Since we've gotten told to stop talking generally about religion twice in the Homosexuality and Religion thread and were told that, if we want to talk generally about religion, we need to make a new thread, I have made a new thread.
Full disclosure: I am an agnostic atheist and anti-theist, but I'm very interested in theology and religion.
Mod Edit: All right, there are a couple of ground rules here:
- This is not a thread for mindless bashing of religion or of atheism/agnosticism etc. All view points are welcome here. Let's have a civil debate.
- Religion is a volatile subject. Please don't post here if you can't manage a civil discussion with viewpoints you disagree with. There will be no tolerance for people who can't keep the tone light hearted.
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edited 9th Feb '14 1:01:31 PM by Madrugada
There are many Church of Christ organizations in the south that don't even allow recordings or suits still.
Though it is a fair assumption that if you're going to a congregation in the Bible Belt, then brace for whatever group you're about to walk into to be at least two notches lower on the conservative/fundamental scale than the same group elsewhere in the states.
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
Collector Of Fine Oddities
My experience with that denomination in the western NC region is that ours have found their loophole in acappella song.
On clothing, there's one issue that you'll see a mountain of variation in all across the south, in my experience. Until recently the First Baptists would often turn you away if you weren't dressed to their standards (until recently in many communities the First Baptists were go-to denomination for the community's wealthy members), while the Fundamentalist Baptist Church would likewise turn you out if you didn't dress circa-early 1900's or if you wore any sort of cosmetics or cologne. The "middle-man" was the Southern Baptist Church and it's branches, which would have laxer standards; you may get dirty looks for coming in in your farm clothes but you weren't turned away.
edited 3rd Feb '15 9:06:46 AM by carbon-mantis
It does sometimes seem that no hell could possibly be worse than the life some people think you need to live to avoid going there.
A nice butterfly
I think all religions agree that god hates rap though.
Wait. Internet. wat r u doen. Stahp. Staaaahp
A procrastination in of itself
See now this has always seemed to run contrary to all basic tenants of Christianity, if the lord welcomes all that who the fuck are we to turn people away?
Then again my vicar once discovered that some kids had broken into the Church at night (she discovered it because they signed the visitor book) and said that she didn't mind she just wanted to know how they got in so that thieves couldn't get in the same way. The idea of turning someone away from Church is just insane to me.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
It is to a lot of us.
United Earth
"It does sometimes seem that no hell could possibly be worse than the life some people think you need to live to avoid going there."
![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
Impossible Gender Forge
There are certain churches in the south that have arbitrary categories for which basic human empathy can or can not be applied. I've know people who are normally really kind and empathic turn on a dime because of a religious dictate.
You dressed wrong, you are of the wrong race, you have tattoos or piercings, you listen to the wrong kind of music, you date too much- all of these are reasons for these churches to slowly force you out of their social network.
A nice butterfly
"You dont donate enough" are probably the ones I despise the most.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
Shop Owner
The reason most catholics I know are distrustful of evangelicals is because many a times, the pastor starts demanding a bigger and bigger tithe, and the community ends up paying him his new fancy car and fancy home and another car and...there it goes.
There is no accountability. So the religious leader can say whatever they want with little accountability.
Catholics, mainly due to the fact that they are older and more established, have more pressures on them to behave themselves and are held to a higher international standard.
So it's easier to crack down on the Vatican, but it's much harder to crack down on the little po-dunk odd ball congregations.
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
NOT THE BEES
Our Catholic choirmaster is a former Baptist. We have more schlocky tambourine songs than we probably should. Then again, our choir is all over 70 right now, so maybe they need a little activity.
You've obviously never heard our choir.
edited 3rd Feb '15 12:14:58 PM by Pykrete
A procrastination in of itself
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Yeah I noticed that to, the collection (so tithe) was treated as if it was a direct donation to God, when I've gone to a Co E service it's always been treated more honestly, the money was because the physical Church needs money, god has no need of our earth currency.
NOT THE BEES
Yeah, the RCC is pretty up-front about "we need money so we can use it for poor people and projects". And then because we're made of crystallized bureaucracy, we provide tabulation of how it's spent in the diocese's newsletters. It's really nice, and I can't say I've ever seen "pastor's Mercedes" appear there before.
edited 3rd Feb '15 12:26:51 PM by Pykrete
A procrastination in of itself
I think with my church money tended to go on normal things plus stuff like repairing the tower or having a toilet added to the church.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
"Clubhouse needs maintenance, everybody chip in", basically?
The Pope is also cracking down on the higher ups wasting money. He's demoted and even defrocked people for waste and selfish spending.
I'm all for that!
It's just if you see a Protestant Church and you suspect that they're not spending money correctly, it's harder to investigate or hold them to account. At least with the RCC you can audit them.
edited 3rd Feb '15 12:37:01 PM by Gabrael
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
A procrastination in of itself
Yeah, it may in part be that the Church dates back to the 11th century, buildings that old need a lot of maintenance.
Gab do you know if the Co E has a similar accountability process? It's an organised Church with a hierarchy so it might well have.
edited 3rd Feb '15 12:38:19 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
United Earth
Only XXI-th?! How were Christians organized in the Western Roman empire before that?
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
NOT THE BEES
It's mostly that we have a rigid worldwide hierarchy at all. I'd expect COE has something similar given their legal circumstances, but with a lot of Evangelical parishes the chain of command often stops altogether before you leave state borders.
Pretty much. The top things on our audits tend to be foreign aid and maintenance/repair.
Church of England would be beholding to UK laws, and I am not familiar with those. The Vatican is it's own country as well as a legal institution, so I'm more aware of the laws that would affect them.
They do have an internal hierarchy that you can report complaints too, but I don't know what kind of external enforcement you can declare on them.
Hell, we could sanction the Vatican. Can't really do that to the Church of England.
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
A nice butterfly
Well the official leader of the church of England would be the Queen but she decided to become Buddhist (The Law says no English King or Queen can be Catholic. Clever girl). In that case does the leadership not translate to the Archbishop of Canterbury?
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
A procrastination in of itself
X4 That's my village church in particular, some will be older (Edit: Oldest early Christian one is from 126, old one in England is 597). Plus a lot of old churches have been destroyed, I know we've found the remains of an old wooden church where our current stone one stands.
They actually repealed the "no Catholic" bit recently. Though I suspect that the monarch would remain leader of the church even if they weren't a member of it.
edited 3rd Feb '15 12:51:22 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
The Church my mom was a member of as a kid once had a pastor who had been convicted for robbery. Everyone had thought he had changed since he was very charismatic and passionate when delivering sermons. Then he disappeared with the Church's donation box
The Church of Christ cheats with the music. They ban instruments, but that doesn't preclude the playing of recorded music. Its really dumb. They also used to ban women wearing pants, then allowed them to wear those weird slacks or bell-hops during the 70s idk, until finally relenting