I went to Yahoo! Local looking for churches near my new home. My choices are Methodist, Methodist, Methodist, Methodist, Methodist, Catholic, and Pentecostal.
That's one of the things I hate about this area -- how thoroughly saturated it is with United Methodist Churches.
What do I have against Methodists? They're proud founding members of the "Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights", an umbrella-group of idolators. I'd as soon go to a Black Mass as go into a Methodist church. It's a visceral thing, a total revulsion. "Abortion rights" and Christianity are antithetical. Look at the nauseatingly heretical and downright Satanic things people say to justify embracing abortion as a "Christian" thing. It all boils down to ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME with no room for even one's own child, much less room for God.
Abortion is anti-Scriptural, anti-life, anti-love, anti-God.
I can look around at all the wonderful ministries local Methodist congregations have going, but there's always that undercurrent of "But you're cool with KILLING BABIES." That's not something that I can just casually overlook. It's a big honking deal. As big a deal as if the Catholic Church had responded to the pedophilia scandal with twisted justifications of child molesting and actually promulgated position papers on why the choice to molest children should rest in the conscience of each individual priest and that his choices as a moral agent needed to be respected as holy. At least by covering it up they were showing that they still knew that it's WRONG. As inexcusable as the cover-ups were, they were straightforward sin, they were ordinary human sin, ordinary human evil, not an embrace of evil as a right sanctioned by God.
Off soapbox.
I keep again and again being run headlong into the Methodist dilemma. Was I brought to this Methodist-saturated area for a reason? Am I supposed to be doing something other than avoid the Methodists?
Hm.
17 comments:
What kind of church would you like to join?
I'm looking for something like the three powerful churches I've been part of in the past. One was a fairly large mega-church, one was a tiny storefront church, and one was just an English language ministry of one of the largest mega churches in the world. But what they had in common was:
1. Sound doctrine
2. Scripturally sound fellowship
3. The manifest fruits of the first two (ie. solid mission work)
Mars Hill in Seattle is probably the highest profile example.
Christina,
I can very relate to your frustrations with trying to find a church and your beliefs and experiences sound similiar to my own. In my college years I choose to leave the Catholic Church (I'm a cradle Catholic) and started attending my husband's church, a small congregation with less than 100 members, which at the time was afffiliated with the United Methodist church. My parents jokingly call me a "Matholic" a combination of Catholic and Methodist :P I found at that time that I felt very much at home in a United Methodist church because of their scripturally based beliefs (sola scriptura), emphasis on mission work, traditional services, very similiar to the Catholic mass, traditional music, and more conservative stance on political issues. However as time went on the national UM church began making more liberal and unsound, non-scripture-based rulings on contraversial issues, which led to my husband's small congregation to decided to leave the UM church and instead become a non-denominational church. I have since moved and still do attend a local UM church from time to time, but I have difficulty reconciling some of their politically beliefs, which are not in following with scripture, such as their pro-choice stance on abortion, as seen here in my rant. However, I have found that I am most at home in this church and so choose not to support local events and the political committes in the national church which I don't agree with. Also, I find it reassuring to know I am not the only pro-life individual in the methodist church, you may be interested to know about Lifewatch, the pro-life witness within The United Methodist Church :) Well that's my experience and thoughts, I hope your able to find a church home which suite your needs.
Abortion is NOT "anti-scriptural". There is nothing in scripture against abortion.
There are lots of specific sins Scriptures don't address directly. Arson, for instance. Scriptures never mention cats -- does that mean that there's nothing in Scripture that tells us how to treat Fluffy?
You have to be either totally clueless or demonically influenced to think that there's any hint that abortion can be supported scripturally.
If we all adhered to scriptural principles, the world's population would be about 10% of what it is. I mean after we kill all the cheeky children, sunday workers, the families of sinners, women found not to be virgins on their wedding night etc.
Rupert has a point. Who cares what is scriptural and what is not? Scripture is fiction.
But even so, there is nothing in scripture about abortion. No prohibition against abortion, no indication that abortion is bad in any way whatsoever. Neither by word nor by implication.
It's interesting to me, Christina, that you think you are entitled to CHOOSE a church. If you really believed, you would be COMPELLED by your belief to one church or to another, depending on what you believed.
