Explaining my 'rationalizing churches' remark
Submitted by Theo on March 07 2000 09:24:07
In reply to Re: A different perspective from one who is straight. submitted by TJ on March 06 2000 13:50:14
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Your welcome is certainly like a breath of fresh air. I have received several messages that began with suspicion, disclaimers of a message I never posted, and an offer of probation. When I referenced “The church can rationalize anything that is a common enough practice, to alleviate anxiety, or a consciousness of guilt, for its members” I was addressing a fault common to almost all religious organizations; the tendency to obviate the faults of the few, while overlooking the more common faults of the many, or more popular sins of the day. Specifically, Homosexuality makes a great target sin for sermonizing, because it is easy to form hate groups for such; while at the same time, since "everyone knows" white lies are almost innocent, etc. etc. therefore, lying is not as bad as homosexuality, and we are free to condemn publickly the homosexual, while not speaking out too loudly about lying and its conseqyences. Then of course, who would be a better target for our righteous indignation; the Homosexual or the cheater on income taxes, which "while it may be cheating, it is such a small thing to steal from the government," seems to be the way it is expressed. It is not my intent to defame, nor degrade anyone. My purpose is twofold, and then only if the members of the board agree generally. First, to present the scriptural aspect of homosexuality. There is no more despicable or horrendous crime against humanity, in my humble opinion, than to tell one who is caught up in sin, that he has no sin; or to tell those without bible knowledge, that the bible has been misinterpreted to fault where there is no fault. Second, to present a scriptural aspect of "where do we go from here?" I used to habve a manager who would tell me, "If you don't get your act together, you aren't going to be with us very long." I asked her to explain what that meant, as it has no value other than rhetorical. When she finally realized that she needed to tell me where I was failing in my duty, and how to uphold my obligations to the company, I was able to help bring my store up to number one in the company, surpassing even her own prior efforts. It is easy for "Christianity" to point to othere and say, "You are going to hell for what you are doing." It is not so easy to say, "WE are going to hell if we do not change, and here is a way to bring about the change necessary to help us all." I am still trying to overcome my own faults, and have found some ideas that I feel may be helpful to some on this board. I look for the same thing in reciprocity. You may know something I need to know. It is that simple. Theo -No Christian church should ever rationalize anything. A couple of churches around my city have tried to candy coat homosexuality, overlook it and yes rationalize it; but that is wrong. Please don’t give those who are on this board a misconception of what a Godly church is. The generalization of the word “The Church” is a heavy thing. Adding the word SOME would better describe your point. I believe that some Churches can be as you described. I still don’t understand it, and would like to know what it meant. • “…scriptures applied equally to everyone.them, they turned on me, and would have burned me at the stake for suggesting liars in the church will burn for their lies, thieves will burn for their thefts, etc.,” I agree with you, scriptures apply equally to everyone. We all sin, and all sins are equal in the eyes of God. Stealing, lying, committing sexual immoral acts and even killing; and we will all have to account for our sins. But Jesus died for all of us… the pedophiles, murderers, thieves, liars etc. |
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