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Not-so-religious Christians?


ambelamba

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My brother-in-law is one of them.

He is a CEO at a real estate management firm, and is the gentlest person I've ever met. And he is a Christian. At least for the labeling.

And he absolutely hates going to church, attending the service only if he really, really has to. He is a good person, but doesn't touch the Bible and doesn't even pray. He is one of those Chinese Christians who see Christianity as a moral guidance and not much more. My sister gets headache because she is thoroughly brainwashed without...being too religious. She is conditioned to attend the Catholic service every week, and terrifyingly, she is proud of the indoctrination.

See, my BiL is the only person among immediate family that understands my spiritual dabbling. Is he a minority as a whole in America? I hope not.

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My brother-in-law is one of them.

He is a CEO at a real estate management firm, and is the gentlest person I've ever met. And he is a Christian. At least for the labeling.

And he absolutely hates going to church, attending the service only if he really, really has to. He is a good person, but doesn't touch the Bible and doesn't even pray. He is one of those Chinese Christians who see Christianity as a moral guidance and not much more. My sister gets headache because she is thoroughly brainwashed without...being too religious. She is conditioned to attend the Catholic service every week, and terrifyingly, she is proud of the indoctrination.

See, my BiL is the only person among immediate family that understands my spiritual dabbling. Is he a minority as a whole in America? I hope not.

Just curious amble... why does the faith expressed by others concern you if it does not actually impact your life tangibly? I assume you aren't being hunted and harassed by Christian hordes ;) Really, why does it annoy? No disrespect meant, I just don't understand it.
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Just curious amble... why does the faith expressed by others concern you if it does not actually impact your life tangibly? I assume you aren't being hunted and harassed by Christian hordes ;) Really, why does it annoy? No disrespect meant, I just don't understand it.

It does. I live in the Redneck Capital of Cali and I feel isolated.

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It does. I live in the Redneck Capital of Cali and I feel isolated.

And yet you are in here talking to us....more Christian theists :tu:

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And yet you are in here talking to us....more Christian theists :tu:

Because frequenting on atheist sites will only fuel my bitterness even more. I do not agree with Christianity anymore, but I don't want to live with grudge for the rest of my life either.

Probably I should find a Unitarian forum.

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I will say, I'm sort of the same. I've been thinking of joining an actual Church locally, but haven't yet. I have my own feelings about "Church People," from past experiences and I know I shouldn't hold onto that forever. I pray, I'm gentle, compassionate etc... but I don't read the Holy Bible as much as I probably should either. The closest thing to it, is reading a daily quote from this Daily Bible app I have on my android. I know it sounds typical, but I consider myself spiritual and not exactly religious.

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Everybody is different and if they are happy and not hurting anyone they are probably doing just fine. There is nothing wrong with staying home, there is nothing wrong with going to church. There is nothing wrong with making a big deal about your practice there is nothing wrong with having a subtle appreciation for the finer things in life. Do not equate value to a persons lifestyle choices please.

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Christian atheists who are bitter, I think, are probably bitter because of what was done to them in childhood and all the guilt and fear they had to go through to break that childhood indoctrination, even though early on they had it pegged intellectually.

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I think you could start threads here about various topics and from various approaches, Unitarian or whatever else.

I know what people generally read about most of these groups, but I'd like to share a few notes.

I have a friend who has always been into paganism or at least general spiritualist stuff, though he's more interested in paranormal stuff in general than a lot of the hardcore hoo-ha stuff, though he does have a respect for the ceremony and ritual and the effects it can have on willful endeavors. He married a Catholic Sunday school teacher (no idea how much religious talk they had) and though she went regularly to her church (and him too eventually, and he enjoyed it for the most part), she said that many in her church believed in reincarnation, which I found a trifle odd.

I myself started as a semi-informed Pentecostal kid raised a lot by my gramma who took me and my aunt to church on weekends, and my mom wasn't really super religious, but was pretty liberal, as long as things looked on the up and up and everybody was safe. I never did like Pentecostal church and I went to one or two others, looked at Baptist, that sort of thing, but none of it was ever appealing to me, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have liked Catholicism either.

So I drifted, since I was interested in the paranormal and psi and such, pretty quickly into a very loose approximation of I guess what you call a "Chinese Christian" and still to this day I don't see there's anything particularly wrong with the idea. Even back then, and still now, I consider the identification as "Christian" to mean "striving to lead and emulate a Christ-like life", and I think the particular way to do that is entirely up to each person. I was never terribly social and so I have never liked churches of any kind, Christian or otherwise, and I know there are even some bible verses that seem to specifically admonish against standing in a group of other people and praying just to pray and show how holy you are, so that helped me make the decision to just leave my Christianity a pretty thin wrapper, though I was more just unconcerned, more than anything.

