Just venting because People So Stupid...

[Mj1956]

what Church is this that would espouse such "teaching"?  this is not any sort of thing i have heard in any of the Churches i have belonged to...

[Peng]

Talking about young girls like that...

Well, they're not Catholic anyhow 

I'm not a religious type.  Organized religion is responsible for more misery and bloodshed in this world than most things.

[railfancwb]

I’m reminded of something Ronald Reagan is credited with saying: “I didn’t leave the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party left me.”

[miketx]

I would have got up and walked out saying loudly, "I ain't gonna sit here and listen to this bulls-t!"

[railfancwb]

Do a web search for Robert A Heinlein quotes about religion. If you are willing to have some of your assumptions challenged. 

[DAKA]

1 hour ago, railfancwb said:

Do a web search for Robert A Heinlein quotes about religion. If you are willing to have some of your assumptions challenged. 

One of HEINLEINS

“The Ten Commandments are for lame brains. The first five are solely for the benefit of the priests and the powers that be; the second five are half truths, neither complete nor adequate.”

George Carlin has a good take on the 10 Commandments 

[gwalchmai]

13 minutes ago, DAKA said:

One of HEINLEINS

“The Ten Commandments are for lame brains. The first five are solely for the benefit of the priests and the powers that be; the second five are half truths, neither complete nor adequate.”

George Carlin has a good take on the 10 Commandments 

Heinlein is still pissed that ElRon beat him to the punch.

[Maser]

12 hours ago, railfancwb said:

I’m reminded of something Ronald Reagan is credited with saying: “I didn’t leave the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party left me.”

 

Bill Maher has been saying that quite a bit as of late. 

[Mrs.Cicero]

2 hours ago, Maser said:

 

Bill Maher has been saying that quite a bit as of late. 

It weirds me out when he says stuff I agree with.

 

[Mrs.Cicero]

3 hours ago, railfancwb said:

Do a web search for Robert A Heinlein quotes about religion. If you are willing to have some of your assumptions challenged. 

I adore Heinlein.  Somewhere on my shelf is the collected quotes of Lazarus Long...

[Mrs.Cicero]

20 hours ago, Mj1956 said:

what Church is this that would espouse such "teaching"?  this is not any sort of thing i have heard in any of the Churches i have belonged to...

It's a Baptist church - which means the congregation itself is supposed to determine the what is doctrine and what is just policy - and the pastor and his little coterie of yes-men have bypassed the procedures to get congregational approval for their idiocy, I mean, their new official written policy.  And they got called on it - significantly more than the required number  of the congregation signed a petition that must be addressed at the annual business meeting this month, a petition revoking the policy on the grounds that the elders don't have the authority to do what they did... and those signatures were collected in a single day, when a rumor surfaced that the elders were trying to move the business meeting date up two weeks in order to reduce the amount of time (to one day) that the congregation had in which write the petition and get it signed.  So it doesn't matter when they have the meeting now, they are going to have to address this.  It won't solve the larger problem, though - there is now a great deal of ill feeling in the church regarding the leadership by some people, and regarding anyone who disagrees with the leadership by others.  It's going to break the church.

[janice6]

A good story I read when I was very young, was short but meaningful.  Sci Fi. 

A tale of all mankind hunting a being across the Universe, always getting so close, but not catching him.  The last time he got away, they followed him to the last place in the Universe, and caught him!

He looked at them with tears in his eyes and asked, "Why are you treating me this way? I am God!". 

Mankind looked at him and said, "Because we are Man".

It was a very short story and I forgot the name of it.

[janice6]

2 minutes ago, Mrs.Cicero said:

It's a Baptist church - which means the congregation itself is supposed to determine the what is doctrine and what is just policy - and the pastor and his little coterie of yes-men have bypassed the procedures to get congregational approval for their idiocy, I mean, their new official written policy.  And they got called on it - significantly more than the required number  of the congregation signed a petition that must be addressed at the annual business meeting this month, a petition revoking the policy on the grounds that the elders don't have the authority to do what they did... and those signatures were collected in a single day, when a rumor surfaced that the elders were trying to move the business meeting date up two weeks in order to reduce the amount of time (to one day) that the congregation had in which write the petition and get it signed.  So it doesn't matter when they have the meeting now, they are going to have to address this.  It won't solve the larger problem, though - there is now a great deal of ill feeling in the church regarding the leadership by some people, and regarding anyone who disagrees with the leadership by others.  It's going to break the church.

