Dealing With Holy Week

[BeachOfEden]

Body: Whatever Judeo or Judeo-Christian themed faith background you may belong to...I wish you a happy Holy Week. There is a vast majority of us for who this Holy Week will prove to be a real challenge. What i am talking about is when your faith is a bit more on the moderate to liberal side, while maybe your mom's dad's or maybe certain aunt or uncle's or siblings' version of faith is a bit more on the far right.

 

If this discription speaks to you..then this likely means all the way from Passover, Ash Wendsday, The memorial of Christ's Death Thursday, Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday....you will deal with overzealous religious family members convience that you are not truely saved or 100% right with God. This means that dispite that fact that you HAVE assured them that you HAVE a relationship with God/accepted Jesus as Savior...they may not believe that you got it right or that you path to this may be too liberal to be "orthodox" or that maybe you don;t have "The right Jesus."

 

And this basically will most likely boil down to them insisting that you acompany THEM to to 'Their' house of worship, so that you may 'truley' get saved and thus avoid being mislead by so-called, 'false liberal religions', or Babylon The Great, and therefore assure that you avoid:

 

(A) Fundamental Protestant Hellfire

 

( The Catholic Purgatory

 

© Getting "Left Behind" during the Evangelical Protestant's 'Rapture'

 

(D) The Jehovah's Witnesses Armageddon

 

or...

 

(E) All of the above

 

So, for all you who were roped into attending a religious service this week that hopes to redeem you liberal or moderate soul...just letting you know....i feel for you, man.

[WindDancer]

Hey Beach,

 

I was just wondering what happened to you.

Noticed you haven't been around in a while.

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time over there.

[Cynthia]

Welcome back Beach! I have a new approach... when I can muster it... in the midst of services I don't agree with, I focus on praying for "them" - Pastor, others in the congregation - to "get it", to "see it the way God wants them to see it". I share a laugh with God (mostly because He knows I mean the way I see it)

 

Then I focus on the symbolic meaning, the deeper truth... and back to my own plank.

 

God's with you in those services... share a look and a laugh

[Guest jeep]

Body: Whatever Judeo or Judeo-Christian themed faith background you may belong to...I wish you a happy Holy Week. There is a vast majority of us for who this Holy Week will prove to be a real challenge. What i am talking about is when your faith is a bit more on the moderate to liberal side, while maybe your mom's dad's or maybe certain aunt or uncle's or siblings' version of faith is a bit more on the far right.

 

If this discription speaks to you..then this likely means all the way from Passover, Ash Wendsday, The memorial of Christ's Death Thursday, Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday....you will deal with overzealous religious family members convience that you are not truely saved or 100% right with God. This means that dispite that fact that you HAVE assured them that you HAVE a relationship with God/accepted Jesus as Savior...they may not believe that you got it right or that you path to this may be too liberal to be "orthodox" or that maybe you don;t have "The right Jesus."

 

And this basically will most likely boil down to them insisting that you acompany THEM to to 'Their' house of worship, so that you may 'truley' get saved and thus avoid being mislead by so-called, 'false liberal religions', or Babylon The Great, and therefore assure that you avoid:

 

(A) Fundamental Protestant Hellfire

 

( The Catholic Purgatory

 

© Getting "Left Behind" during the Evangelical Protestant's 'Rapture'

 

(D) The Jehovah's Witnesses Armageddon

 

or...

 

(E) All of the above

 

So, for all you who were roped into attending a religious service this week that hopes to redeem you liberal or moderate soul...just letting you know....i feel for you, man.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

BeachofEden:

I hear you, man, boy do I hear you!! I cancelled my Quran Study Group, and am attending our Good Friday sevice, however it's for a different reason. The Quran emphatically denies that Jesus was crucified, and that he was divine(nor is MuhammedBTW), but "A Course in Miracles" which I am currently studying with a distance education group in Anaheim, California, devoted weekly sessions during the Lenten period to "Sacrificing sacrifice". We concentrated on the Course's view of Jesus's life and resurrection as the important concept, his death only demonstrated that there is an indestructable "Something" in us all which is eternal, immutable, and inalienable, even with "embodyment" gone. That Jesus in some way was a Sacrificial Atonement for our sins, The Course IMO denies.

 

Jeep

[BeachOfEden]

Hi everyone,

 

Good to back here. Had my sister and her kids come down and visit from Portland,OR. Had fun...then helping my elderly mom with apoitments..but yeah..as Progressive Christians obviously we realize that attending a certain church building that proclaims itself "Orthodox" or "The True Religion" does NOT make it so. We don;t view them as evil or damned...because that is the complete opposite of what "Progressive" faith is about..but because the fundamental faiths DO..at best it is annoying and trying to our patience at times.

 

And when we as progressives, liberal as even moderate Christians DO agree to attend our fundamental family's church services at this time of year..it basically comes down to oppeasing our fundamental perents, and assuring them they we ARE "saved" and "right with God." WE ourselves have no worry of this..but then again WE as Progressives are not attending the type of churches that are constantly telling us to bring our family and friends to our church to verify the athenticness of their reltionship with God and to verify their salvation.

 

Like with this vast majority of Progressive Christians...I too found myself agreeing to attend my mother's very fundamental JW church..Kingdom Hall's Memorial of Christ's Death..so that my mom could feel assured that her daughter aka me, and her son aka my brother were indeed saved from Armageddon's hit list...That's either "hit" with an "H" or you could also add a "S" infront of this and either way it means the same.

 

If anything, I proved to my JW peers that I had no become a drug addict or married a HellsAngel since my departure. The speaker was boring..which 9 time of 10 they always are at JW religious services, and thus the elder's speaking style reminds me much of Ben Stein's Ferries Builler's Day Off...."Bullier, Bullier...?....Fry?...Fry..."

 

It was challenging to see everyone acted so fake and extra holy and perhaps equally so to observed the reality of how sexist they really are. You know, only men can be elders, so naturally, only they can say prayers there and are allowed to pass the bread and wine around to the crowd. But yeah, like someone said, I prey that God will open their eyes and soften their hearts to become more progressive in their thinking..and when I say they what i really mean is whoever might not be such a hardas# fundamentalist....even if just one person..that would be a great start.