TheTechnician

I have started looking for a fellowship to land at. I have just started my search but I noticed that much of the congregation at the service I attended last week was 65+. Maybe it is that importance of community and fellowship was lost after the baby boomers. Society is in decline, everything is moment by moment and people would rather worship celebrities and athletes than go to Church and worship God. Oh and religion is vilified in popular media, movies and video games. Hopefully we can find our way back. If things don't change, Hardline Christians don't start coming around to acceptance and drop the hate act then they doom it for all of us.

My father was raised Mennonite and my mother was Apiscopol (did not spell that well). My father left the church in Highschool and I think my mom was always a take or leave it person. My father completely rebelled. When I was a kid, religion was a bad word at our dinner table. Oddly my sister became a BAC Pastor and I found God the hard way, through personal tragedy and a willingness to lie to myself for 47 years.

I am glad of any dialog you are willing to share. Maybe I am using the word "judge" as a metaphor for, I guess, live and let live. If someone is doing wrong, it is not judging them by you doing the right thing and affecting some kind of change in their behavior. Even if it is reporting them to the authorities, you are making a positive change in their lives. Humans are bad at asking for help and resisting temptation, in whatever form it is. I know this from experience. I have battled with addiction for a very long time. Having faith has made a big difference in fighting that battle. It is a real bummer that folks like those in your tale hide behind faith while acting counter to it. It makes it hard to want to explore fellowship without being hesitant or untrusting. I am completely new to this as I previously stated. No previous religious experience at all, so you can imagine how hard it is when all you hear are the horror stories surrounding faith, religion, the Bible, Christianity, Catholicism, Muslim and so on. Finding God is no picnic in this day and age. I attended my first voluntary Church service last Sunday. I felt welcomed and loved and it was a great experience. It was a Unitarian Church and again, I sang and prayed but I felt the message was lacking something for me. Maybe it's because I am reading the KJV from cover to cover right now and I need a bit more theology in the sermon? Thanks for the chat. Respond if you like.

PC is to me a path to faith where I get to hold on to the all inclusive values taught by my hippie parents while exploring God's love through humanity. Ours is not to judge or condemn. Ours is to explore and love. Many "legacy" systems of Christianity appose the message much of the Bible is trying to convey. PC is a way to merge faith with modern science, sociology and life experience. I think it is not what you believe, who to or where you pray, just that you have faith and a moral compass. I want to do good things and be a better person, so I take those lessons and apply them to my life in a modern interpretation. I'd say maybe I've got it all wrong, but that defies the whole PC thing, doesn't it?

I am not alone but I am alone in my faith. No one in my family shares my views or beliefs and I get shuffled aside often. It's ok because my faith is mine. As for guilt, that is the whole reason I started down this path, I had to find a way to forgive myself for my past and asking for God's forgiveness seemed like the first logical step. Once I realized that all things are in God's way and in God's time my life got a whole lot easier. I realize God has always been there waiting and all I had to do was realize there was a different way than what I was currently living. God only gives you as much as you can handle. So now instead of being a self absorbed, grumpy, negative, judgemental person, through God's grace I have found a little peace within myself. Thank you for asking if I am alone and guilty. I am, but everyday I see beauty where I did not before, I see people who need help and want help them, not admonish them for being an unemployed burden on society. With faith, hope and love my eyes have been opened and my heart has begun to heal.

Ok, so if I am looking at things from a completely faith based standpoint, at least 70% of our current leaders are corrupt and by old testament standard should be stoned to death for their slights against God by the community at large. But as I always say, ours is not to judge, that's someone else's job. Either way we do not have a really good, honest, forthright candidate on either side. I will most likely write in my dog because she is all about love. After Trump slammed Romney and people of faith in general during a "prayer" breakfast (Trump is only Christian in name, not in his actions) I lost what little respect I had for the man (which wasn't much). He is evil, self serving, self absorbed and puts a bad face on our country. Even after all I have said above, I still pray everyday for our Lord God to please show the folks in power Grace, Faith, Hope and Love and to behave as The Bible teaches us. Let's face facts, both sides are acting like elementary schools children having an argument on the playground. Vote your conscience, not your party. ~Faith, Hope and Love~

Ok here is my funny quote...probably not even close, anyway.... This is from the Babylon Bee but I heard it on a podcast. Q: What has God done for me lately? A: Is that air you're breathing? Are your lungs processing that air, oxygenating your blood to feed your brain to allow you to think and live? Is this process not a miracle? So next time someone asks you what has God done for me lately, ask them if that's air they're breathing...lol

I am new to faith. I do not profess to be of one denomination or another, infact I have not even decided on a fellowship at this point. I have made some poor choices in life as I am sure we all have. I also have had some trying times over the last few years. Finally after many struggles I started praying, reading and putting my faith in God. My life has changed for the better since I embraced faith but I am still having a hard time with many of the "Christian" values. I was not raised in the church and my folks have always been all inclusive, gay, straight, black, white and what have you. I am very much in the live and let live category. I mean, truly, my role is not to judge others or their actions, that is God's job. What are your thoughts on this? Is this common among progressive Christians? My sister is a Born Again and sometimes I feel like her husband uses his faith as a license to hate anyone different from them. How can I find a fellowship that doesn't subscribe to hate mongering?