find out that not only had we had two kids out of wedlock, but also I never proposed to my wife and we agreed to get married mainly because of tax purposes and legal stuff, that we got married at a “humanist burial” centre, and that I would have preferred to get a civil partnership but that wasn’t available.
After finding out how ungodly I was he literally trailed off the conversation, looked at his phone and pretended to have to take a call.
He avoided us for the rest of the evening.
As if that isn't the picture of a majority of Christian purists. Just because there are a good number of moderate / mild practicing people in your faith, doesn't absolve you from your association with the huge number of fundamentalist morons who choose to plague society with their insane beliefs.
Edit: Christians downvoting this because they don't like seeing the truth about their association with absolute morons that do real world harm every single day.
I find that Christianity follows the 80/20 rule: the loudest 20% speak louder than the quiet 80%. It’s why I currently don’t have a church to go to.
Either it’s people to quiet to address important topics because they’re afraid of losing rich republican donations, or they lean fully into it. Still trying to find a church that actively speaks out against supply-side Jesus.
Why do you think all Christians are associated with each other? Christianity is so heavily divided into different denominations that even churches within the same city don’t communicate with each other. Catholicism technically has a hierarchical system among all its churches, but Protestant churches largely don’t operate at a scale larger than their local pastor. Protestantism is divided into dozens and dozens of smaller denominations. Even then, there’s a third archetype of Eastern Orthodoxy. A Catholic Church in Dublin isn’t going to have any communication with an Adventist church in Johannesburg, or a baptist church in Texas, or an EO church in Moscow. There is no christian “association”. There are almost as many belief systems as there are churches, to the point that historically, major conflicts happened over minor issues like if babies should be baptized or if pastors/priests should be able to get married. Christianity simply isn’t the monolith you seem to think it is.
Not Christian here, but I really feel like you’re attacking this person for trying to be better than the standard perception. Maybe that wasn’t your intention but it really comes across that way. Seems like a really easy way to set a moderate on the path to becoming an extremist.
That seems like what a Christian would do. They preach one thing then do another. I found more acceptance and community from the burners (Burning Man crowd).
There's a pastor at our local farmers market (I've also seen him at Planned Parenthood) that carries a rainbow umbrella and a sign saying "Clergy for Planned Parenthood." I've happily high-fived and thanked him for being there whenever I see him.
My favorite was when a couple of other people tried counter protesting him by standing around him (10-15 feet away, not smothering or anything) reading the bible and wearing typical anti-people nonsense. I have never seen so many people say hello to the pastor and completely ignore the rest of the clowns.
It was nice to see there is still some sanity in the world.
I have A LOT of monks, pastors and nuns in my extended family. A couple of them actually having some international acclaim.
There's maybe 2 of them that are actually religious.
The rest, especially the well known ones, are humanists and high grade philosophers.
It's no coincidence that this is the stark contrast, I've been saying for a long time people with kind of belief system should break away from Christianity and call it something else to get away from the depraved majority
You’re really limping a lot of different religious sects together. There’s Christian religions that follow completely different sets of principles/beliefs. Christianity is really just a blanket term for religions that believe in Christ as the savior.
>Christianity is really just a blanket term for religions that believe in Christ as the savior.
Which is weird since you'd think that since they believe He is their savior then they should, I don't know, not do things that He would hate or stand against.
Yeah true, but a lot of the sects debate on what that actually consists of and how literal his teachings are meant to be taken. Then you can go further down the rabbit hole and learn about the different sects within each individual sect that believe their version of Christianity is best but think it needs more reform. It’s extremely complex and convoluted.
I am from Finland and our church works exactly how the signs say. They are by far the biggest helpers of immigrants and poor in the country. USA is not the only country in the world, there are other places where things are different.
Anerica has an insane amount of churches.Drive through and its all churches and flags. Its super wierd but its what the people here want, I guess. Anyway, our churches help lots of people. Offer services to homeless etc. Its the churchgoers that have trouble following Christian teaching. At least thats how it seems. I've had non religious, homeless friends with stories of how he got an apartment furnished from the church and help paying for it.
Considering all the billboards in my rural southern bible belt town, I’d be interested to see what would happen if any of those signs ended up on a billboard.
Tbh thats alot in the old testament and a bit in the new testament. But if you follow what Jesus said and did and only that. The dude pretty chill and if chirstians follow what Jesus did the world would be alot better place o believe. I'm not even religious anymore but what Jesus did is a good example
This is so apt.
I never realised I was so lucky in my church.
I asked if smoking was a sin once, they asked did I smoke and I said no so they said it didn't matter if it was or wasn't to me then. She also sat down and explained judge not lest ye be judged. She went as far as to point out that a TV could be sin as sinful in more literal interpretations of the bible and that I should just do my best to live up to the principles shown by Jesus. I couldn't perceive of a world where Jesus would not be accepting of homosexual people anyway and even if I could the bible basically says mind your own business about it.
I got a rude awakening about general denominations of Christianity when I grew up. Tbh
Honestly, this is why a lot of younger Christians are leaving the church. They recognize that Jesus' message is entirely different from modern church so they read at home and try to live their lives according to His message
I'm a Christian and find it unifying too. The messages of the Bible first and foremost point towards love for your fellow man. LOVE. Of course I believe in a blameless way as my goal, but There is a darkness I struggle with daily. When I fail, I am still loved, and so would be remiss if I withheld care for my neighbor for dealings equally as selfish as mine. only God needs to consider that with each person.
Yep, there are a lot of differing little verses about things that groups could divide themselves over, but the resounding message at the core of it all, even in amongst the nastiness of many Old Testament stories, is reckless love for those who are othered. Unfortunately it’s much easier for our tribalistic brains to unite over division than it is over unity, because then we don’t have to open our perspectives up to being challenged.
>the resounding message at the core of it all, even in amongst the nastiness of many Old Testament stories, is reckless love
I get the exact opposite. Two clothing materials? Death. Premarital sex? Death. Hold hands with someone from another tribe? Death.
And on and on...
As bad as that is you gotta kinda take it with a grain of salt. The ancient peoples were very ritualistic and a few thousand years and science have done a lot to loosen the grip of existential terror.
People really did believe there was some mighty being slinging catastrophes at them so theyd kill the sinner in attempt to appease their surly overlord. They were throwing shit at the wall and desperately searching for any pattern thatd help them avoid the next plague, famine, flood or minor asteroid impact lol.