I went to a New Age church and bookstore, and while the guy was a former Rosicrusian and was teaching the Wisdom of the Mystic Masters, it attracted a handful of various types, from goths and wiccans to I couldn't begin to guess what else, and most of the "church meetings" were interesting, since it was very book and dialogue based (rather than being preached at with no interaction), the strangest part, and one which I liked the least, was someone filled in for the guy one time and they had a "Unitarian church meeting", which I didn't even know what was. Everyone sat in a circle and passed around a candle and you spoke when you had it, and it seems like it was just a "get to know you" thing, where you summarized who you were, what you were looking for, and your experiences.

About 90% of the other people (that seemed to come with this class, since I didn't know any of them but it added about 8 people) used their "candle time" in this single church meeting to essentially lament how hard it was to be a free-thinking Christian, and explain why they were Unitarian and very bitterly complain and recount their mental anguish due to having been former Catholics. The rest of us were sort of lost because we had never been Catholics, nor particular religious in any way, nor really active Christians, nor Unitarians, so talk about out of place. The most baffling part was when the church leader said "Okay, now it's time to rejoice, so let's sing that old Unitarian hymn!" and everybody started singing... except us, since we had no idea what they were singing and weren't really super keen on the whole singing thing to begin with. That was a really bizarre time.

Since that time I've meandered into definite Agnosticism and really now am coasting into what probably would be best-received as Agnostic Atheism. The thing is, I see a lot of the harsh, embittered, sometimes abusive "atheist" posts and I realize how horribly misrepresented atheists are (even in comparison to Satanists), because of the same type of "Atheists" that we met as "Unitarians". I don't believe all Unitarians are bitter, resentful ex- or current (but reluctant) Catholics, but if I had to judge them by the ones we met, that is 100% what I'd guess. These argumentative, aggressive atheists tend to create this same image because they are the more vocal ones, but just like the Westboro Baptist Church, naturally, don't represent all their fellow non-believers.

I don't think there is a "true Christian", or a "true Atheist" or any other religion, because everyone lives their lives and expresses their belief in their own way, and while you can certainly group many similar-behaved people of a unifying faith term together, and say one general mindset is more predominant than another, I think it does everyone concerned, including the person observing these groups, a disservice, by not always keeping in mind that while people may profess to a certain faith or ideal, each person makes their own mind up about what that means to THEM, and is responsible for their OWN expression.

Edited by Paranormalcy
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Paranormalcy, I don't know that I've ever seen you on the forum before...but I really enjoyed reading your post. That was very well written; both colorful, entertaining...and thought provoking.

I've never met any Unitarians before. Do a lot of them really come from Catholic backgrounds?

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A lot on non believers behave in a more 'Christian' manner, if that means loving kindness, than a lot of Christians.

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Some people use labels for the brand's rep.

Labels we attach to ourselves generally need qualification as they never fit exactly. Still, they are useful in allowing us to avoid writing paragraphs and more paragraphs if someone asks what we believe or think.
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Just curious amble... why does the faith expressed by others concern you if it does not actually impact your life tangibly? I assume you aren't being hunted and harassed by Christian hordes ;) Really, why does it annoy? No disrespect meant, I just don't understand it.

Maybe some people actually think about others, and not only about themselves.

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Maybe some people actually think about others, and not only about themselves.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean, Mystic. I'd say that thinking obsessively about himself and his issues against Christian faith are all he thinks of - it can't be healthy. I was being honest - I just don't understand. If he doesn't want to discuss his personal animosities then he probably shouldn't keep bringing them up, no? I could easily say the same for you.
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I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean, Mystic. I'd say that thinking obsessively about himself and his issues against Christian faith are all he thinks of - it can't be healthy. I was being honest - I just don't understand. If he doesn't want to discuss his personal animosities then he probably shouldn't keep bringing them up, no? I could easily say the same for you.

Christians only think of themselves (Their religion), if someone isn't of their religion, they judge and condemn them (you guy's do not love your enemies). The majority of christians are more like the people from the Landover Baptist Forums (they are not satire), and less like mother Theresa.

Out of Jesus mouth comes a sharp sword (The old testament and the new the gospel), he also said those who live by the sword die by the sword.

The real writer of the new testament, the real devil.

*snip*

Edited by Daughter of the Nine Moons
Removed excessively large image
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My brother-in-law is one of them.

He is a CEO at a real estate management firm, and is the gentlest person I've ever met. And he is a Christian. At least for the labeling.

And he absolutely hates going to church, attending the service only if he really, really has to. He is a good person, but doesn't touch the Bible and doesn't even pray. He is one of those Chinese Christians who see Christianity as a moral guidance and not much more. My sister gets headache because she is thoroughly brainwashed without...being too religious. She is conditioned to attend the Catholic service every week, and terrifyingly, she is proud of the indoctrination.

See, my BiL is the only person among immediate family that understands my spiritual dabbling. Is he a minority as a whole in America? I hope not.

My opinion, there are a lot of Christians just like your Brother-in-law and the numbers are growing. They mainly stay with religion out of habit and fear of being branded with the A word - either within the family, the business community, circle of friends, etc. They don't go to church, they don't read the bible, and, more importantly, don't focus on the tenets of the religion in their daily lives. But if asked, they still identify themselves as Christian.

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