Sometimes you have to break something to make it better!

[ChuteTheMall]

A small congregation of a couple hundred is easier to mislead than a larger congregation of a couple thousand.

[Maser]

3 minutes ago, ChuteTheMall said:

A small congregation of a couple hundred is easier to mislead than a larger congregation of a couple thousand.

 

You sure about that?

[railfancwb]

On 5/2/2022 at 4:24 PM, Mrs.Cicero said:

I think the church totally screwed up when it came up with the idea of "professional clergy" - it wasn't originally that way - it was people with real world jobs who ALSO pastored a church(es).  And it wasn't that long ago that some churches STILL did it that way - my grandfather was a farmer, and a high school teacher, while also simultaneously pastoring 4 churches up in the mountain in NC.  The churches were NOT expected to support him financially... although they often provided a live chicken for his  and his family's supper.   Professional clergy have too many incentives to  do things for the money it brings, since they don't have other means of support.  JMHO, YMMV

Memory says Apostle Paul earned his way as a tent maker. 

[gwalchmai]

23 hours ago, Maser said:

 

You sure about that?

I have never understood this. Just don't get it.

[tous]

So, you have never ordered a genuine piece of the cross that Jesus was crucified on or a packet of genuine holy water that makes all of your financial problems go away?

 

[railfancwb]

23 hours ago, Maser said:

 

You sure about that?

Once a time intended for contemplation and study is turned into a rock concert the money flows while judgement goes. 

[gwalchmai]

14 minutes ago, railfancwb said:

Once a time intended for contemplation and study is turned into a rock concert the money flows while judgement goes. 

Yes, I think there's a bandwagon effect going on. "It must be real for all these people to believe in it." "81 million Democrats can't be wrong."

[ChuteTheMall]

32 minutes ago, tous said:

So, you have never ordered a genuine piece of the cross that Jesus was crucified on or a packet of genuine holy water that makes all of your financial problems go away?

 

Closest I came was leading a bunch of knights to search for the holy grail.  Turned out that Jesus just drank out of a cup.

[Batesmotel]

1 hour ago, tous said:

So, you have never ordered a genuine piece of the cross that Jesus was crucified on or a packet of genuine holy water that makes all of your financial problems go away?

 

That would be my mother.

 

Also genuine Roman coins blessed by Jesus himself. Guaranteed to bring wealth. You could put them in water and sulphur until they turned black then buff them and the faint markings of an old Peso would appear. 

[Mrs.Cicero]

37 minutes ago, Batesmotel said:

That would be my mother.

 

Also genuine Roman coins blessed by Jesus himself. Guaranteed to bring wealth. You could put them in water and sulphur until they turned black then buff them and the faint markings of an old Peso would appear. 

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry about that...

[Batesmotel]

1 hour ago, Mrs.Cicero said:

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry about that...

Cry. Please. Settling her estate was painful. 

[railfancwb]

On 5/3/2022 at 7:01 PM, Mrs.Cicero said:

It's a Baptist church - which means the congregation itself is supposed to determine the what is doctrine and what is just policy - and the pastor and his little coterie of yes-men have bypassed the procedures to get congregational approval for their idiocy, I mean, their new official written policy.  And they got called on it - significantly more than the required number  of the congregation signed a petition that must be addressed at the annual business meeting this month, a petition revoking the policy on the grounds that the elders don't have the authority to do what they did... and those signatures were collected in a single day, when a rumor surfaced that the elders were trying to move the business meeting date up two weeks in order to reduce the amount of time (to one day) that the congregation had in which write the petition and get it signed.  So it doesn't matter when they have the meeting now, they are going to have to address this.  It won't solve the larger problem, though - there is now a great deal of ill feeling in the church regarding the leadership by some people, and regarding anyone who disagrees with the leadership by others.  It's going to break the church.

The more I learn the less I know. I grew up in a congregation which had communion and took offerings every Sunday. I’ve been noticing that more and more congregations are reducing the frequency of communion to monthly, quarterly, even annually. But all seem to still want offerings every week.