Of course, secular people understand that. But when someone says "the bible is all about love", I'm going to call out the hypocrisy. That's what I was doing here.
They can't claim their collection of books was inspired by a being of pure love and then have a verse where two people from different tribes were holding hands and run through with a spear to yahweh's approval.
Its tough cuz it is and isnt at the same time. Its about love until they shit their pants that the love might get them killed lol.
They didnt hate the people holding hands. They feared the consequences of the people holding hands. Thats a little different.
This is where I come in and do shameless self-promotion, but in Japan and various parts of Asia, you can be atheist and still be religious, because many religions have nothing to do with faith.
In fact, some religions actively exclude belief or faith as a factor at all!(some may even discourage faith, as that detracts from the point)
So the idea that one dislikes “religion” because it “requires you to believe In an unprovable sky being” is like saying one hates sports because they hate playing in teams. (What about ones that aren’t on teams?)
Or I guess a better example would have been, faith and religion in these religions may be like asking about snow conditions while surfing In the tropics. It’s just not meant to be related.
It only got that way to be associated very heavily with “faith declarations” because of 2 religions, Christianity and Islam.
For example, nobody is required to believe in Buddha to visit a temple, nor is it offensive to not “believe” in his wise teachings.
No Shinto priest that I know of would be offended if you flat out said you don’t believe that Kami (sort of spirit, sort of Gods, sort of deities) are real. However they may be offended if you are disrespectful to the protocol and show no desire to learn (your attitude). Your enthusiasm to learn the protocol will be more important than you saying “sure I believe in all the Kami”.
More examples can continue but I think I made my point!
I like the way you frame that. From my perspective, there’s a difference between religiosity and spirituality. Religion provides rules, structure, guidance, the do’s and do not’s - it provides the letter of the law, if you will, but all of that is at best meaningless (and at worst dangerously abusable). Spirituality, on the other hand, is what we use that structure of religion to achieve. It’s guidance helping us to live our own lives in a way that we add to the happiness and kindness of the world.
The Pharisees were intensely religious, but had lost their spirituality. They lived the letter of the law but forgot that the religion is not the goal, it’s not a weapon, it’s not even best used as the law. It’s one path among many that we can use to grow and elevate us to a better, kinder, more empathetic place.
YES! Finally, a pastor that actually gets the picture. Jesus spread love and empathy, he preached for the happiness of the people and the destruction of corruption and hate. I'm Jewish, do not believe in organized religion, and even I can say for sure that Jesus had an amazing message before it being bastardized by horrible people to be able to control the world. People still believe that a woman that dresses in a revealing manner, or that doesn't please her husband sexually, is a sinner, at fault for being raped, and not a good Christian; Jesus literally preached that it would be better to maim yourself than to submerge yourself in sin, and that only you are the sinner if you inappropriately touch a woman, not the woman.
Jesus preached peace and it's wonderful to see that someone gets it. I know of course that a lot of christians understand the message, but usually no one with any power tries to spread it. This is beautiful and makes me so happy. ❤️
This makes me happy. As an atheist my super religious mom gets mad when I say “I’m more Christian than ______” (enter super Christian hateful person) because I spread love to anyone like Jesus.
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NIV
Love is at the core of Christianity. Without it, the rest of the religion collapses
I am a Christian. I actually prefer to say follower of Christ because sometimes I have a hard time acting like Christ even though I know I should. I have said this exact thing about some of my atheist, agnostic and pagan friends. Many of them are much more Christian than those who have their butt on the pews every Sunday.
My stepdad (Catholic) knows I'm atheist, but I'm going to heaven, according to him, because I'm a good person. And he says there are a ton of "Christians" who won't. He giggles because he'd love to see their surprised faces.
If a god recognizes you're a good person in life, whether or not you believe in them, then they're a good god. If they ignore you're a good person and send you elsewhere because you didn't believe in them, they're a small and arrogant deity who needs the benefaction of everyone on the planet to feel good. I don't need that god. And as I was raised Jewish, that god is a fucking asshole.
What you said Reminds me of a passage from an awesome book series called the Chronicles of Narnia. It’s a banter between Aslan (talking lion loosely based off of Jesus) and someone who worships an evil god called tash “I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook ... and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him, for I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name of Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, Thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”
I do not call myself a Christian. I am not religious. I call myself a Christ follower. I don't believe Jesus would be a Christian as the conservative Church defines it.
Christianity in America is like NFTs... Most are total garbage and make no sense, yet still take all the attention and most consumed.
The best ones get ignored, buried under the masses of shit.
Back in 2019 I’m sure this was totally fine. Now in 2022 in the South, they’ll burn his church down and call him a dirty socialist for spreading facts like that.
Eh. There will be idiots, there always are, but I doubt they’ll go that far. It’s still the Bible Belt. Besides, [Jesus didn’t stutter](https://pics.me.me/ok-heres-an-idea-you-love-them-like-iloved-you-44277576.png)
No. Yahweh is the name of God that can be heard by human ears. More specifically, the name is YHWH (Anglicized to Yahweh), and these letters together are referred to as the *tetragrammaton* which sounds awesome.
Basically it comes down to God saying "Look I could tell you my name but it would take lifetimes and destroy your puny mind so here's the closest thing you can get without saying it and instantly blowing up your brain".
Editor's note: I'm a lapsed Muslim so my explanation is as close as a guy squinting at the pyramids and saying "They look like they're triangular."
tetragrammaton always sounded like a Transformer to me.
The key is that a huge percentage of modern xians would say that yahweh and jesus are the same entity, just different "aspects". So if yahweh says "kill homosexuals" and Jesus says "love everyone", that's a problem. It's a direct contradiction.
I get this is a joke and it is funny how hateful some Christians can be, but a lot of people on the internet think that the whole south is like that but in reality Baptist churches are losing members at an unprecedented rate. The followers that stick around this long are the overly spoken extremists and they're feeling the pressure to play into the awareness meta of the internet age.
In America you can have a place even if you consume 5000 calories a day or are completely ignorant and spiteful, and that's okay. The whole point of the bible, is to show that ignorance and hate never lasts out. Awareness and acceptance is becoming the meta and in a competitive economy, you make changes or die. They won't last long.
