The Christianity Thread

[iron_jones]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Such as the one from the old testament that forbids wearing clothes made of mixed fibres?

Yeah, exactly.

[apache_blanca]

I guess for me it’s “many paths that lead to the same mountain top”.
I don’t know who I am anymore. Born in a Communist country, got into Buddhism in the uni; when the Berlin wall went down, & everything went “Crash!!!”, then people started going to Orthodox churches – whereas I moved over to Islamic Middle East, then to historically Catholic Spain... where I got myself into Amma's , again - the oriental concept of karma (basically, the law of cause & effect, "what goes round comes round"), life - death - life, & "spirit is all that matters". I stick to Amma cos she welcomes everybody, & doesn’t impose her (traditionally Hindu) views upon anybody. This is why you will see Buddhist, Catholic, Protestan, Orthodox monks, nuns & priests there, Jews & Moslems hugging each other, & also there will be lots of atheists, punks, business people, hippies, mommies with babies, old people, young people… Everybody feels welcome cos nobody is twisting nobody’s arm.

So “many paths that lead to the same mountain top” clicks just fine with my philosophy.

But since it's a Christian thread, I felt like sharing with this testimony of one of my prisoner pen-pals (a charity job I am doing - correspondence).

It was his second 4-year-term in the Middle East. The guy used to be very skeptical about religions and “all that stuff”.

I only omitted the names & did some minor spelling corrections, the rest is uncut:

*******

One fine day a man gave me a bible a small tiny book I thought what is this and i tossed it among my many collection of books.
A short time later another man gave me another bible it was a bit bigger that the 1st but again i tossed it.
Then this old man came to me and said " you are a Godless man son” and gave another Bible this man had spent 38 years in prison YES. Anyway this was even bigger than all the others I think "is someone trying to tell me something".
Anyway a very short time later a terrible thing happened. I hear men screaming for their lives. Getting beaten 38 in hospital one dead. I say they come for us next and they did.
I opened the Bible at pure random and my eyes see a passage " a 1000 men will fall to your right and a 100 to you left but you will walk protected by the Lord ". Anyway sure enough the door opens and they gas us with a nasty chemical strip naked and go outside to face an army of heavily armed men. Battons, Guns, riot gear and a lot of testosterone.
I say protect ya head forget the body to anyone around. So we must walk past these animals and yes animals they were. I walk arms down oblivious of my surroundings i can hear men getting beaten around me Badly but I for some reason seem to be invisible and I tell the truth. Then put in a yard under the desert sun for an hour only to face the bastards again. And yes again I am invisible I see men on the floor broken but me like i dont exist.
It was then that I truly believed in the FORCE it exists and no-one will tell me otherwise

[Moco Loco]

Originally Posted by taylorcraftbc65

Without getting into a heated debate over it's merits, there are a lot of the mainstream Christian Churches that believe in "Replacement Theology", where most of the Old Testament was made null and void after the Cross.
Before anyone starts, I am NOT going to get into a Debate here on the Public threads, I was just stating the beliefs of many Christian Churches, NOT commenting on those beliefs.

Yeah, I get the idea. The vast majority of my family is very Christian, and has made sure I understand this clearly

Originally Posted by iron_jones

Not morals. Rules.

Okay. Take it or leave it, whatever, but I'd like to ask, why?

[Banefull]

Here are some personal questions I will propose that fit the theme of this thread. Feel free to answer them for your own faith.

1. What is your personal background?
2. Why did you pick/confirm/practice the faith the faith that you hold?
3. Who are the role models that inspire you in your faith?
4. What are the challenges you face in your faith?

To answer them myself:

What is my personal background?

Roman Catholic here since birth and confirmed since the age of eleven but I'd venture to say that my personal perspective of the faith is much different than most others. The two sides of my family come from the different sides of the globe--both Catholic for many generations. Its interesting to see this play out. Our winter holiday celebratory meal includes both Oplatki (unleavened bread) and Chinese moon cakes. Despite what others may say, from what I have personally seen, Catholic celebratory practices vary quite a lot incorporating elements of local tradition but all adhering to same the dogma of the teaching of the Church. I am also involved in my local community working for my parish and local food bank (though not so much these days due to college).

