forum I need somebody who's Christian

Started July 07, 2019 by Deleted user

tune

I'm doing a character who's Christian but i know literally nothing about Christianity (rip) if someone could tell me some things about it and if there any specific events you do that im not aware of?

I'm not christian, however I find it interesting. There are several branches of christianity with different methods of worship. I believe the two main ones are catholicism and protestant. Both have pretty different practices. I would do some research if I were you! A lot of christians I know are very casually christian. Like they go to church and do services and things, but it's not a huge part of their lives.

Personally I find catholicism more interesting because I watched Daredevil, and Matt (the protagonist) is Catholic. The way they use religion in the show is very unique and intriguing. It also adds depth to Matt and honestly the show in general. Sorry, weird tangent haha.

In my opinion it's cool that you want to write a character with religion as an important part of their identity!!! :)

Wazzup! Ask and ye shall receive.

I know a lot about Catholics (raised in this faith) and Protestants (I am part of this faith)

@The-Althalosian are there any other holidays besides Christmas (and Easter, i think) or things that y'all do?
Also, do y'all pray every day? Or just on Sundays?
What are y'all's principles? What kinds of things are looked down upon?
is gay okay
sorry if i seem clueless but i literally have no idea about Christianity lol

I know a lot about Catholics (raised in this faith) and Protestants (I am part of this faith)

What's the difference between Catholic and Protestant?

The main things that pretty much everyone agrees with are these; Jesus is the son of God the father which is part of the Trinity. The Trinity consists of three persons in the same God. There is the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Because our world is full of sin Jesus came down to earth and became a mortal (while still retaining his godhood) (also he was born to a virgin and God the Holy Spirit was the father (it was a spiritual thing so the Holy Spirit did not come down to have sex with her)) and after growing up and teaching the world around him for three years he was crucified (a kind of torture to death). Then three days later he rose from the dead. While he was dead he went into hell. He was able to do that while being God because he took on the sins of all humanity. (Which is the reason he died on the cross, to take on the sins of the world so that we humans would not be forever damned.) So he rose from the dead and told everyone that he had paid for the sins of humanity so they could have a chance to attain salvation if they followed his teachings. Shortly after this he accented into the clouds right after telling his disciples to teach what he had said to the word. He also said that he had done all that he could to save sinners the first time he came, but he would return in the future to end the world and recreate it back to perfection after judging all humans to hell or to be with him forever.

I’ll get to the questions. But here is what 99% of Christians all agree upon.

@The-Althalosian are there any other holidays besides Christmas (and Easter, i think) or things that y'all do?
Also, do y'all pray every day? Or just on Sundays?
What are y'all's principles? What kinds of things are looked down upon?
is gay okay
sorry if i seem clueless but i literally have no idea about Christianity lol

There is Pentecost, which is actually the second most important holiday of the church (Easter is the first) because it is when the Holy Spirit gave power to the church. Most significantly by giving the Apostles (the closest disciples of Jesus) the power to speak all languages to preach to everyone.
Depends on the person. We are supposed to pray a lot. I pray more than once every day. Pray literally means ‘ask’ so you don’t have to make it long or read it out of a book (though there’s nothing wrong with that) sometimes I just say “Thanks” when something good happens like not tripping down the stairs, and sometimes I just say “God please help now”.
Principles. Love towards everyone. Forgiveness. Service towards everyone. Those are some of the biggest. There is a lot that is going beyond our human nature (like turning the other cheek instead of retaliation) so we can become holy like God.
Touchy subject. I say no. The oldest church did not accept any such thing (though hatred towards them is unacceptable) so neither do I. As you know there are a million different churches these days from all the splitting off. All the older churches that are closer to the original one church that Jesus’s Apostles started do not accept lgbt. But the more modern ones change as the times do.
It’s cool. I never have talked about Christianity like this before.