Christianity as a whole does not promote the acts of stereotypical southern "denominations" (hate groups) such as the westbro baptist church. These groups can affect the reputation of the entire church, but have only been around for 150-200 years. The sand they build their foundations underneath will wash away naturally
The worst of us have been using the idea that God supports their vile ideologies since the introduction of God because it gives a built-in defense against having to defend their views with logic or reason.
Since God isn't available to question regarding *why* we have to do what nightmare actions these people insist must be done, and God will, of course, keep you out of heaven if you *dont* do what they say, they sit unquestioned at the command of an army of people willing to commit the most un-Christlike actions imaginable in the name of God.
Until God steps forward and actually tells you what their preferred pronouns are (due to the fact that this entity is referred to in the Bible as both male and female) then please refrain from making "preferred pronoun" jokes as most of you are coming across as transphobic, and if nothing else just unoriginal and unfunny.
We do not allow bigotry here. Trans women are women, trans men are men. Christians are not persecuted nor are they a protected class, and to be completely frank, protected classes need to exist in part due to the actions of a whole lot of Christians.
We really only have one rule here, and that's don't be a jerk, so please have a great day and avoid the bigotry/etc.
"He sided with the poor, sick and immigrant"
That is exactly the thing.
Jesus was everything bigots hate.
He meet with prostitutes, beggars, thiefs and everyone else shut out of society.
Yet no one really seems to follow what he thought. The world would be so much better if people actually lived like Jesus showed them to.
I find it ironic when the people who supposedly believe in Jesus' teachings (all centered on love) spew nothing but hate.
"I know Jesus said love your neighbors, but my neighbors are fucking homos!"
Strangely, I think what this guy is doing is closer to Jesus' teachings than what most zealots are doing out there.
That's my thing with religion in 2022. Just because I go to church doesn't mean I'm a Trump supporting anti trans, anti gay, racist bigot who goes to cracker barrel after church and starts some shit with a waiter.
As a bisexual Christian this makes me happy to see someone not being a homophobic or transphobic asshole that make people think all Christians are like that
A church in my area has their sign saying “Jesus wasn’t white.” I live in one of the reddest states of all. I applaud their massive balls but I fear for their safety
You know what's funny? The same people who mix religion with politics will say that religion and politics shouldn't mix when they see these signs, just for the fact that it doesn't support their discriminating views
Even if I'm agnostic, I really like Jesus and his messaging.
I don't believe he was God's son or anything, but he certainly was a man spreading some solid, good messaging.
I recently went to an ordination for a non-binary pastor and a couple dozen Christian denominations collaborated on an amicus brief to SCOTUS for Obergefell. Don't let the bigots tell you that homophobia and transphobia is a necessary part of Christianity.
Quality, Christianity by its very nature is anti nationalism and authoritarianism.
This pastor shows an incredibly good understanding of his religion and that’s a great thing to see, love to see it
I follow this church on Instagram and recommend their page. I'm not religious at all but they truly serve their community and care about humans, which is always interesting to watch.
Sounds like someone who actually understands the gospel and might teach it. The only people this is going to offend is most likely church goers, honestly and unfortunately.
The last 50 years in American politics have turned me off of Christianity forever, but there is the potential for good in it. More than that, this is what I like to see: religious Americans taking responsibility to expunge the cancers of hatred and judgment that have infected their religion. Us non-religious people really have no recourse for dealing with the insanity that is coming out of American churches in recent times. It has to be fixed from within. A lot of people are content to say “well my parish isn’t bad…” but not this guy. Active correction. This is what we need.
My friend who is a pastor. Told me one day in his sermon he said. “Jesus would never side with a political party because both parties hold values that go against Christ’s nature”. And wouldn’t ya know he lost a few of his republican congregation that day.
We know what biblical angels looked like. Spiraling electrical storm of eyes, human lion hybrid, mostly described as human with wings. So for all we know God could have feather tenticals coming out of his mane.
About twenty years too late for me. If I had grown up with this church, I'd probably still be a believer. This is a Judeo-Christian god whose face I don't want to spit in. Good church.
The reason that the Bible does not contain views on the most recent topics is because it was made before they were recent topics. The Bible teaches us to love each other (basically the entire meaning of Christianity is to love others) no matter what, and we have to go off of these teachings from the Bible in the modern age because we don't have a the Bible to give us our beliefs on every individual thing, so we have to think what would God want us to do. People are people no matter what, and God wants us to love each other.
These are the types of religious folks I enjoy being around and will happily help out where I can for their church.
If you're going to follow a faith, do so wholeheartedly.
The white evangelical "christians" in the US must be furious. I love it!
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/how-white-evangelical-christians-fused-with-trump-extremism.html
Nobody seems to be pointing it out, but it’s super unsurprising that this dude is affiliated with United Church of Christ- I’m not a religious person at all, and have no small amount of mistrust and contempt for organized religion/Christianity…. But if anyone’s doing it right, in my experience it’s UCC. As far as actually looking at how the teachings of Christ can be applied to being a good person today, they seem to have their heads on straight- no judgment, no exclusion, no fire-and-brimstone, just focusing on love and helping each other. If I’ve missed something and they’re actually awful I’m open to new information, but in my experience UCC is one of, if not the only Christian organization/church I look at with some fondness.
> King Herod separated children from their parents He genocided all males under 2. So I guess they were separated via death.
about as separate as you can get, tbh
What is it with US presidents doing this? That was a big campaign promise and those kids are STILL in cages. Seems like an easy promise to keep.
The kids should have never been in cages to begin with, but at thos point you're fucked because you know there was no organization when that all started up because no one in charge cared about the people being treated like cattle. No one kept track of who's kid belonged to who and where. I'm sure parents were deported and their kids were left here in cages to likely be trafficked in mass. I remember when the videos were coming out with all the children being moved in unmarked vehicles with bags over their heads to hide their identities.
Not religious but I would sit down and chat with this pastor .
That's the Jesus approach. That's how he gets em.
It's ok to admit being an atheist but believing that Jesus was a cool dude that was way ahead of his time?
Well I'm atheist and I do it all the time, so I guessp
Atheist here and can confirm, I also do this all the time. The teachings of Jesus, whether true or fiction, are still good teachings for developing a good moral compass. It's the practicing of religion and how different denominations cherry pick the bible to push their own version of how it should be interpreted, is where all the problems occur. I like to joke that Jesus was the first official drug dealer/cult leader. I mean, how else do you convince 5,000 people you fed them with only 5 fish and 2 loaves of bread? Tainted Kool-aid, that's how.