Why did I choose to be confirmed and still remain a practicing Catholic?

I chose to remain Catholic because I believe that the teachings of the Church are in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ. I was raised upon not only the teachings of scriptures but of the apostolic tradition of the early church leaders, founders, and followers who lived together as a single community. Not to affend anyone here, but whenever I exam and study the teachings of other Christian faiths, especially those whose only basis is scripture, they seem so different--even alien--to me, a far cry from the spirit, teachings, and belief system of the early Christian community.

My local parish priest always says that faith is an act of will, not a state of fleeting emotion which is like a seed landing on a rock covered by sand; it withers and dies quickly. So I too say, I choose to be Catholic because I desire in full conscience to stand for these truths: that God created mankind in his own image and actively seeks to maintain a close relationship with us, sending his only begtton son to live among us, that humans at all stages of their lives should be treated with respect and dignity regardless of their present functional capacity, that the source and process that creates human life should be held in reverance rather than seen as an annoying inconvience, and that humans can reason, realize, and resolve what is morally good and just and then in both free will and clear conscience choose between what is right and wrong.

Who are the role models that inspire me in me faith?

Besides the obvious choice of Jesus himself, one of the figures that comes to mind was a person who lived and was raised in the very same area as me and who was later martyred for her actions, beliefs, and personal conscience.


The death of the forest is the end of our life.

She was born in Dayton Ohio, a nun with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur order, who was inspired by her faith and its social teaching to become an active enrivonmentalist. Working with the the Pastoral Land Commission, an organization of the Catholic Church that fights for the rights of rural workers and peasants, and defends land reforms in Brazil. She traveled to the edge of the Amazonian rainforest to protest and draw attention to illegal logging activities that threatened the livelihoods of small scale farmers who lived off and were forced off the land. She worked with local leaders to help organize and protest the actions of logging companies.


I don't want to flee, nor do I want to abandon the battle of these farmers who live without any protection in the forest. They have the sacrosanct right to aspire to a better life on land where they can live and work with dignity while respecting the environment.

She pushed hard for a "sustainable agriculture" program known as PDS, under which peasant farmers would be given a 250-acre plot of land on the condition they farm only 20% of it, or 50 acres. The other 200 acres would remain uncut. This enabled peasants to own, often for the first time, enough workable land to earn a living. At the same time, it stopped the large-scale ranchers and loggers who bought or simply appropriated thousands of acres of rainforest and clear-cut the whole thing thereby helping to preserve the rain-forest.

Her activities angered many officials whose saw her as a risk to their profits. She continued her activities even though she knew she might be killed. On Feb. 12, 2005, Stang was murdered at the age of 73, shot six times at point-blank range. The case gained nation-wide recognition in Brazil and Sister Dorothy Stang was posthumously awarded the 2008 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights and was formally recognized by the Vatican as a modern day martyr.

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Then there is Oscar Romero, the archbishop of El Salvador during El Salvador's brutal civil war.


If God accepts the sacrifice of my life, may my death be for the freedom of my people. A bishop will die, but the Church of God, which is the people, will never perish.

I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me I will rise again in the people of El Salvador.

El salvador at the time was the under the strict and brutal rule of a small elite class. Government forces would regular crack down on protests and assassinate, kidnap, and torture opposition leaders. Born into the ruling social class himself, Oscar Romero was at first reluctant to speak out but after seeing for himself personally what happened in streets everyday at the capitol, he took up and championed the cause of peasants, people, and populace. He called for international intervention to protect those being killed by government forces and for other countries like the United States to stop selling arms and weapons to El Salvador's government which were being used to kill its people. He would regularly make broadcasts over the radio encouraging people to stand up to the government but not join the guerillas' armed resistance. He instead called upon and organized citizens to peacefully protest in the streets

Romero (11/11) - YouTube

His last words as he lay dying were:

"May God have mercy on the assassins."

The state government warned him against continueing his actions many times. Romero was assassinated by a gunman hired by the government on March 24, 1980.

