Christian tropers, join together!

If it is true, just goes to show the amazing power of forgiveness.

I also have to say that people should also learn not to misuse the power of forgiveness. Because some high official people use the doctrine of forgiveness to allow themselves to cover for predators, and make victims be forced to forgive them without actually punishing them.

It makes me mad when they corrupt the concept of forgiveness in order to make it a slap on the wrist for abusers.

Yeah it's I think also easier for me to conceptualize forgiving a burglar than say someone who committed sexual assault (of course unless you are the victim it's not for you to do in that case I think).

Yeah, sexual assault is on a graver scale than stealing. It really can give a person, so many mental and emotional issues.

Yeah, forgivness can very much be abused, but sometimes it can really help, especially for more minor things.

Today I feel very grateful.

I am born in an environment of relative safety and affluence, my country being one of the safest in the world and my parents making decent money. Because of that, I can enjoy the riches of this civilization, including but not limited to health care, electronics, and myriads of entertainment. Thinking of the brighter side of things is easy for me, because things ARE mostly bright for my life. In particular, I’m grateful for both of my parents, who are hardworking, socially well adjusted, and capable of putting up with even the children likes of me and my brother (who recently came out as *gasp* an atheist!).

For this I’m grateful to God.

I'm glad you have a positive attitude, because sometimes it's hard to.

My Religion, philosophy and ethics teacher keeps doing stuff that make me a prime target for annoyance. One time, he was asking lines of the Eucharist service and I, having sung in loads, knew all the answers. Same when he asked about the next lines of hymns. After that lesson I got harassed by a load of people. Also he one time showed us a horrific and violent movie about the Rwandan genocide and made us write an essay on the genocide and whether this disproves the existance of God. This is a cathedral school for goodness sake!

Also, a question. I've recently been a bit unsure about what noun to use when refering to God. I know it's commonly 'he', but technically God is genderless. So that would make 'it' the logical option, but that seems disrespectful. In another essay I've been set I decided to just refer to God as God. But still, what noun would be the best?

God is sexless, but goes by gendered terms like "he" and "father'.

We refer to non-binary people as "they."

I've taken to referring to God in the singular 'they'. Makes for some interesting times trying to reword hymns that I sing when bored at work

So 'they' or 'them' is the way to go?

Maybe They all capitalized.

Speaking of language, are there still Churches that refer to the Holy Spirit as the "Holy Ghost"? Also, did they change it due to the supernatural connotation of "ghost" or for different reasons?

I'm used to it being the Holy Spirit. (I thought that Holy Ghost might be irreverent for the longest time because the only time I heard it was my dad and uncles using the joking prayer "The Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, whoever eats fastest gets the most).

I guess Holy Ghost sounds... immature?

Holy Ghost only shows up in that joking prayer-for-food song that was mentioned earlier, which the preacher and the choir director (my mom) both don't like.

Man, I remember the first time I went to an American church. Back then my pronunciation was really bad, so I ended up pronouncing Holy Spirit as ''Holy Shit."

The pastor was...actually pretty amused, because he was rather cool and understanding.

Let's hope no children where there at least.

There weren't. I was the only one who wasn't in 40s or above.

That's good, probably some of them have sweared in their lifetimes.

So that Met Gala theme felt sorta...crass...

I agree with you on that.

I didn't really, I mean some of the saint icongraphy has issues. But mostly it was about art and I was just disappointed about the men's outfits -shrug-

I didn't mind most of them (not any more or less than I mind those vain and hollow events) but by the time we got to the "chic nun/pope/jesus/mary" designs that seems like a bridge too far by just appropriating this Catholic imagery with no knowledge of its meaning.