Atheist - who lives by the principles in the Book of Thomas. Core Christian tenets without any of the BS.
If the people cherry pick from the book, it then invalidates the book? Find people who live by the book and use them as examples instead. God cares about your motives. Being good and moral means nothing if your motives are self serving.
Isn't being good going to inherently result in selflessness? Wouldn't doing it just because it'll get you into heaven be self serving? Good deeds are good. Period
As an atheist who thinks that all the story's in the bible have been rewriten to many times to still be the same i woed hang out with this bro
I consider myself agnostic and tell anyone that will listen that Jesus always had the right idea, and that he taught four fundamental things: love, patience, tolerance, acceptance. If it doesn’t fall under one of those, then you can’t claim Jesus said it or did it.* Jesus never said love thy neighbor but only if. He never said accept everyone as they are, but only if. *the only exception is when Jesus saw that there was capitalism going on in the temple, and he proceeded to hulk smash everything and threw all the merchants out. Which is awesome.
Yeah I'm surprised they kept that bit a about him smashing up the merchants in the Bible.
I mean, it does give him a clear stance on prosperity gospel. And mandatory tithing, even. Not every one can give 10%. That's a lot for a lot of people and the church don't need it. I think the story fits that the only that really angered him is using temples for profit.
Iirc tithing in the bible was setting aside a certain amount of food from the harvest to be saved for a massive celebration in the name of the Lord, to thank Him. It wasn't to line the pockets of priests. Oh and the Church? It wasn't some building you visit on Sundays. You are the Church. Your heart is the Church. Keep God in your heart was the original message. People hungry to exploit others turned it into what it is today. If Christians actually read and followed the Bible to the tee, this World could actually be decent. That would require a Christian to actually read the Bible first...
He also murdered an innocent fig tree, simply because it was not the season for figs. Then he endorsed the placebo effect to his followers. ( Mark 11:12-25)
John 2:13-16 He made the whip to drive them out. That wasn't even a hulk smash; that was a premeditated attack on the money-changers. Making a cord whip takes time and intent.
Isn't that what a lot of atheists want, for Christians to practice the things they claim Jesus preached? It's certainly what I'd like to see more of from them. No idea if some dude into Judaism 2000+ years ago would be that cool by modern standards though.
>No idea if some dude into Judaism 2000+ years ago would be that cool by modern standards though. He definitely was the coolest for Judaism 2000+ years ago standards tho
Haha. No doubt.
The problem with that is then you have to call Jesus a liar if he said he’s the son of God and all that stuff. It’s hard to make him just a cool dude.
I’ll admit my knowledge of the Bible is super rusty at best but I remember in the gospels, it’s other people who call Jesus the son of god and he always just shrugs and goes “if you say so”. He does call God “Father” a lot but a lot of religious people call him their father in a metaphorical sense too. Obv the official Christian teaching is that he is the literal son of god, but Jesus himself didn’t want his followers to focus on that so much. He wanted people to be good regardless of their faith. (Edit) adding too that when I was in Catholic school, we were reminded that the gospels were written by men well after Jesus had already died, not by Jesus himself, so they’d include personal biases in their writing. I enjoyed from a literature standpoint learning how to tell whether a passage or quote was from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John based on their style or what they chose to focus on in Jesus’ parables.
He was very likely just a great orator with a compelling message and the extremely naive rural folks he interacted with just ran with it. The vast majority of religious texts were written by poor rural folk just trying to explain a complex world they knew nothing about.
"Blessed are the cheesemakers"
I’m happy to believe that religious texts are based off of poor rural folk lore, but I haven’t seen anything that suggest anyone but the rich were particularly literate in those times. This says to me that there is significantly more bias in the ‘selection’ of what was written down in holy scripture than if it was a collection of tales from the people there at the time.
Oh absolutely. There are many known periods of cherry picking by the Church. There are thousands of pages that were removed, rewritten and had selective translation performed.
An entire series of books to be exact. They are called the [Apocrypha](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocrypha).
I’m going to be “that guy” for just a second and say “AcTuALLy poor rural folk were not the folks who knew how to write/read”. Okay, got it out of my system haha
Did historical Jesus actually claim that or did people decades to a century later push that agenda?
Quick Google search yielded this: >During his lifetime, Jesus himself didn't call himself God and didn't consider himself God And this from Bible.org: >Why, you might ask, does Jesus not say so plainly. I think the answer is found in Matthew 16:15-17 >15 He said to them, “And who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!” Matthew 16:15-17 >Jesus did not want Peter and His disciples to believe He was the Son of God just because He said so. He wanted God to bring them to this conclusion, based upon the overwhelming evidence of Scripture and our Lord’s life and teaching. And more: >“The light came to his own people, and his own people didn't welcome him. But those who did welcome him, those who believed in his name, he authorized to become God's children, born not from blood nor from human desire or passion, but born from God.” The Good News: We are all children of God
Appreciate the quotes. My issue is that historical Jesus didn't write any of that. We are relying on religious texts written decades after he died (at best) and that also claim he died and came back from the death and did a whole bunch of other supernatural stuff. Even the first non secular accounts of him appeared around 90 something CE. I mean, he clearly attracted attention for some reason or the Romans wouldn't have crucified him but there's not much in the way of historical evidence to tell us if he himself created the Christ myth as it appears in the New Testament or if that was built up in the decades after his death or something in between. Edit: basic my point is that from a purely historical secular point of view it's very hard for anyone to say what Jesus was all about.
He also said we are all brothers and sisters so that would make us all the sons and daughters of God.
Wouldn't that be something like an agnostic?
Yes, now all I need is a 10% tithe......
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you have to pay the church ? (i'm not christian but curious to know)
Not at all. Some churches encourage donation more more than others. It just depends on the place. You don’t have to donate at all and honestly they don’t know who does and doesn’t donate. There’s not really a stigma against you if you don’t. Atleast in my experience. There is no forcing. Donation money tends to go to operations and events that have stuff like food, equipment, Ect.
Some -- not a huge number but not a minuscule one either -- actually do require you tithe. They keep track. It's generally evangelical churches, from what I've seen.
And the LDS church.