So the main difference in simple terms is that Protestant is more relaxed than Catholic. By that I mean they don’t really care about sexual orientation, gender status, if you’ve committed a crime before joining the church. Protestants are also more modern with the times. During a church service for Protestants you can usually wear whatever you want, while for Catholics think of the term Sunday Best. During church the music will be more upbeat (think of pop music, occasionally rock), the messages we usually focus on everyday problems people have and how it related to Jesus. Protestants have a pastor while Catholics have a priest. They are close to the same thing as in the both run the church service. But usually people have a closer have a closer relationship with their pastor than people do with their priest (this is what I’ve noticed). As in the Catholics church is more old fashioned because they are creatures of habit. With the worship music it’s the same stuff. (Think of old Latin music or O Holy Night). The sermons are usually shorter (not the overall mass ceremony, just the part where the priest talks) and are usually just stories from the Bible, sometimes relating back to our lives. Protestants and Catholics are basically the same thing in the end. They both worship God and believe in Jesus. Protestants also have less books in the Bible than Protestants(this is where the separation first started). One guy decided he didn’t like the message in those books so he took them out of the Bible, thus creating Protestant. Also Catholics have more holidays then Protestants. Praying for Catholics is usually a prewritten prayer while Protestants will pray whatever comes to their mind. Catholics also acknowledge saints and pray through them. Protestants don’t have saints.

Not every Catholic is like what I said and not every Protestant is like what I said. Each person is their own and has their own slightly different beliefs. These are just some things I’ve noticed about the differences between the two after spending time in both religions.

I know a lot about Catholics (raised in this faith) and Protestants (I am part of this faith)

What's the difference between Catholic and Protestant?

Protestants are called such because they protested against the Catholic church. There was a lot of corruption in the church after the Black Plague wiped out the priests who served God. After that the church authority that was left were the ones who had fled for their own lives instead of serving the sick and dying. Anyways, the protest was lead primarily by Martin Luther who started the conversation by nailing his Ninety Nine Theses to a church door. (The equivalent to angrily posting on Twitter.) After this the Pope decided to meet with him to talk about reform in the church because even though his ways of talking about it was a bit flawed, he actually was correct about most of what he said as the church was getting sloppy and corrupt and not living up to proper standards. The problem was Most. Luther had been a big supporter of the Pope until the Pope told him that even though a lot of what he said was true, there was some of it that just wasn’t. That’s when Luther snapped, declared the Pope the Antichrist, and split from the Catholic church.

Unfortunately it actually isn’t Luther’s fault that there are so many splits in the church today. He was not the first to create a split before him came the Great Schism. (Also there was the formation of the Coptic Church before then but I’m not getting into that and it was sort of an isolated incident. Sort of.) The Great Schism was caused by the Catholic and Orthodox churches about a thousand years ago. It used to all be one church. That changed when the Pope decided to publicly add a phrase to the Nicene Creed (a summary of the faith created by a Ecumenical Council when there was a large argument caused by a heretical teaching by Arius that Jesus was merely a creation of the Father instead of one with him). This was against the old traditional role of the Pope. He was supposed to be the leader and face of the church, but not above everyone else. (He wasn’t supposed to act on his own. He had to wait to put something new out until there was a council where all were certain of the will of Jesus.) The church split. The Catholics decided that the Pope was the supreme ruler, and the Orthodox, shocked at the turn of events, decided that the if the Pope was to act in such manner they would have no Pope. And thus the Great Schism split the church down the middle, leading to Luther, and then the countless divisions and arguments between all the churches today.

Mind you, the average layman would have no knowledge of this and most prefer to avoid facing church history so that they can say that their church is how God always wanted it. Meanwhile the more traditional churches shift uneasily and pretend such history never happened.

I'm Catholic and idk if these carry over into different branches but:

Catholics don't pray to saints, we pray through them, and there's different saints for different needs. So if your character loses something, they might pray through St. Anthony to help them find something.

