huh?
If the instituon of God, does not benefit people, then what good is it? You know when I am talking about the church, it is not a building, it is a group of people who attend on a regular basis.
You say it is people like me who crucified Christ, but in actuality, it was more people like you! People who defended the scriptures, traditions and of the church against the accusations Christ flung at them.
The conclusion I jumped to is the black church is ineffective because it amounts to nothing more than entertainment. You do not have to agree, but the truth of it is there. There are more churches than you can throw a stick at in the black community and yet that same community is rife with all sorts of immorality, even the immorality preached against in those very churches. The failure of the church to be effective is what I am talking about.
If you are trying to understand me, then you are going about it the long way. You keep bringing up this biblical, non-existant, quasi-spritual thing that does not exist and defend that. You are talking about the spiritual concept, called the body of Christ, but I am talking about people in the big building two blocks over. You, seem to me, to be talking about the supposed, the perfected church; while I am talking about the real one.
Dude, don't pat yourself on the back so quickly, I envy xtians for their ability to swallow great heaps of BS and say it tastes good. It must be nice to never question and still have all the answers.
If you don't love the church and you do love God.... No wait, you are not making a clean separation of God and Church are you? Would there also be a separation of God and the Bible to follow? As far as people assuming that I had a bad experience with church, they are right, the experience is called church.
I can not begin to tell you how much hypocracy the church's stand on homosexuality is. One thing that God requires is truth and they will not deal with the truth of it. But that is a whole nother issue that I do not want to get sidetracked on. If you ever want to talk about it, I would be happy to offer my more than scathing views of the church and homosexuality.
Where is the statement that drug use is drug absue? Excess of anything is sinful, but as far as recreational use goes, the bible does not say anything against it. I know you will trot out that body is the temple thing, but I think that just applies to monks or something. Christ, according to the book of John turned water to wine, is there that much difference in water to wine or rope to a joint? Is it getting high that bothers God? I don't think so. Addictive personality disorders can be a problem, but that is addiction to anything, church included.
Dude, I went to different churches over a twenty year period. Even after I stopped attending services I still went to Bible Study and Sunday School, but eventually that began to offend me as well, so I left.
Oh and you are quite a biblicist, that is a beleiver in the divinity of the bible. As much as I like the bible, its veracity is questionable at best so I don't accept it blindly, and please don't go 2nd Tim on me. That verse eats itself up!
What we were discussing here, or so I thought, was the vast difference between what people say and what they do as pertains to the church. Many black people profess some degree of religiosity and yet our community is rife with crime and all sorts of immorality. Why? Because the church, religion in our community is rarely a lifestyle as much as it is a good show for a dollar!
If the instituon of God, does not benefit people, then what good is it? You know when I am talking about the church, it is not a building, it is a group of people who attend on a regular basis.
You say it is people like me who crucified Christ, but in actuality, it was more people like you! People who defended the scriptures, traditions and of the church against the accusations Christ flung at them.
The conclusion I jumped to is the black church is ineffective because it amounts to nothing more than entertainment. You do not have to agree, but the truth of it is there. There are more churches than you can throw a stick at in the black community and yet that same community is rife with all sorts of immorality, even the immorality preached against in those very churches. The failure of the church to be effective is what I am talking about.
If you are trying to understand me, then you are going about it the long way. You keep bringing up this biblical, non-existant, quasi-spritual thing that does not exist and defend that. You are talking about the spiritual concept, called the body of Christ, but I am talking about people in the big building two blocks over. You, seem to me, to be talking about the supposed, the perfected church; while I am talking about the real one.
Dude, don't pat yourself on the back so quickly, I envy xtians for their ability to swallow great heaps of BS and say it tastes good. It must be nice to never question and still have all the answers.
If you don't love the church and you do love God.... No wait, you are not making a clean separation of God and Church are you? Would there also be a separation of God and the Bible to follow? As far as people assuming that I had a bad experience with church, they are right, the experience is called church.
I can not begin to tell you how much hypocracy the church's stand on homosexuality is. One thing that God requires is truth and they will not deal with the truth of it. But that is a whole nother issue that I do not want to get sidetracked on. If you ever want to talk about it, I would be happy to offer my more than scathing views of the church and homosexuality.
Where is the statement that drug use is drug absue? Excess of anything is sinful, but as far as recreational use goes, the bible does not say anything against it. I know you will trot out that body is the temple thing, but I think that just applies to monks or something. Christ, according to the book of John turned water to wine, is there that much difference in water to wine or rope to a joint? Is it getting high that bothers God? I don't think so. Addictive personality disorders can be a problem, but that is addiction to anything, church included.
Dude, I went to different churches over a twenty year period. Even after I stopped attending services I still went to Bible Study and Sunday School, but eventually that began to offend me as well, so I left.
Oh and you are quite a biblicist, that is a beleiver in the divinity of the bible. As much as I like the bible, its veracity is questionable at best so I don't accept it blindly, and please don't go 2nd Tim on me. That verse eats itself up!
What we were discussing here, or so I thought, was the vast difference between what people say and what they do as pertains to the church. Many black people profess some degree of religiosity and yet our community is rife with crime and all sorts of immorality. Why? Because the church, religion in our community is rarely a lifestyle as much as it is a good show for a dollar!