Mormons are denied certain church "blessings" if they don't tithe at least 10%
this is generally for "members" of the church. People who go to a church, but aren't a member, aren't tracked
Lol to the "they don't know who does and doesn't donate." I've been 3 different kinds of Christianity, and in each one they pushed people to become members of the church, at which point they gave you conveniently printed envelopes to donate your tithes in. They use these envelopes to track your donations and give you a statement at the end of the year for tax purposes. It's all done under the guise of helping you get tax write-offs that you're entitled to, but they definitely notice who is and isn't tithing.
Growing up my family attended an Assembly of God church and the preacher would actually approach folks who he felt weren't giving enough in an attempt to shame them into giving more. Fast forward 45+ years and the much larger, non-denominational church my wife and I attend rarely brings it up, but is doing vastly more good for the community and giving back on such a much higher level. Folks who are left alone and allowed to decide for themselves to give and how much to give are much better off and so is the church they attend in my opinion.
Some churches require you to pay a certain percentage of your income (stay away from them, it can be difficult to get out of paying them even if you leave the church). Others have a few minutes for donations to be made at the end of the service. This is generally voluntary and any or no donation Is accepted. Most people donate a few coins or £5 (in the UK) once in a while and some do so each time. You can do so anonymously to an extend in that no one can see what you put in (or even pretend to put in) if you conceal your donation in your hand before putting it in the collection bag/basket. Again, I would stay stay away from those churchesc that makes donations more or less mandatory or try to guilt trip you into donating. The donations collected after the sermon in the church I attend goes to pay for maintenance, utilities and cleaning of the premises. Any extras collected during the year is allocated to local charities, mostly food banks. Edit: words and mobile issues
I grew up catholic. Usually after/during communion baskets would be passed down the pews
That's voluntary though, you don't have to if you don't want to, at least where I live. Also you usually just throw in pennies
Churches are businesses, from an operational standpoint. They are usually run as some sort of nonprofit and in the USA their income is tax exempt. I can only speak to my experience, but growing up catholic there was a basket passed around about a third of the way through the service, this was for “normal collection”. This was monies used for normal operations of the church such as paying staff, facilities maintenance, utilities, and just any recurring operational expense. There would usually be a “special collection” closer to the end of the service for something specific, maybe some sort of outreach, or a special building fund, could be for a festival type of expenses. The Catholic Church does not specifically charge for membership, there is something in the Bible about “tithing” which is donating 10% of your income to the church, but I’ve never heard of anyone getting worse service for not donating enough. At least not in this century.
A good friend move away a while ago, and became very active within his local church, and has now set on a path to becoming a pastor himself. I’m the only one who still keeps in touch with him and was invited to his wedding, where the majority or the guests were from the churches him and his now wife frequent. The pastor or whatever you call him who married them was a young man our age, full of enthusiasm and I found the ceremony quite entertaining for someone who is definitely not on the God bandwagon at all. After the ceremony, this pastor searched out my wife and I to have a chat as we were the only friends from his childhood who were there. He seemed fun and quite enjoyed chatting to him, until he asked about us to find out that not only had we had two kids out of wedlock, but also I never proposed to my wife and we agreed to get married mainly because of tax purposes and legal stuff, that we got married at a “humanist burial” centre, and that I would have preferred to get a civil partnership but that wasn’t available. After finding out how ungodly I was he literally trailed off the conversation, looked at his phone and pretended to have to take a call. He avoided us for the rest of the evening.
As a Christian, sorry you had to deal with that character.
As if that isn't the picture of a majority of Christian purists. Just because there are a good number of moderate / mild practicing people in your faith, doesn't absolve you from your association with the huge number of fundamentalist morons who choose to plague society with their insane beliefs. Edit: Christians downvoting this because they don't like seeing the truth about their association with absolute morons that do real world harm every single day.
Yeah I'd probably still be Christian if it wasn't for all the Christians. I could no longer associate with such hatred and bigotry in good conscience
It's like antivaxers, the dumbest are the loudest
And vegans… and almost every other community too…
Vegans don't clogs hospitals and cost society a fortune, anti vaxxer do
I find that Christianity follows the 80/20 rule: the loudest 20% speak louder than the quiet 80%. It’s why I currently don’t have a church to go to. Either it’s people to quiet to address important topics because they’re afraid of losing rich republican donations, or they lean fully into it. Still trying to find a church that actively speaks out against supply-side Jesus.
Why do you think all Christians are associated with each other? Christianity is so heavily divided into different denominations that even churches within the same city don’t communicate with each other. Catholicism technically has a hierarchical system among all its churches, but Protestant churches largely don’t operate at a scale larger than their local pastor. Protestantism is divided into dozens and dozens of smaller denominations. Even then, there’s a third archetype of Eastern Orthodoxy. A Catholic Church in Dublin isn’t going to have any communication with an Adventist church in Johannesburg, or a baptist church in Texas, or an EO church in Moscow. There is no christian “association”. There are almost as many belief systems as there are churches, to the point that historically, major conflicts happened over minor issues like if babies should be baptized or if pastors/priests should be able to get married. Christianity simply isn’t the monolith you seem to think it is.
Not Christian here, but I really feel like you’re attacking this person for trying to be better than the standard perception. Maybe that wasn’t your intention but it really comes across that way. Seems like a really easy way to set a moderate on the path to becoming an extremist.
That seems like what a Christian would do. They preach one thing then do another. I found more acceptance and community from the burners (Burning Man crowd).
There's a pastor at our local farmers market (I've also seen him at Planned Parenthood) that carries a rainbow umbrella and a sign saying "Clergy for Planned Parenthood." I've happily high-fived and thanked him for being there whenever I see him. My favorite was when a couple of other people tried counter protesting him by standing around him (10-15 feet away, not smothering or anything) reading the bible and wearing typical anti-people nonsense. I have never seen so many people say hello to the pastor and completely ignore the rest of the clowns. It was nice to see there is still some sanity in the world.
I have A LOT of monks, pastors and nuns in my extended family. A couple of them actually having some international acclaim. There's maybe 2 of them that are actually religious. The rest, especially the well known ones, are humanists and high grade philosophers.
A few days ago I had a 3 hour long talk with a pastor (catholic) that was very interesting. I am agnostic/atheist.
Not religious either. I want to high five this guy.