If you have to choose a church, then you're not really a believer. If you can say "well I'd like to worship here because I agree with them on issue X, but I'd also like to worship there because I agree with them on issue Y," then you're not trying to FOLLOW what you think is God's word; you're trying to DECIDE which word is God's word. Who the f*ck are you to decide what God thinks?
Jeremiah 1:5 - "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart"
Psalm 139:16 - "Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be."
Jeremiah 7:6 "...and do not shed innocent blood in this place..."
Matthew 25:40 "...whatever you did for the least of one of these my brothers and sisters, you did for me."
Romans 12:1 "...offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God..."
1 Corinthians 10:24 "Nobody should seek for his own good, but the good of others."
1 Peter 4:9 "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling."
And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. —Psalm 9:10
Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.” -- —Jeremiah 17:5-8
Christina, I only know from your blog and not in real life, but I have to say, you would fit in sooooo well with the many great pro-life Catholics I know -- and their views on abortion certainly match yours.
Not all Catholics are like me! Needless to say, I am NOT a great fit there. I am not entirely sure why I am still compelled to go, since not all of it sits right with me, but...I go.
L, I do have a lot in common with Catholics, and have met many exemplary Christians among them. But I have doctrinal differences with the Catholic Church that, while they wouldn't keep me from attending Mass, would keep the Church from allowing me to become a practicing member. This would leave me cut off from the Sacraments. So a Catholic church isn't a good match.
HAHAHAH
Christina,
I believe a stronger Biblical argument on abortion can be made than these verses you've quoted.
Man is made in God's image, Gen. 1:26. Everything reproduces "after his kind," Gen. 1:24-25 The reason for capital punishment in the case of murder is that "in the image of God has God made man," Gen. 9:6.
Since man is made in the image of God, and man reproduces "after his kind," then it is murder to kill the offspring of man, because it is "mankind" and therefore made "in the image of God."
Satan loves abortion for the same reason that he loves all murder -- since man is made in the image of God, it is killing God in effigy to murder a human. Since Satan cannot kill God, he does the best he can to kill those made in His image.
OC, what denomination were you raised in, and how old were you when you left Christianity, and why did you leave?
Christina, what exactly prevents you from being received in the Catholic Church? I was raised Catholic myself and have learned a lot about my faith and may be able to help answer some questions. I pray that you may be close to God no matter which path you choose.
Sega, mostly it's matters relating to doctrine on the Virgin Mary, a celibate priesthood, and cutting off non-Catholic Christians from the sacraments.
I have no beef with Catholics, recognize them as brothers and sisters in Christ, and do not think anything in their doctrine is endangering their souls. There are just things I think are in error, and as such I can't be part of.
Hmmm, well, my opinion on abortion cuts me off from the Sacraments, and yet I still feel my place is there. Life is funny sometimes!
And belief in a celibate priesthood is not a dogmatically required belief -- there are many devout Catholics who expect that rule to change within their lifetimes (though I would bet against this happening soon).
The doctrine of Mary is quite simple. It is based on the Bible: "From now on all generations will call me [the Virgin Mary] blessed" Luke 1:48. Indeed we do call her blessed and treat her as such. The Bible also refers to Mary in Revelation chapter 12 along with her son Jesus Christ.
Celibate priesthood is not doctrine. Rather, it is a tradition. Indeed, Eastern Catholics, who are in full communion with Rome, are not required to have celibate priests. Oftentimes Easter Catholics in western countries will follow this tradition though. In eastern countries, however, you will find many a married priest. Furthermore, there are many converted priests from Anglicanism that are married here in the USA.
All Christians who baptize in the name of the Trinity share in the same baptism. Confession does not always require a priest. Indeed Christians have true confessions and true forgiveness without having the Sacrament of Confession. The Eucharist requires an understanding of what it means. If anyone could come up at receive the Eucharist then there would be many more people taking the Eucharist that would not understand fully that it is indeed Jesus' Blood and Body (John 6).
There is much to discuss. Great resources include newadvent.org, catholic.com, and even the Catechism of the Catholic Church which can be found at vatican.va.
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