Originally Posted by
flippy
This religion stuff is kinda funny, kinda awkward, kinda serious, and kinda impossible not to offend someone with something you believe.
On one side, you've got Jesus telling Christians to "make disciples". So if you are a Christian, you've gotta push your faith onto others at some level. And to some degree, the more militant you are, the better you are following Christ's desires. Look at how Paul ended up in prison. Paul's the model of creating disciples in the Bible and he used his earthly connections as Saul to be so successful. IMHO, Paul's one of the most interesting characters in the Bible and we can learn from his story both religiously and secularly.
Making disciples kinda requires people of faith to be militant.
But on the flip side, we don't want to encounter militant people with opposing views to our own. But isn't being militant a reflection of strong faith? The more militant one is, the more he/she is convinced in his/her beliefs. That's not a bad thing, but it does make for awkwardness in these discussions. And it's probably why most don't participate in this type of discussion.
And even innocent questions about faith or lack thereof seem militant to those who have the strongest faith.
I think the biggest hangup people have with religion is people. 99.9% of Christians are the pharisees and sadducees that Jesus confronted. Heck, I should probably say 100%. And these Christians somehow confuse being "set apart" from the world to do Christ's work in the world with being "set above" the world of non believers.
I see the fine line between "set apart" and "set above" as the sticking point between people on both sides. And people get so fired up over this line. Wars are fought over this line. And it's downright silly.
I think we can all agree that there's work to be done in this world. And we all have unique abilities and talents that need to be used and refined to make the world a better place.
If it takes religion for some of us to realize it, great. If it takes someone else a unicorn driven flying saucer to realize it, great.
At the end of the day, we're just people looking for purpose who find it where we find it.
And I know this may be odd to say, but I see more of God (goodness or whatever you want to call it) outside the walls of religion.
This whole topic is kinda weird. And that's probably why I kinda enjoy the discusssion.
Thanks for keeping this going.
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