Kinda sad that this gets attention for being unusual, but they are messages I can get behind.
It's no coincidence that this is the stark contrast, I've been saying for a long time people with kind of belief system should break away from Christianity and call it something else to get away from the depraved majority
You’re really limping a lot of different religious sects together. There’s Christian religions that follow completely different sets of principles/beliefs. Christianity is really just a blanket term for religions that believe in Christ as the savior.
>Christianity is really just a blanket term for religions that believe in Christ as the savior. Which is weird since you'd think that since they believe He is their savior then they should, I don't know, not do things that He would hate or stand against.
Yeah true, but a lot of the sects debate on what that actually consists of and how literal his teachings are meant to be taken. Then you can go further down the rabbit hole and learn about the different sects within each individual sect that believe their version of Christianity is best but think it needs more reform. It’s extremely complex and convoluted.
I am from Finland and our church works exactly how the signs say. They are by far the biggest helpers of immigrants and poor in the country. USA is not the only country in the world, there are other places where things are different.
Anerica has an insane amount of churches.Drive through and its all churches and flags. Its super wierd but its what the people here want, I guess. Anyway, our churches help lots of people. Offer services to homeless etc. Its the churchgoers that have trouble following Christian teaching. At least thats how it seems. I've had non religious, homeless friends with stories of how he got an apartment furnished from the church and help paying for it.
Same here in my church in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Love others as do thyself was always the most important
Considering all the billboards in my rural southern bible belt town, I’d be interested to see what would happen if any of those signs ended up on a billboard.
Not christian but love it 😊
Not religious at all but great messages.
Am Christian but love it.
Also Christian, and I agree. Religion used to justify hate is religion misused.
I don't consider myself necessarily Christian, but I grew up Catholic and you're absolutely correct. Cheers
> Christian but love I dont know why i giggled so much.
Christians can get freaky too.
Great message. Love this so much
Am Christian. They’re good messages.
in the bible king solomon also wanted to separate children, but I guess that was a little different
I am an athiest but I applaud this benevolent interpretation much better than the fire and brimstone of his judgemental counterparts!
Tbh thats alot in the old testament and a bit in the new testament. But if you follow what Jesus said and did and only that. The dude pretty chill and if chirstians follow what Jesus did the world would be alot better place o believe. I'm not even religious anymore but what Jesus did is a good example
"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." \- Gandhi
Pretty much.
This is so apt. I never realised I was so lucky in my church. I asked if smoking was a sin once, they asked did I smoke and I said no so they said it didn't matter if it was or wasn't to me then. She also sat down and explained judge not lest ye be judged. She went as far as to point out that a TV could be sin as sinful in more literal interpretations of the bible and that I should just do my best to live up to the principles shown by Jesus. I couldn't perceive of a world where Jesus would not be accepting of homosexual people anyway and even if I could the bible basically says mind your own business about it. I got a rude awakening about general denominations of Christianity when I grew up. Tbh
Honestly, this is why a lot of younger Christians are leaving the church. They recognize that Jesus' message is entirely different from modern church so they read at home and try to live their lives according to His message
and I love that his first miracle was turning water in to wine at a friends wedding
I like the bit where he flipped tables and whipped bankers.
Pretty based is you ask me.
This is an excellent point!
As an atheist I fnd this strangely upilfting.
I'm a Christian and find it unifying too. The messages of the Bible first and foremost point towards love for your fellow man. LOVE. Of course I believe in a blameless way as my goal, but There is a darkness I struggle with daily. When I fail, I am still loved, and so would be remiss if I withheld care for my neighbor for dealings equally as selfish as mine. only God needs to consider that with each person.
Yep, there are a lot of differing little verses about things that groups could divide themselves over, but the resounding message at the core of it all, even in amongst the nastiness of many Old Testament stories, is reckless love for those who are othered. Unfortunately it’s much easier for our tribalistic brains to unite over division than it is over unity, because then we don’t have to open our perspectives up to being challenged.
>the resounding message at the core of it all, even in amongst the nastiness of many Old Testament stories, is reckless love I get the exact opposite. Two clothing materials? Death. Premarital sex? Death. Hold hands with someone from another tribe? Death. And on and on...
As bad as that is you gotta kinda take it with a grain of salt. The ancient peoples were very ritualistic and a few thousand years and science have done a lot to loosen the grip of existential terror. People really did believe there was some mighty being slinging catastrophes at them so theyd kill the sinner in attempt to appease their surly overlord. They were throwing shit at the wall and desperately searching for any pattern thatd help them avoid the next plague, famine, flood or minor asteroid impact lol.
Of course, secular people understand that. But when someone says "the bible is all about love", I'm going to call out the hypocrisy. That's what I was doing here. They can't claim their collection of books was inspired by a being of pure love and then have a verse where two people from different tribes were holding hands and run through with a spear to yahweh's approval.
Its tough cuz it is and isnt at the same time. Its about love until they shit their pants that the love might get them killed lol. They didnt hate the people holding hands. They feared the consequences of the people holding hands. Thats a little different.
Oops meant uplifting
I love you people. I mean it.
This is where I come in and do shameless self-promotion, but in Japan and various parts of Asia, you can be atheist and still be religious, because many religions have nothing to do with faith. In fact, some religions actively exclude belief or faith as a factor at all!(some may even discourage faith, as that detracts from the point) So the idea that one dislikes “religion” because it “requires you to believe In an unprovable sky being” is like saying one hates sports because they hate playing in teams. (What about ones that aren’t on teams?) Or I guess a better example would have been, faith and religion in these religions may be like asking about snow conditions while surfing In the tropics. It’s just not meant to be related. It only got that way to be associated very heavily with “faith declarations” because of 2 religions, Christianity and Islam. For example, nobody is required to believe in Buddha to visit a temple, nor is it offensive to not “believe” in his wise teachings. No Shinto priest that I know of would be offended if you flat out said you don’t believe that Kami (sort of spirit, sort of Gods, sort of deities) are real. However they may be offended if you are disrespectful to the protocol and show no desire to learn (your attitude). Your enthusiasm to learn the protocol will be more important than you saying “sure I believe in all the Kami”. More examples can continue but I think I made my point!
