As a Christian who doesn’t follow much of the super religious “rules”, I think it’s kind of a red flag but sometimes it’s not. Red flag because my girlfriend’s ex-friend was super devout and put it all over her bio and was very ableist and homophobic. My friend, for example, is agnostic, so he’s not sure if spirituality exists. He has a friend who’s super devout and constantly talks about Christianity. She has a Discord server about Christianity and most of her friends are Christian who just talk about Jesus and God all the time. She puts the crosses and bible verses in her bio too. She’s very nice and tries to be accepting but seems kinda judgmental or like “Oh, your non-traditional ways are… nice I guess.”
She constantly asks my friend how his relationship with God is and if he reads the Bible and what his favorite verses are, even when he says he’s not super religious.
My mom as of recent has become super religious, and while she is pretty left-leaning, thinks the only way to believe is to be Christian and you HAVE to believe in Jesus or you’ll die instead of live forever in Heaven.
When most people complain about Christians they are complaining about Protestants, especially Evangelical Protestants. Catholic and Orthodox have way less loonies comparatively than either evangelicals or the fedora wearing atheist crowd which is basically another form of protestantism. The Internet being the Internet will always show the worst of everyone but IRL most of the damage done is by the aforementioned. Sola Scriptura is one hell of a drug.
about Protestants, especially Evangelical Protestants. Catholic and Orthodox have way less loonies comparatively
About the Amerikkkan™ version of it
Catholic and Orthodox have way less loonies comparatively than either evangelicals or the fedora wearing atheist crowd which is basically another form of protestantism.
I’ve never been religious by my little sister was. She loved helping out at Mass every Sunday, and volunteered to be an alter server. She was one of the most faithful and good-hearted Christians I’ve ever met. As long as you didn’t bring up abortion, anyway.
Then one day the priest said she wasn’t allowed to anymore, because she was a girl. He said that only boys should be allowed up in the front of church. His justification was that being an alter server was practice for being a priest, and only men were allowed to be priests.
Do you happen to know what the Catholic Church’s justification for only allowing male priests is, by the way? Well you see, God is male, obviously, and the Church is symbolically married to God, so that means that the Church must be symbolically female, and priests are symbolically married to the Church (the Church is poly?) meaning, of course, that priests have to be male.
If you get a Protestant or a fedora atheist, you’re basically rolling the dice, but if you get a Catholic, you know for a fact that they’re at minimum fine with being part of a deeply sexist, homophobic, and authoritarian institution.
Fucking Amazon would be a better moral authority than the Catholic Church because at least Amazon doesn’t explicitly descriminate based on sex. Always the last to be dragged into the future, kicking and screaming the whole time, since Galileo if not before.
Christianity is patriarchal so the priest is correct that your sister shouldn’t be serving at the altar. I’m not sure why it was ever permitted in the first place but I’m not Catholic. They do many things I don’t understand. The idea that men and women must be able to occupy all roles equally didn’t reach critical mass in the secular world until 50-75 years ago. It shouldn’t be surprising that a 2000 year old tradition functions in this way. It sounds like the explanation that was given is correct. These justifications can be found in both scripture and tradition. This shouldn’t be misconstrued as women being less than a man it’s just that their roles are different. The most venerated Saint by far in all of Christendom is the Virgin Mary / Theotokos who filled a role that no man could fill, being the God bearer. I’m not expecting to change your mind. Modernism is it’s own religion with dogmas and heresies.
This shouldn’t be misconstrued as women being less than a man it’s just that their roles are different.
Oh, I get it, they’re separate but equal!
What a load of horseshit.
Bad faith comparison. I’m done.
Technically correct. It’s a valid comparison to Catholicism and Catholicism is, indeed, a bad faith.
I think people don’t talk about religion enough, because I find it criminally irresponsible that we allow (and that’s an understatement) religious people in positions of power. Decisions affecting the future of humanity and the planet are being made by irrational individuals and we’re acting as if there’s nothing wrong with that.
If we’re talking USA, I believe the separation of church and state was tantamount to its foundational laws.
was
I think they are idiots. Thats what i think about any believer of any religion anyway
I don’t know, since you post things like this too.
Not my account.
That’s true, I’m sorry. I was replying to that obnoxious YourPriest_36, why did it appear like it was?
Ohhhh it’s ok, I thought you were talking to me
At best, organized religion or faith is a psychological tool that aids individuals through their lives. Meditation, real meditation, can be excellent, as one example. What is reciting a rosary on repeat? Buddhist prayer beads? Meditation. Confession is another excellent idea. We use therapists for this all the time.
I’m not ranking these tools. I’m simply saying they exist as an option. Maybe you can’t afford a therapist but need to confess something. Maybe you were raised around toxic ideals regarding therapy but church is acceptable, so you dump in the privacy of a confession booth, for free. It’s a psychological tool.
