Further proof that you don’t live in the US.
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Talking heads erupting in lava, brimstone, and hellfire in 3… 2… 1…
Bwahahahaha! I wish I’d thought of this!
Gee, “Christians” who can’t even identify verses of their own Bible, and are quick to condemn those passages because they do not know what they are talking about…
You wouldn’t believe how hard it is for me to contain my shock.
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An awful lot of Xtians get their Bible the same way Islamics get their Quran, From their Pastor/Imam, they don’t actually read it themselves, they shift from Matthew 1:16 to John 3:2, to 1st Corinthians 2:5, and etc
Our pastor is making an effort to go through whole bible stories off and on, not just quoting random things to make a point every week.
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I think that Christians everywhere should follow the version of the bible that most British kids get for free if they attend a CofE junior school: The Saint James Junior Illustrated Bible.
It’s pretty much a picture book with the occasional story about men with beards. All the men are nice, and there’s not a single paragraph about judging people, or disapproving of them.
I really, really try not to push my religion, but I’m going to go a bit defensive here. Not all Christians are horrible, any more than all people of any religion are. I read a chapter of the Bible every night, three on Saturdays. There are a lot of contradictions in the Bible, and where there are, the New Testament is supposed to take precedence over the Old Testament, and Jesus’ words over all. Jesus taught tolerance and love. He was against greed and hate.
I do agree that if you’re going to call yourself Christian, you should read the Bible at least once from cover to cover, though. Read it, and think about it!
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I’m not dissing all Christians. But evangelists focus more on making Christianity a multilevel marketing scheme and less on practicing what they are trying to force others to do.
And I have yet to see a verse in the Bible (yes, I’ve read it several times too) that condemns Dungeons and Dragons.
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I remember having a conversation about that with the owner of a Bible bookstore. He was judging based on what he’d heard. I invited him to my D&D game and told him that it was no more Satanic than reading the Lord of the Rings or any other fantasy novel.
Um, you do know that there are those who insist that those books should be banned, right?
Yeah, but they’re far less common than those who think that Dungeons & Dragons is Satanic.
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Without getting too “into it”, I’ve always had a firm belief that Christianity should be more about relationship [with God; others, etc.] rather than religion. Having grown up with both a Pentecostal and Lutheran perspective (divorce is a terrible and cruel thing to do to a child) on Christianity, I took it upon myself to figure out just what it was I believed in, rather than the format I should follow. I figured it out on my own.
All too often, however, more people get caught up in the format and function than the true meaning. Being in attendance and being a part of xyz ministry meant you were holier than thou. Failing to show up a few times or not wanting to get too involved could easily get you outcast from the community. Far too many people get caught up in the “who’s doing what and who’s not” and it’s toxic. It’s exactly what caused me to leave a couple of the churches I attended. It’s why I don’t believe in Harry Potter book bans or bans on music or video games. It’s not necessary and it’s all for show. If it’s a personal view that you think God would frown upon you for reading a fantasy novel, that’s your choice, but that’s all it is. It’s no different from the evil and nasty things we see in daily life. It’s what you take out of it that you need to worry about it. So it goes to say, if you think Harry Potter is going to have you making pentagrams any time soon, it’s probably best to not read 'em. But if it isn’t going to change your viewpoint at all, why not then?
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A lot of people don’t want to bother with figuring out what their values are. They want someone else to hand it to them. And then it isn’t really their values, so they make shit up to make themselves look good.
For some time now, the formula for religion has been “I say I am, therefore I am”. At one time, if people wanted to be seen as particularly pious, they applied themselves and studied theology and philosophy and were initiated into the “mysteries”.
It’s the difference between going through the McDonalds’ drive-thru and being a four-star chef. One requires no knowledge or skill, and the other requires learning, practice, and determination to further one’s self.
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That’s the bit that gets me - the number of people who don’t think about what they are preaching.
Several of the “fundamental tenets” of the bible are open to interpretation and are generally interpreted on the bigoted side (women shouldn’t preach in church, homosexuality is an abomination, don’t kill people* …). At least the first one of those is on its way out in most places. But only because some people are thinking about it, not everybody.
* Okay, that one I can probably agree with 
Facebook is full of three camps of people over this issue:
- That’s not what my Jesus looks like
- It doesn’t matter what He looked like, his teachings are the important thing
- That’s not what Jesus looked like, because he didn’t exist.
Guess which one is in the minority, by several orders of magnitude?
Well, your problem is taking what people say on Facebook too seriously! 
Seriously, who cares what he looked like? What he taught is the important thing.
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So many people forget Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jew. Now, since daddy was God, he could have looked like whatever the hell God wanted him to look. It’s even possible that he looked like the “in” or “out” group to each individual. We are talking about someone that preformed several miracles before breakfast.
I think one of fhe most interesting things that many people ignore about Jesus is that 90% of the time when he prayed it was alone, it was in private, and it was quietly. The exceptions appear to be standard blessings of things, speeches, and impromptu exclamations.
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There’s actually more historical evidence for the existence of Jesus than there is for pretty much any other historical figure. I think it’s safe to say with certainty that Jesus did exist.
The question for me is not whether Jesus existed, I’m not even concerned whether Jesus is the son of God (I’m agnostic so I’m on the fence there). The big question for me is whether people who claim to be Christians actually have values that Jesus would approve of.
The funny thing is that what I’ve seen on the forums here, and what I’ve seen from friends and family I think is a heck of a lot closer than what you see in the news.
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Because nothing says “I love Jesus” like vandalism.
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… or like killing someone because they don’t follow the same faith.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/arizona-woman-shoots-victim-in-eye-for-not-believing-in-god-and-then-keeps-body-on-couch-as-shrine/