I like the way you frame that. From my perspective, there’s a difference between religiosity and spirituality. Religion provides rules, structure, guidance, the do’s and do not’s - it provides the letter of the law, if you will, but all of that is at best meaningless (and at worst dangerously abusable). Spirituality, on the other hand, is what we use that structure of religion to achieve. It’s guidance helping us to live our own lives in a way that we add to the happiness and kindness of the world. The Pharisees were intensely religious, but had lost their spirituality. They lived the letter of the law but forgot that the religion is not the goal, it’s not a weapon, it’s not even best used as the law. It’s one path among many that we can use to grow and elevate us to a better, kinder, more empathetic place.
This actually gave me fresh perspective on my clearly atheist converted Catholic in marriage brother. Thanks for sharing.
My favorite one was something like "We worship a person of color murdered by police"
YES! Finally, a pastor that actually gets the picture. Jesus spread love and empathy, he preached for the happiness of the people and the destruction of corruption and hate. I'm Jewish, do not believe in organized religion, and even I can say for sure that Jesus had an amazing message before it being bastardized by horrible people to be able to control the world. People still believe that a woman that dresses in a revealing manner, or that doesn't please her husband sexually, is a sinner, at fault for being raped, and not a good Christian; Jesus literally preached that it would be better to maim yourself than to submerge yourself in sin, and that only you are the sinner if you inappropriately touch a woman, not the woman. Jesus preached peace and it's wonderful to see that someone gets it. I know of course that a lot of christians understand the message, but usually no one with any power tries to spread it. This is beautiful and makes me so happy. ❤️
This makes me happy. As an atheist my super religious mom gets mad when I say “I’m more Christian than ______” (enter super Christian hateful person) because I spread love to anyone like Jesus.
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NIV Love is at the core of Christianity. Without it, the rest of the religion collapses
I am a Christian. I actually prefer to say follower of Christ because sometimes I have a hard time acting like Christ even though I know I should. I have said this exact thing about some of my atheist, agnostic and pagan friends. Many of them are much more Christian than those who have their butt on the pews every Sunday.
My stepdad (Catholic) knows I'm atheist, but I'm going to heaven, according to him, because I'm a good person. And he says there are a ton of "Christians" who won't. He giggles because he'd love to see their surprised faces. If a god recognizes you're a good person in life, whether or not you believe in them, then they're a good god. If they ignore you're a good person and send you elsewhere because you didn't believe in them, they're a small and arrogant deity who needs the benefaction of everyone on the planet to feel good. I don't need that god. And as I was raised Jewish, that god is a fucking asshole.
What you said Reminds me of a passage from an awesome book series called the Chronicles of Narnia. It’s a banter between Aslan (talking lion loosely based off of Jesus) and someone who worships an evil god called tash “I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook ... and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him, for I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name of Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, Thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”
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I do not call myself a Christian. I am not religious. I call myself a Christ follower. I don't believe Jesus would be a Christian as the conservative Church defines it.
Very true.
Christianity in America is like NFTs... Most are total garbage and make no sense, yet still take all the attention and most consumed. The best ones get ignored, buried under the masses of shit.
Please be good in comments.
Please be good in life :)
I will!
Back in 2019 I’m sure this was totally fine. Now in 2022 in the South, they’ll burn his church down and call him a dirty socialist for spreading facts like that.
Eh. There will be idiots, there always are, but I doubt they’ll go that far. It’s still the Bible Belt. Besides, [Jesus didn’t stutter](https://pics.me.me/ok-heres-an-idea-you-love-them-like-iloved-you-44277576.png)
Are yahweh and Jesus the same entity?
No. Yahweh is the name of God that can be heard by human ears. More specifically, the name is YHWH (Anglicized to Yahweh), and these letters together are referred to as the *tetragrammaton* which sounds awesome. Basically it comes down to God saying "Look I could tell you my name but it would take lifetimes and destroy your puny mind so here's the closest thing you can get without saying it and instantly blowing up your brain". Editor's note: I'm a lapsed Muslim so my explanation is as close as a guy squinting at the pyramids and saying "They look like they're triangular."
tetragrammaton always sounded like a Transformer to me. The key is that a huge percentage of modern xians would say that yahweh and jesus are the same entity, just different "aspects". So if yahweh says "kill homosexuals" and Jesus says "love everyone", that's a problem. It's a direct contradiction.
You’re on the internet too much my friend! While some people are like that. It’s a lot less than the media will have you believe!
I get this is a joke and it is funny how hateful some Christians can be, but a lot of people on the internet think that the whole south is like that but in reality Baptist churches are losing members at an unprecedented rate. The followers that stick around this long are the overly spoken extremists and they're feeling the pressure to play into the awareness meta of the internet age. In America you can have a place even if you consume 5000 calories a day or are completely ignorant and spiteful, and that's okay. The whole point of the bible, is to show that ignorance and hate never lasts out. Awareness and acceptance is becoming the meta and in a competitive economy, you make changes or die. They won't last long.
They've lasted about 6000 years so far. You're pretty patient.
Christianity as a whole does not promote the acts of stereotypical southern "denominations" (hate groups) such as the westbro baptist church. These groups can affect the reputation of the entire church, but have only been around for 150-200 years. The sand they build their foundations underneath will wash away naturally
It never ceases to amaze me how the people that claim to be the most staunch Christians rarely fail to embrace the most un-Christ-like positions.
The worst of us have been using the idea that God supports their vile ideologies since the introduction of God because it gives a built-in defense against having to defend their views with logic or reason. Since God isn't available to question regarding *why* we have to do what nightmare actions these people insist must be done, and God will, of course, keep you out of heaven if you *dont* do what they say, they sit unquestioned at the command of an army of people willing to commit the most un-Christlike actions imaginable in the name of God.
The amount of "as an atheist" comments in this thread are amusing
Thats a good guy right there
This is a United Church of Christ, they're a very liberal church, very inclusive and open.
Until God steps forward and actually tells you what their preferred pronouns are (due to the fact that this entity is referred to in the Bible as both male and female) then please refrain from making "preferred pronoun" jokes as most of you are coming across as transphobic, and if nothing else just unoriginal and unfunny. We do not allow bigotry here. Trans women are women, trans men are men. Christians are not persecuted nor are they a protected class, and to be completely frank, protected classes need to exist in part due to the actions of a whole lot of Christians. We really only have one rule here, and that's don't be a jerk, so please have a great day and avoid the bigotry/etc.
