forum Ask the Christians

Started April 06, 2020 by @Althalosian-is-the-father book

tune

Honestly, respect to y'all religious people. I can barely keep up with half of what is being said now. You guys are pretty cool for being able to remember and stick to your beliefs!

For many of us, our parents have forced us to attend church since we were wee youngins
It gets stuck :)

My parents aren't religious but forced me to go to a religious private school for a while. No matter how much they tried to make me listen I wouldn't. I think there's a sort of willingness that goes along with it.

Or we've had Bible stories drilled in from day one in the form of Bible studies and biblical curriculum thanks to homeschooling.

hey guys sorry if im interrupting a conversation but i have a question if someone wants to help me out–
so i was not raised with a certain religion and have little knowledge about this kind of stuff but i was wondering how like praying works? something in my life is going on that i thought maybe i could pray about to try to help one of my friends stay safe and healthy but i have no idea if there's any specifics to praying or if i'm even allowed to do that if i'm not really religious??

I suppose so
I find church rather boring most of the time, but it's surprising how much information you retain
Also, I go to a private christian school with a Bible class and all christian staff, so it's drilled into my head there too

No kidding. Not religious, but I was in the Methodist Church until I was like 15 or 16. (Sometimes still go to services so my family doesn’t chew me out.) Plus I took this cool college course on Abrahamic religions, so I’ve learned a lot more about history and interpretation.

hey guys sorry if im interrupting a conversation but i have a question if someone wants to help me out–
so i was not raised with a certain religion and have little knowledge about this kind of stuff but i was wondering how like praying works? something in my life is going on that i thought maybe i could pray about to try to help one of my friends stay safe and healthy but i have no idea if there's any specifics to praying or if i'm even allowed to do that if i'm not really religious??

I mean, simply put, I'd say praying is talking to God. It's not as complicated as you'd think. Since you've never done it before and I'm socially awkward and bad at talking, here's a very basic premise

"Hey God, I know we've never spoken before, but I'm really feeling led to pray for help for my friend. I'm really worried about them during this whole pandemic thing and just wanted to ask for some help on keeping them safe"

By no means do you have to follow that, it's just a suggestion, and I'm not expert

Hope this helps :)

I was homeschooled up till a couple years ago, and Bible studies was the first subject every day. EVERY DAY.
I would get so bored of it I'd try to skip then end up spending an entire day catching up.

hey guys sorry if im interrupting a conversation but i have a question if someone wants to help me out–
so i was not raised with a certain religion and have little knowledge about this kind of stuff but i was wondering how like praying works? something in my life is going on that i thought maybe i could pray about to try to help one of my friends stay safe and healthy but i have no idea if there's any specifics to praying or if i'm even allowed to do that if i'm not really religious??

Anyone can pray, it's basically just a conversation between you and God, there's no requirements really, and if anyone says otherwise then they have issues….

hey guys sorry if im interrupting a conversation but i have a question if someone wants to help me out–
so i was not raised with a certain religion and have little knowledge about this kind of stuff but i was wondering how like praying works? something in my life is going on that i thought maybe i could pray about to try to help one of my friends stay safe and healthy but i have no idea if there's any specifics to praying or if i'm even allowed to do that if i'm not really religious??

I mean, simply put, I'd say praying is talking to God. It's not as complicated as you'd think. Since you've never done it before and I'm socially awkward and bad at talking, here's a very basic premise

"Hey God, I know we've never spoken before, but I'm really feeling led to pray for help for my friend. I'm really worried about them during this whole pandemic thing and just wanted to ask for some help on keeping them safe"

By no means do you have to follow that, it's just a suggestion, and I'm not expert

Hope this helps :)

hm yeah, that sounds good, thank you!!

hey guys sorry if im interrupting a conversation but i have a question if someone wants to help me out–
so i was not raised with a certain religion and have little knowledge about this kind of stuff but i was wondering how like praying works? something in my life is going on that i thought maybe i could pray about to try to help one of my friends stay safe and healthy but i have no idea if there's any specifics to praying or if i'm even allowed to do that if i'm not really religious??

There's not really much to it. And you don't have to be religious. I don't think He really cares. Well I mean He does but not in a "I'm going to strike you down because you don't believe and you're trying to make contact with me" sort of way. Does that make sense?

No problem!

hey guys sorry if im interrupting a conversation but i have a question if someone wants to help me out–
so i was not raised with a certain religion and have little knowledge about this kind of stuff but i was wondering how like praying works? something in my life is going on that i thought maybe i could pray about to try to help one of my friends stay safe and healthy but i have no idea if there's any specifics to praying or if i'm even allowed to do that if i'm not really religious??