There's 7 sacraments that people go through: Baptism, First Reconciliation, First Communion in 2nd grade, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony, and Holy Orders

• Baptism happens usually a month or so after a baby is born, however if the baby is not likely to live long it can happen hours after birth. We believe that Baptism purifies us of original sin (aka the sin we inherited from Adam and Eve eating the apple and getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden). Basically during or after Mass, the priest will take the baby and anoint it with water and oils and say a prayer.
• First Reconciliation happens in the winter of a child's 2nd grade year, and is the first time they confess their sins to a priest. Basically they go into a confessional (little room, sometimes with a screen but sometimes not) and tell their sins to a priest and ask for forgiveness, and the priest listens, maybe discusses some things, and gives them a penance, usually just a few prayers and something more specific (eg. if the kid said they were mean to their younger sister, they might get tasked with keeping her company for 15 minutes a day and being nice to her. Everything is confidential.
• First Communion is the first time a child receives the Eucharist. It happens in the spring of their 2nd grade year, usually girls will wear a fancy white dress and there's a party after.
• Confirmation happens in a child's 9th grade year, usually at the middle to end of spring. It symbolizes the child becoming an adult in the church and receiving the Holy Spirit. The kid chooses a saint that they particularly relate to or like and take their name as a middle name (not legally, just for the ceremony), then they get anointed with a special oil blessed by the Bishop at the Chrism Mass.
• Anointing of the Sick can happen to anyone who is sick, usually severely, or badly hurt. So someone who has cancer might get it, or someone who was in a bad car crash, although anyone who is sick in any way can get it, it's usually just reserved for severe cases. Usually done as a house/hospital call, although I have been to a church that did them after Mass and I got one. It was nice, I felt a lot less anxious for a solid month. Basically the priest uses a blessed oil and anoints your head and the palms of your hands and says a prayer.
• Matrimony is a fancy word for marriage
• Holy Orders is what happens when you decide to become a priest, nun, or monk.

Well, thank you guys so much! I really appreciate your guys' help uwu. I definitely learned a lot and it helped

In addition to Pentecost like Dom mentioned, there's also the Triduum, which is the three days leading up to Easter. All three are Holy Days of Obligation, aka days where you have to go to Mass, I'll discuss others later on.
So the first day is Holy Thursday, which is the day when the Last Supper took place and the first Eucharist, "this is my body, take it and eat of it", etc. Some churches will do a ceremonial washing of the feet where 12 parishioners will get their feet washed by the priest, like how Jesus washed his disciples' feet.
The second is Good Friday, which is the day that Jesus was crucified and the Passion took place. Masses tend to be in the afternoon (around the time it happened), it's a day of fasting for adults and a day of no meats and sweets for everyone.
The third is Holy Saturday, and it's when the Easter Vigil takes place. It's basically a really long Easter mass that counts as the Sunday obligation, you read 9 readings as opposed to just 3, they light the Easter candle, and it usually goes until at least 11 PM.
New Year's Day is a HDOO as well, along with All Saints Day and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

@SlytherinnyJynnie
Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it

The Eucharist is super important to the older churches as it is the taking and eating of the flesh and blood of God. But nontraditional churches think of it as a symbol and don’t pay it much mind. Some churches say that only people over a certain age can take Eucharist as it is so important it needs to be understood properly, and some think that none of us can truly understand so why block anyone. One argument I subscribe to is that the Eucharist should be open to all because if we judge worthiness by mental ability we would logically have to bar those with mental disorders.

Also Confirmation requires you to take prep classes beforehand.

I have a question:
Theoretically, what if someone suddenly decided that they wanted to be Christian?
What if this person had lived a life full of sin beforehand? (like some reallllyyyy bad stuff-)

Forgiveness is huge so as long as they repented it would be chill.

Ok cool, thanks!

They'd need to go through a process of basically learning the different values, rules, etc. and then they'd get the sacraments they missed as a kid during the Easter Vigil.

Hello. Fellow Christian has arrived. Pray to YHWH for forgiveness. HE is very forgiving.

_{Hey I know I'm late but if you need more help I'm here as well}