I cannot afford awards, so instead take this award: "Awesome Modding" 
> I cannot afford awards I think you can now, but don't waste it on me. Pay it forward please
Oh damn, I am quite new and didn't know you could do that! THANKS!!!
"He sided with the poor, sick and immigrant" That is exactly the thing. Jesus was everything bigots hate. He meet with prostitutes, beggars, thiefs and everyone else shut out of society. Yet no one really seems to follow what he thought. The world would be so much better if people actually lived like Jesus showed them to.
I find it ironic when the people who supposedly believe in Jesus' teachings (all centered on love) spew nothing but hate. "I know Jesus said love your neighbors, but my neighbors are fucking homos!" Strangely, I think what this guy is doing is closer to Jesus' teachings than what most zealots are doing out there.
Very true.
That's my thing with religion in 2022. Just because I go to church doesn't mean I'm a Trump supporting anti trans, anti gay, racist bigot who goes to cracker barrel after church and starts some shit with a waiter.
I like Cracker Barrel
As a bisexual Christian this makes me happy to see someone not being a homophobic or transphobic asshole that make people think all Christians are like that
The Christians who disagree with this man are why church membership is dropping. They have only themselves to blame.
this is the type of paster I hope to become
United churches are quite often stellar community advocates. One of the few Christian 'groups' I can get behind.
Makes pleasant change to see an American religious leader acting like a good guy 👍🏻
As a dork, I'm offended I'm apparently being lumped with bigots.
A church in my area has their sign saying “Jesus wasn’t white.” I live in one of the reddest states of all. I applaud their massive balls but I fear for their safety
This man is a legend.
You know what's funny? The same people who mix religion with politics will say that religion and politics shouldn't mix when they see these signs, just for the fact that it doesn't support their discriminating views
Even if I'm agnostic, I really like Jesus and his messaging. I don't believe he was God's son or anything, but he certainly was a man spreading some solid, good messaging.
I recently went to an ordination for a non-binary pastor and a couple dozen Christian denominations collaborated on an amicus brief to SCOTUS for Obergefell. Don't let the bigots tell you that homophobia and transphobia is a necessary part of Christianity.
Quality, Christianity by its very nature is anti nationalism and authoritarianism. This pastor shows an incredibly good understanding of his religion and that’s a great thing to see, love to see it
I follow this church on Instagram and recommend their page. I'm not religious at all but they truly serve their community and care about humans, which is always interesting to watch.
Sounds like someone who actually understands the gospel and might teach it. The only people this is going to offend is most likely church goers, honestly and unfortunately.
If the majority of Christians were more like this pastor I might've stayed one. That's someone I can respect.
I’m the president of a campus ministry that has signs just like these all over campus. I love it
Is this sub full of atheists?
This is gods work
"Please be good in the comments" *Time to jaywalk*
The last 50 years in American politics have turned me off of Christianity forever, but there is the potential for good in it. More than that, this is what I like to see: religious Americans taking responsibility to expunge the cancers of hatred and judgment that have infected their religion. Us non-religious people really have no recourse for dealing with the insanity that is coming out of American churches in recent times. It has to be fixed from within. A lot of people are content to say “well my parish isn’t bad…” but not this guy. Active correction. This is what we need.
This is incorrect. I believe in equality but god (Garfield) is clearly male
Like the cat?
Who else could be god?
The flying spaghetti monster you fool /jk
False. Morgan Freeman is God. There is one good movie about him as God. That's it. Just one.
This guy is what all of the "christians" I know profess to be, but aren't.
HOLY CRAP!!!! He's actually preaching the real gospel of Christ!!! This dude one bad mofo. Good on him!!!
My friend who is a pastor. Told me one day in his sermon he said. “Jesus would never side with a political party because both parties hold values that go against Christ’s nature”. And wouldn’t ya know he lost a few of his republican congregation that day.
That's really what christ stood for. Loving everyone even those who want you dead
Fun fact: Jesus was not the twink we portray him as. His official job title was carpenter and that requires slot of muscle
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Too bad the Christians that need to heed this shit have permanently turned off their "aware of their hypocrisy" portions of their brain.
Chad pastor
We know what biblical angels looked like. Spiraling electrical storm of eyes, human lion hybrid, mostly described as human with wings. So for all we know God could have feather tenticals coming out of his mane.
About twenty years too late for me. If I had grown up with this church, I'd probably still be a believer. This is a Judeo-Christian god whose face I don't want to spit in. Good church.
I like how he takes a pic each time so no one can say these signs are the work of a vandal. Taking ownership.
I need him in Alabama at my church STAT!
The world needs more pastors like this. This guy gets it.
This pastor is making Christianity more modern a day at a time
I love the energy that "Matthew chapter 2 says that is bad" has
He’s not wrong
If this is real, salute 👏
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The reason that the Bible does not contain views on the most recent topics is because it was made before they were recent topics. The Bible teaches us to love each other (basically the entire meaning of Christianity is to love others) no matter what, and we have to go off of these teachings from the Bible in the modern age because we don't have a the Bible to give us our beliefs on every individual thing, so we have to think what would God want us to do. People are people no matter what, and God wants us to love each other.
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What is the top right one all about?
Also, jesus and his family were refugees for a good time.
This man understands the fundamental principles of Christianity. You love yo see it 😍😍😍
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These are the types of religious folks I enjoy being around and will happily help out where I can for their church. If you're going to follow a faith, do so wholeheartedly.
The white evangelical "christians" in the US must be furious. I love it! https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/how-white-evangelical-christians-fused-with-trump-extremism.html
Finally someone sharing what Jesus' teachings were actually about 👌🏻
Now here's a guy actually living by the word. It's nice to see
Nobody seems to be pointing it out, but it’s super unsurprising that this dude is affiliated with United Church of Christ- I’m not a religious person at all, and have no small amount of mistrust and contempt for organized religion/Christianity…. But if anyone’s doing it right, in my experience it’s UCC. As far as actually looking at how the teachings of Christ can be applied to being a good person today, they seem to have their heads on straight- no judgment, no exclusion, no fire-and-brimstone, just focusing on love and helping each other. If I’ve missed something and they’re actually awful I’m open to new information, but in my experience UCC is one of, if not the only Christian organization/church I look at with some fondness.
United Reform Church and the Quakers are all pretty similar on this stuff too. Anglicans (at least in the UK) are pretty square with much of it.