Ever get immensely discouraged by Christians?

[ducheval]

lol, it is a tricky subject ^^;

[Bobtheduck]

"All scripture is God-inspired (God breathed, etc) and is usefull for doctrine, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness" And I'm going to have to disagree with you about needing to fit the Bible to the times. The Bible should be our guide and foundation. Accepting certain narrative as parable is one thing, but there are foundational rights and wrongs that are not up for debate. On a different note, did you simply join this forum to have a place to challenge the Christians you disagree with? Considering you've only hovered in this one thread, it sure looks like that to me.

EDIT: IN any case, this is the last interjection I'll make here except to answer direct questions concerning my posts...

[Lady Macbeth]

Gandhi so amazingly quoatable

So too is Jesus.

Though not contained in the original Gospel of John, thankfully oral tradition of His words survived long enough to be added later.

[quote="John 8:1 - 8:11"]
8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 8:2 Early in the morning he came to the temple courts again. All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. 8:3 The experts in the law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of them 8:4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 8:5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone to death such women. What then do you say?â€

[ducheval]

Bobtheduck: Well, you're right that I've only posted on this thread. I lurk here from time to time. I registered today because I care very deeply about the subject of this thread and wanted to say something about it.

[Puritan]

Hmmm. Before we start an intense theological debate of epic proportions on the trustworthiness and inerrancy of the Bible (highly interesting, but also likely to get the thread locked), we should perhaps cut to the chase. No matter how you slice it, God hates sin. To deny this is to deny the basis of Christianity: that we are all people in dire need of salvation because we are so steeped in sin that God sacrificed His only Son to redeem us from our sins. We cannot forget any piece of this: to forget that we are all sinners who had to be saved by such a sacrifice leads to pride and hatred of others, to forget that the sacrifice was necessary because God cannot stand sin is to forget the importance of the death of Christ. Christians are charged to bring both messages to the world: God's merciful and unwarrented love and God's righteous hatred of sin.

I can agree, ducheval, that we can become so caught up in our crusades against sin that we forget to bring the message of God's mercy to people. We should not go on witch hunts, for the hunters in this case are as bad as the witches, sometimes even worse. We must show the loving mercy of God to humankind in our lives. This does not mean, however, that we approve of sin, either in our own lives or in the lives of others. We shouldn't ignore the plank in our own eye to point out the speck in our brother's eye (to paraphrase Christ), but that doesn't mean we pretend either the plank or the speck aren't there.

We are called to a difficult task: to correct and instruct while accepting correction and instruction, to be humble and meek while dealing with our prideful selves and a prideful world, to forgive the sins of others toward us as we were forgiven by Christ, to serve God and not ourselves in a self-serving world. To take any piece away from the calling of Christ is to destroy the Gospel, and telling the world that sin is sin is part of our calling. Christians mess up so often because our calling is impossible without Christ, and we regularly mess up because of our failings. This is discouraging and disheartening, but it doesn't mean we throw out part of our message, it should simply spurn us to follow the high calling of Christ.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Lady Macbeth, for a Pagan you sure have a good understanding of the Bible. Are you sure you're not a closest Christian? lol

[Nate]

[quote="Lady Macbeth"]“I do not condemn you either. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.â€

[ducheval]

ok, then look at it this way. The thread is about what disappoints us about christians. What disappoints me is the christian activists who spend all their time trying to force people to live a certain way (denying a way that many of us find perfectly acceptable); completely losing sight of what I try to believe is the most important of christian messages: treating people as you would wish to be treated. Telling people to live a certain way, even though I might believe that, is contradictory to that message I think. I don't want others telling me how to live, and I don't feel I have the moral right to do so to others. That's what disappoints me.

[Nate]

I don't want others telling me how to live, and I don't feel I have the moral right to do so to others. That's what disappoints me.

We're not the ones telling you. God is through the Bible. You've got a problem, take it up with Him. But you're not gonna win, because He is righteous and holy and incapable of being wrong.

[ducheval]

The christians protesting in my town ARE telling me. That's the point. That disappoints me. He indeed may be infallible. But I don't like certain interpretations being pushed on me.

[Lady Macbeth]

Lady Macbeth, for a Pagan you sure have a good understanding of the Bible. Are you sure you're not a closest Christian? lol

My husband continually informs me that I am, but I certainly am not.

Tying into the topic at hand, that is actually one thing that discourages me about Christians as a general whole. There are quite literally billions of different opinions on what makes a Christian. (Whereas, everyone knows its much easier to define "Pagan" - ask ten Pagans to define "Pagan" and you'll get eleven answers. ]am[/b] Christian, because I believe in Jesus and accept that he died for our salvation. He feels that's the one and only requirement to be Christian.

Under most of the rest of the world's definition, I am not Christian - that whole bit about other gods, disagreeing with portions or the Bible (or the fact that I even make a concerted effort to trace it back to its earliest known texts rather than simply accepting the KJV), belief in reincarnation, etc tend to toss me out.

Along with a lot of the other points in this thread (acting like jerks to people, living amorally and then condemning others, etc) I have the hardest time with the acceptance/non-acceptance issue.

It's not that big of a deal among Pagans in general - "An' it harm none, do what ye will" is a fairly universal concept of ours. Buffy and Charmed wannabes (as fluff bunny as they are) are as free to label themselves Pagan as anyone else.

I, on the other hand, enjoy Denis Leary far too much to be able to label myself Christian.

[Nate]

I, on the other hand, enjoy Denis Leary far too much to be able to label myself Christian.

Wait, Christians aren't allowed to listen to Denis Leary? Rats. Guess I'll go put on some orange plaid bellbottoms and get on the bus with Leary and Scorsese and sit next to the Bay City Rollers.

[Lady Macbeth]

[quote="kaemmerite"]Wait, Christians aren't allowed to listen to Denis Leary? Rats. Guess I'll go put on some orange plaid bellbottoms and get on the bus with Leary and Scorsese and sit next to the Bay City Rollers. ]

I've found that his presidential campaign based around taking out bike ********, doing the **** You dance on the White House lawn in the morning and the Cigarette Dance on the lawn at noon, and his all-around policy of "**** You!" and "Shut The **** Up!" tend to be off-putting for some.

I appreciate him because he's raw, honest, and gets right to the point.- especially when it involves finding coffee flavored coffee or beer flavored beer. I've found plenty of reviews on Christian websites, however, that suggest that he's about the furthest from what they feel Christians should listen to or watch.

[uc pseudonym]

This has evened itself out fairly well, but I'd like to remind everyone both of the original purpose of this thread and to avoid unnecessary theological debate. Though I hate to cut off potentially fruitful threads of discussion, frankly, some of them cannot be explored within the boundaries of this board (though you are free to discuss what you like via private messages).

[ReiRei]

I sometimes feel the same way..but there are Christians out there who are awesome, and some who are hyprocrits...that's the way the world is and it's sad...good thing we have God to lean on! ^w^