Anyone can pray, it's basically just a conversation between you and God, there's no requirements really, and if anyone says otherwise then they have issues….

cool, thanks!

hey guys sorry if im interrupting a conversation but i have a question if someone wants to help me out–
so i was not raised with a certain religion and have little knowledge about this kind of stuff but i was wondering how like praying works? something in my life is going on that i thought maybe i could pray about to try to help one of my friends stay safe and healthy but i have no idea if there's any specifics to praying or if i'm even allowed to do that if i'm not really religious??

There's not really much to it. And you don't have to be religious. I don't think He really cares. Well I mean He does but not in a "I'm going to strike you down because you don't believe and you're trying to make contact with me" sort of way. Does that make sense?

yeah, that makes sense. it's not necessarily that i don't believe, really i don't know what i believe because i've never really been given any resources to figure it out. thanks for your help!

DUDE the whole bible is so fucking sexist. So much of it is like "????????" like it basically says that women aren't allowed to be church leaders and shit. So stupid

Sorry, kids. This stuff isn't allowed here. Questioning is good. Major disrespect is not.

Eucharist = communion

That! Yes, communion has happened at every church I've been to… Mennonite, Pentacostal, Lutheran, (I think even Evangelical is one my family has gone to)
The one really Iconic communion thing I remember is when they did washing of feet as part of communion, (that was in a Mennonite church back when I was ten)

I meant communion as the Body of Christ. As in eating his flesh. (Because about Mennonites being like Catholics.)

Question about the homosexuality thing: Why do Christians condemn the Entire LGBTQ community, when the only part of it that is frowned upon in the bible is gay sex? Not gay love, just sex?? So why do most Christian people not like trans or other LGBTQ folk?

Well, to be fair, the Aces are left alone. And to answer your question, probably because one springs out of the other in logical order. And also we can like and love them still.

Just gonna steal from my mom here on the reasoning…
The way the verse and it's meaning were explained to me, is that it basically means, the the woman will desire to care and nurture her husband, but the man in the relationship will go for power and control in the relationship.
That in and of itself results in an unbalanced relationship, and can turn abusive, disrespectful, and it's where objectification comes from too…
.
.
Now I could very well be wrong, or at least way off.. But that's what I was taught, and I'm willing to listen to other opinions.

I think this means (and I may be off) that because of The Fall, humans will be selfish and not have perfect equal relationships as they should.

So why wouldn't they choose to fabricate their story in a way that would make them more reliable (by having MEN see him and tell everyone)?

A lot of that in the Bible. Especially the Apostles being super clueless all the time when Jesus was speaking plainly. And then them all running away, all doubting, Peter who became the leader of the church betraying Jesus three times. It doesn't make sense that this was faked for any profit. (Not to mention all the Apostles but John died horrible deaths for their faith.)

Also on the "Bible is sexist" thing, I wouldn't say it is. The culture of that time was sexist, yes, and the Bible is simply relaying to us what it was like in those times. Jesus himself is always kind and respectful to women regardless of class, sins, whatever, and treats them as equals as opposed to a lesser person as most men of that time would. That was one of the 'socially weird' things he did that set him apart from other people.

YES! YES! Maddie here knows what's up.

Okay but that right there, I have a hard time understanding.
How can you love someone but condemn a part of who they are? I used to be in the “gays=bad” camp when I was younger (haha, funny, I know. I had some repressed stuff going on) because it’s what my church and family taught, and I know for a fact you cannot treat someone with the same love and respect if you believe part of who they are is something sinful. My parents preach loving everyone, but they do make distasteful comments about gay people, misgender transgender people, etc. despite saying that god loves everyone and they’re to love everyone as well. You could argue they’re hypocritical in that regard, but they sure aren’t the only ones. It’s a widespread phenomenon. I’m always wary around Christians who believe homosexuality is a sin, even if they’d never do anything to harm me.

I think for the most part, we don't practice old testament laws anymore unless they are restated in the new testament. Like certain things were sinful because of the culture back then. God's not gonna strike you down for getting a tattoo or wearing clothes made with two different fabrics

Yeah. We aren't Jewish so we don't have to follow most of the Jewish laws.

Also on the "Bible is sexist" thing, I wouldn't say it is. The culture of that time was sexist, yes, and the Bible is simply relaying to us what it was like in those times. Jesus himself is always kind and respectful to women regardless of class, sins, whatever, and treats them as equals as opposed to a lesser person as most men of that time would. That was one of the 'socially weird' things he did that set him apart from other people.

YES! YES! Maddie here knows what's up.

Glad to be of service

I know, but I think Dom was arguing against my cherry picking argument. And brought up Old Testament Jewish law which is not what I was referring to. So that’s why I bring it back up.

Completely fair. But like Maddie said, the culture was pretty misogynistic at the time. And sometimes Paul says things as Paul and not the messenger of Christianity. And also some things are specific, like the women shouldn't talk in church which looks very sexist, but after looking into it seems like a rebuke against something that had been happening: women interrupting the sermon.