Christianity

Hi, I haven't really posted here before - so please, go easy! I'm also a Business and Economics student so I have no real reading or depth of knowledge on the subjects that I am discussing apart from personal conjecture, experience or reading.

I'm not a devout Catholic, infact my religous belief could be summed up as 'confused' - I believe in God and Jesus per se, but I have serious questions about the Catholic Church and its 'rules' and interpretation of the bible.

And although I know this is a contradiction, I believe in many of the morals of the bible, however I do not see it as 'Christ's Rulebook'

I do however take issue with the attitude of Medina and some other posters; while I respect your views, I do not agree with them and I find the constant repitition of old fashioned, stereotypical views quite infuriating.

It is accepted that society (I refer to Ireland) has radically changed over the past 50 years, and that items and actions that were seen as 'the norm' are no longer valid. We, as a people have become more disconnected from each other and from traditional beliefs. I would think that although we are materially richer, our welfare has decreased. And personally speaking, I can testify to a spiritual void that I do notice and feel quite acutely.

However should the Christians be reprimanded for attempting to highlight Christanity in ways that I find easier to deal with then through the more conservative methods - keeping in mind that these methods were used on what can be considered captive audiences? (I refer to Medina's criticism of Brian) Personally, I did not see Jesus as being the butt of the joke - and as the thread is locked I will not refer to it again.

Why should the message of God not be spread through more modern and comprehensible means? Up until the last century, religion had a monopoly, and existing social structures were in place to further the message. Now this is no longer the case; should the Catholic church not adapt to help serve its parishioners as they are now?

'Established' Mainstream religions now have to deal and compete with an array of entities that were not present before, and these entities will use modern marketing methods to establish themselves - I remember Medina (Not picing on you, I just remember your posts!) saying that Christianity should be taught as Jesus taught it - surely the message is important, rather then the medium?

I personally feel that the Catholic Church is out of touch with modern people, and as such, it risks another 'more marketable' religion or cult imposing itself on people

Anyway - thats mt two cents, rant over!

Thomas_S_Hunterson

original_psycho wrote:

I'm not a devout Catholic, infact my religous belief could be summed up as 'confused' - I believe in God and Jesus per se, but I have serious questions about the Catholic Church and its 'rules' and interpretation of the bible.

And although I know this is a contradiction, I believe in many of the morals of the bible, however I do not see it as 'Christ's Rulebook'

With these beliefs, would you consider yourself more of a protestant, or just a "Christian"?

Christian

BrianCalgary

To put in my opinion. I am of Irish background, my wife is Irish, so I have some understanding of the Irish experience and knowing many Catholics an idea of their ideas.

I work for a mssion agency. When we look at the state of the church (universal church, not a particular denomination) we see a history of imposing a message bathed in the sending culture. ie. the european churches requiremnets of native North Americans to confirm to not only the religion but the culture of european Christianity, RC and C of England to be precise.

What we as missionaries should be doing is asking 'how does the culture we are going to respond to Christianity and what message do we present that makes sense?

Mainstream churches are doing one of two things:
1) maintaining their old line methodology, we have always done it this way. thereby failing to answer questions. My da's line of 'just do as your told' doesn't work anymore.

2) changing to try and accomodate the current mores of society, while leaving the teachings of Christ behind.

The church has to stay true to the message of Christ as Lord, God and Saviour, yet be able to communicate it to the culture they are trying to reach.

This type of communication can and will raise eyebrows within certain circles. I was chastised at my church last year by another member because I dared to teach that salvation can be found in the Catholic church. In certain old line circles you can't do that, but I contend why not try and dialogue with other denominations to bring forth the word of God where needed?

UU

Well to be honest Brian, I think that here needs to be a medium between religion and society in the life of a religious person. For example, you said "changing to try and accomodate the current mores of society, while leaving the teachings of Christ behind". You live in Canada, right? You are free to practise your faith and believe in the stuff but at the same time you must still abide by Canadian law. Just say a fanatic Muslim lives in Ireland and they think it is just to kill a non-Muslim or a homosexual because the Qur'an says so. Should they be permitted by Irish law to commit such an atrocity because they claim it under the rules of their religion? Democratic law is there to protect and offer equality to all its citizens (of course, that seems to only work in theory). Therefore, religious freedom should be allowed but breaking the law in the name of religion should be forbidden because it breaks the rules of our society and it is morally wrong.

Besides Brian, I'm sure you can easily practise the teachings of Christ and accomodate the mores of society at the same time. Most laws of modern-day Western societies were actually initially based on bible teachings when they were first founded.

I do applause you though for trying to create dialogue between different denominations. That is nice. It would be nice if more different types of religions would communicate and get along. The day when a Muslim can shake hands with a fellow Jew and visa versa.

djeddy

:cool: hi, i understand where the chap who started this tread is comeing from,

i kind of think along some of those lines,

back in my teenage days you had jesus christ super star and godspell, which i think tryed to bring jesus to the vast public in a modern way,

(and to be expected you had the critics of these moder ways of spreading jesus message of love)

john paul as far as i know said we should use modern means to spread jesus message, or words to that effect, to my way of thinking rock and pop music are good ways to relay jesus message of love,

back in the seventies you had folk rock style masses if my memory serves me right,

norman greenbawns, spirit in the sky, george harrisons, my sweet lord should be sung in churches :cool:

BrianCalgary

UU wrote:

Well to be honest Brian, I think that here needs to be a medium between religion and society in the life of a religious person. For example, you said "changing to try and accomodate the current mores of society, while leaving the teachings of Christ behind". You live in Canada, right? You are free to practise your faith and believe in the stuff but at the same time you must still abide by Canadian law. Just say a fanatic Muslim lives in Ireland and they think it is just to kill a non-Muslim or a homosexual because the Qur'an says so. Should they be permitted by Irish law to commit such an atrocity because they claim it under the rules of their religion? Democratic law is there to protect and offer equality to all its citizens (of course, that seems to only work in theory). Therefore, religious freedom should be allowed but breaking the law in the name of religion should be forbidden because it breaks the rules of our society and it is morally wrong.

Besides Brian, I'm sure you can easily practise the teachings of Christ and accomodate the mores of society at the same time. Most laws of modern-day Western societies were actually initially based on bible teachings when they were first founded.

I do applause you though for trying to create dialogue between different denominations. That is nice. It would be nice if more different types of religions would communicate and get along. The day when a Muslim can shake hands with a fellow Jew and visa versa.

One of the teachings of Christ is to obey the laws of the land in which you live.

In response to djeddy, that is one method of preaching the word is through contemporary music. Where churches have to be careful is that there are many different tastes out there. If you wacked me with hip-hop gospel every Sunday I will look somewhere else, preferably with an organ playing the old hymns.

The church has to adapt the presentation of the message to the person receiving the message, yet the message must remain true to Christ.