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There are many other such as Pope John Paul II, Dorothy Day, etc but all these individuals remind me that my faith challenges us to question, examine, and oppose the status quo in society if called for.

What are the challenges I face in my faith?

The greatest challnege that I face is that there are many people who have strong misconceptions about what the Catholic faith teaches, why do we do certain things, and what stances we take on issues. If I had reason to believe any of these were true, I probably would not call myself Catholic. Often times people I hear people say that "you worship Mary" but we do not worship her. We instead hold Mary in reverence along with the other saints. We follow these people as role models.

Other times I here people say that "you support wealthy capitalists." But I know that the average Catholic is an impoverished person. The greatest numbers of followers of Catholicism are centered in generally poor parts of the global such as South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. If anything the Church preaches social justice and calls upon those with wealth to share with those in need. In fact, I remember just recently that with the elections in my home state, the Catholic Telegraph was printing advertisements calling on all believers to support the rights of workers to unionize. The Church may be socially conservative in many aspects but often times, people overlook the fact that we support many economically liberal policies directly because of our consciences. Most elections for us come down to "picking between the lesser of two evils."

There are many more claims out there but perhaps we the greatest thing we're struggling with now is the recent HHS Mandate demanding that Catholic hospitals and institutions that provide major public services dispense contraceptives (some of which are abortifacients) and offer sterilization under the so called "Affordable Care Act". We have been given thirteen months to comply. We are in essence being forced to choose between our conscience and our social work which stems from our own consciences. Regardless of what you may think of the issue of contraceptives, in my opinion it is still wrong to force anyone to go against what they truly and consciously believe is right or wrong.

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This is to simply state my faith and that is all.

[Niri Te]

My personal background.
I was born to, and raised in a Missouri Synod Lutheran Family, and educated for the first twelve years of my life in Lutheran Church Schools. From the time that I was eight, I would spend a lot of time reading the Bible, and had a problem with the dichotomy of what the Bible said, and what the Lutheran Church taught, that being the observance of the Fourth Commandment concerning the Sabbath. I could see no example of Yeshua, (the Hebrew name of Jesus), ever even HINTING at changing the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week, to the first day of the week. When I respectfully brought up this question to my parents at the age of nine, I was beaten horribly. From then on I kept my thoughts to myself.
At twenty seven years of age, I found out about the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and joined, eventually becoming a lay Pastor, in Samoa where they did not hold to the American belief that Women could not preach.
This was a lot better than what I was forced to practice as a child, but there were still two main problems, and those were the Biblical Feast and Fast days that were never to end,as they will be practiced on the "New Earth", and my adherence to a Kosher Diet.
Fifteen years ago, I learned of "Messianic Judaism", which I have steadfastly practiced ever since.
Why I picked the Church that i did
Because it upholds the basic tenets of the Bible as I understand them.
Those that I look up to
Yeshua, Abraham, Issac, Jakob's son Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, King David, The Disciple Peter, the Apostle Stephan, The Apostle Paul.
The difficulties that I face because of my faith
There are no Messianic Jewish assemblies within 150 miles of where we live, main stream Christians tell us that we are hopeless "Legalists", and therefore undeserving of Yeshua's grace, and Jews call us HERETICS at best. I just know what Tee and I read, and the two of us place our full faith, hope and confidence in HIS promise to redeem those who love and follow HIM.

[iron_jones]

What is your personal background?

I am an Alliance protestant, with some backround in the Anglican church.

Why did you pick/confirm/practice the faith the faith that you hold?

I grew up with it. I still practice it to this day because I truly believe it is real and I believe it makes sense to me.

Who are the role models that inspire you in your faith?

No one.

What are the challenges you face in your faith?

Other than myself? Well, it's not really a challenge, but I really can't stand people who when they find out I'm a christian need to question everything I believe in and try to prove to me that it's hogwash. Those people are more vast and worse than Christians on any given day. I may not agree with the Muslim or Hindu faith, but I don't let it get in the way of my day.

Also, I really can't stand the majority of Christians.