From: Nick Arnett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: New Hate-Mongering Chick Tract is out Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 10:29:07 -0700
Travis Edmunds wrote:
This is funny. Yes, it is decidedly unchristian to give much thought to people who *sin*, or to people of other religions (meaning that every religion is THE religion) going to Hell, Hades, the 'fiery deeps', or whatever you want to call it. Although...on second thought I will call it Hell as we are after all talking about Christianity. Anyway, my point is this - the actual belief that sinners and everyone else who for whatever reason cannot make it into Heaven (supposedly most go to Purgatory) is a key part of Christian dogma.
No, that's a part of church-ianity dogma.
First of all Nick, allow me to state for the record that I don't buy into your "distinctions among religion, church and faith" bit. For if those distinctions do indeed exist, then they can serve only to disparage any one facet of the other. I mean, what is Faith without a Church to profess it? What is a Church without a Religion as a foundation? What is a Religion without people to have Faith? I tell you sir, they are as intertwined as you are with oxygen.
Christ taught quite the opposite -- that God loves us in our failures. It seems that many churches only give lip service to the unconditional love that the Bible illustrates in parable after parable. Instead the message comes out that you must repent before you can be forgiven, which is backwards from the gospel.
The 'Anointed One' would certainly have us believe that God is infinite in His capacity to forgive. But in contrast to what you said (which I interpret as someone receiving the sacrament of reconciliation), the Church actually stays true to the teachings of Jesus (again in contrast to what you say/besides how else could a priest look someone in the eye and expect that person to actually listen if they did not teach the actual teachings of Jesus, which is what the Catholic Church is very specifically based upon), and states that one must be repentant at heart. The actual act of 'confession' is highly symbolic. As a side note I'd like to say that things such as this are another topic of discussion and a big reason why I say that organized religion reeks of the putrid stench of hypocrisy. Take transubstantiation as an example.
The good news is that we are acceptable to God exactly as we are. Jesus' harshest words were for the self-righteous, who rejected that idea.
Not exactly. You speak more from a modernization movement within religion, rather than from an actual dogmatic point of view.
-Travis "we could have a real good debate over all this" Edmunds
btw, I intentionally left some *hypocrisy* wide-open in my above post. All the better to make my point. Whatever that point actually is...
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