As a young girl growing up, i was pretty religious and attended church with my parents every single sunday. as i grew older, i became less religious but more spiritual. i am a spiritual person by sense that i had compassion for the poor, afflicted, and the environment but i had loss my religion. the reason why i had loss my religion was the one year i spend in texas during high school, where i was consider unchristian because i don't opposed certain belief. i was told that i was not a real christian because i don't want prayer in school, that i wasn't offended by the word happy holiday, and that i hate all christian because i don't want christian to be able to dominate the society.
i was told that only a true christian would want prayer in school and be offended by the word happy holiday, but i am not a real christian because i don't express moral outrage over this. i tried to express that i don't care about what some greeter said at a retailors store nor do i care about prayer being force upon the students in school. what a greeter said at retailor store or rather prayer is being force upon at school had no affect on me whatsoever because i don't needed reassurances through the public to know that my faith is real. the christian told be that if i am not for prayer in school, offended by happy holiday, absteince only et al, than i am not a real christian, so that was when i loss my faith in christianity. i felt that no matter what i did, i wasn't a good enough christian. also, i wanted to stop being misrepresentated as a christian. american is culturally christian and many american idenitfy themselves as christian but the right winger had size this oppurtunity as a means of saying that since american is culturally christian and identify themselves as christian than all these christian agree with everything the right wing christian groups said. since we believe in christianity, why shouldn't there be prayer in school and who would it offended, it surely won't offend the majority of american christian? why should not creationism be taught along side evolution in school when many american believe in jesus christ.
that is why i stop being a practing christian because i don't want right wing christian groups like focus on the family wanting to included me in their catorgory of christianity just because i denitfy myself as a christian nor do i felt that i would ever fit into the christian perfect ideal of christianity.
I know your blog is to be continued but I want to ask you why you say you are "losing your Christianity" because of what others say. If you are not offended when people say "Happy Holiday's" or what have you, that is fine! It is your choice . Why care what others think? How Christian is it for someone to say "Your not being a good Christian" ? Don't you think that is judgmental? It is great that you are more spiritual now. Listen to your heart and do not lose faith in God! That is what makes you Christian.
You're actually quite wrong.
Plenty of people believe in God or God(s) and are not Christian.
True, but in the context of christianity, with the poster claims, the faith in God is paramount to faith.
Can't believe in the Son if you don't believe in the Father.
I hate to take exception with someone's personal values, but having "compassion for the poor, afflicted, and the environment " doesn't make one spiritual... it makes on compassionate.
which is a fine virtue, but not to be confused with being spiritual.
I do agree with a lot of the things others are saying, but I also must say that I am on a similar field with my faith.
I consider myself Christian because I believe in God and Jesus as the Savior and all that jazz.
But I have grown to almost loathe the institutions of Christianity. I love the idea of having a church family to worship with, but I hate that certain members of that family insist on stupid rules and totally miss the point of Love, Faith, and Compassion.
I don't lose faith in God. Or Christ. I've just grown to hate the social institution that is "church."
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If You Swear That There's No Truth And Who Cares, How Come You Say It Like You're Right? [Bright Eyes]
http://progressiveu.org/143541-how-to-survive-the-2008-elections
I totally understand where you`re coming from.
The new American generation`s attitude toward organized Christianity may go the way of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
What occurred there was that society was deeply religious until about the 1960s. But the Church leaders were so preoccupied with criticizing everyone for their imagined `sins,` that kids in school who wrote with their left hands were having their `devil hand` tied behind their back by nuns, and priests would show up at a couples house and criticize them if they weren`t getting pregnant almost constantly (etc., etc.}
Quebec society got fed up with the whole scene and basically overturned society in one generation to where now the Church has very little trust with the people and today the pews are empty .
The way the `loudest` Christians in America behave, it seems as if they would denounce Jesus if he came back, without even recognizing him. He taught that praying was to be a private matter done in your own room and not made into a show for others. He taught that men should greet other men with a kiss, and didn`t obsess over sex. And considering the spirit of everything he said, I cannot imagine Him hearing anyone wishing him something like a `happy holiday` by returning anything less than goodwill to the well wisher.
What Jesus taught doesn`t even seem to matter to the loudest American Christians (I say the `loudest` because they always seem to be grabbing the spotlight and making the most noise, but I`m not totally convinced they`re the majority} , and it doesn`t make a lot of people the least bit interested in joining a club with others who think that way.