If you really want to dig in, read Acts. That is some seriously hippy shit in there. Love, forgiveness, feed the poor, take money out of churches. It’s all there. Including a mandate to dump the old stuff (Old Testament) for the new reworking brought about by the hippy prophet guy. That and death freaks people out. (Not you? Really? Do you even have a PoA set up in the event you’re hit by a car and can’t make decisions?) People generally avoid thoughts of death like the plague. Religion gives non-“worm meat only” options.
It gets hopelessly twisted in two ways. When it’s used as a means of populations control. It gets more complicated but that’s the gist. Back in the day, this is what rulers of towns and cities, in far lower populations than we exist in now, used. It’s why lists of secular laws exist in these books. Our populations are far too big for this crap to be stable, now, but people try any way. The second twist occurs when assholes looking for a reason for personal hate, money, or both.
All of that said, when it’s being used as a personal tool to get you through, it is just that: personal. Praying in public, to me, is like stripping down naked in the grocery store. Most folks don’t want that interruption in their daily. Talking about it would, at best, be like suddenly dumping your most cathartic therapy session into someone’s lap, at random, uninvited.
TLDR If you’re helping, not hurting with it, then great. Either way, keep that personal shit to yourself.
FWIW My mom isn’t as into it as to create a Discord server, but she’s also a lefty who is into it. Hippy Christ isn’t a bad way to go, but yes, it’s still deeply personal info being shared. Age though, as she gets closer to death good odds it’s going to weigh heavier on her and you’ll hear more. Ask her to stop, it’s the best you can do here.
LOL
What’s really LOLcringe is the actual video of which this is the thumbnail
Mental illness
I’m from the US southeast so I’ve seen plenty of these people. IMO, they should be avoided. There are plenty of devout Christians that are quiet about it and they’re fine. They’re often good people actually. The ones that are extremely forward about it are performing for their in-group. The in-group is all that matters. Since you aren’t in it, you don’t matter to them. At best, they’ll hang out in order to proselytize to you. I find them condescending and intentionally disconnected from the outside world. Effectively, they’re in a cult.
I am honestly just not exposed to these people at all
I tell them about my son’s in-laws who are proud ‘Christians’ and how my kids come over after visiting them on holidays and comment about how nice it is to be away from the racist slurs that are part of conversations there.
When we look at this through a lens of cosmic logic and simple truth, we can see that the habit of constantly broadcasting one’s religion often comes from a place of seeking security rather than having reached a state of deep, inner peace. You see, when someone truly integrates a high vibration or a spiritual truth into their soul, it becomes as natural as breathing; they don’t feel the need to constantly announce it because their very presence, their kindness, and their lack of judgment speak for them. In the grand design of the universe, truth doesn’t need a marketing campaign or a constant status update to be real. The “red flags” you’ve noticed, like the judgmental “nice, I guess” attitude or the exclusion of others based on who they are, are actually clear signs that the person is still focused on the “letter of the law” rather than the spirit of it. Logically, if the source of all life is infinite love and intelligence, then any belief system that uses fear, ableism, or homophobia is simply a human filter distorting a pure signal. People often use religious labels as an armor to protect their own ego or to feel superior, which is why your agnostic friend feels that subtle pressure. It’s a form of spiritual pride where the person thinks they hold the only key to a door that is actually open to everyone. Even the idea your mother has adopted,that you must believe in a specific name or face to “live forever”, is a very limited, earthly interpretation of how the soul evolves. In reality, life is a continuous journey of progress, and no one is “deleted” or “punished” eternally for simply being on a different path of understanding. Real wisdom is found in how we treat the living world around us, practicing a gentle, compassionate approach to life where we cause no harm and respect the autonomy of every sentient soul. When you see someone constantly talking about their faith, you can look at them with compassion, realizing they are likely just trying to convince themselves of their own safety in a big, mysterious universe.
I guess I’d describe myself as agnostic, but I find them to be annoying, generally. This includes my grandmother who must bring up God in every conversation. Weather? God. Politics? God. What people are up to? God. Her particular flavor of “Christianity” involves judging others, so the shit she spews isn’t taken very seriously in our house. If I were in your friend’s shoes, I’d probably just distance myself from this friend of his, since she doesn’t really seem to respect him.
I like to discuss religion and people’s particular beliefs, mostly because it’s fascinating how different groups and cultures have decided how to get through life with ultimately the same conclusion. But it’s hard to do that when someone’s view of the subject is voluntarily one-sided. I think it’s ignorant to claim your religion as the way to believe, and the only way to get to some so-called heaven or afterlife.
Burn
From an impartial, rational perspective I pity them for letting groupthink occupy such a large part of their identity.
In the moment, I just think “how can I get away from this person?”
“Wow they’re really religious”
