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Friends Took Me To Bible Study


francesco

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So yesterday my friends took me to their bible study, they have been invited me for a while and yesterday I agree to do a trial. Please remember that they are very good friends and not some crazy fundie.

 

So the format is:

1. start the bible study in the big room and sing few songs (about 15 minutes)

2. go into groups and discuss the bible chapters in smaller rooms (1 hour)

3. back to the big room and hear one preach about the chapter discussed (45 minutes)

 

They also gives weekly homework based on the bible chapter to make sure you read the bible

 

I was welcomed nicely by one of the ushers, and asked to go to the big room to join the praise and sing session. After that I was given some explanations and registration form. Then I was led into the smaller room to join the group discussion.

 

Here's the twist: they asked about the person who brought me there before led me into the small room. And they gave me a group that filled with none of my friend. Great, they decided that the best thing for a new guy who does not know anything or what to do, nervous, and awkward is to put him in a room with 12 strangers instead of with one of his friends.

 

The group discussion was awkward for me, since I came on the second week, I was the only one who did not know the topic and did not read the bible. Thus, I'm just listening to them talking about the book of ruth. The people were okay, they tried to summarize about the book of ruth to me, which is nice. However, I was Wendytwitch.gif when they discussed one of the questions in the homework about life comparison between us and moabites back then. One answered that physically, it is different because life in north america is very good but spiritually, it is similar because more and more people are getting away from jesus. Yep, ignorant answer there.

 

Back to the big hall, I was Wendytwitch.gif by the preacher, for a topic about book of ruth, she spent quiet sometimes to explain about unequally yoked, which mean christian cannot marry non christian and even go as far as a christian cannot doing business with non christians in one part. These because, there must be a compromised on certain christian's values.Yes, it is ignorant again.

 

About business with christian only:

My reaction: for north american with christian majority, doing business with christian only is still possible (2/3 of the market are christians) but if you do that in my country, you'll ended up in the bankruptcy because christian is minority (about 9%) and centralized in certain provinces or tribes.

 

About married with christian only:

She said that it would led into confusion for the children and source of the fight for husband and wife.

My opinion: christian marrying christian does not guarantee that there would be no differences, considering that every people come from a different family, nation, culture, values, etc. And I believe even christian marrying christian is still an unequally yoked. Considering 41,000+ denominations,a catholic can marry a protestant, fundie can marry a progressive, o evangelist can marry a liberal, and so do calvinist can marry lutheran, etc. 

 

At the end my friends asked "how was it? are you coming back next week?"

I politely said "it was okay and I am still considering to"

to be honest, it was not okay and I won't be coming back again

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Tell your friend you deserve a beer or two from him just for attending. 

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Tell your friend you deserve a beer or two from him just for attending. 

 I wish I can  ask them for beers :lol:

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If you want to have a bit of fun, you should go back and voice your opinions about Christian to Christian only marriage.  I would make that group leader cry tears of blood trying to justify how 40k+ different theological teachings = equally yoked and how is acceptable. 

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Francesco,

 

You must be a really good friend to have subjected yourself to that.  

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Back to the big hall, I was Wendytwitch.gif by the preacher, for a topic about book of ruth, she spent quiet sometimes to explain about unequally yoked, which mean christian cannot marry non christian and even go as far as a christian cannot doing business with non christians in one part. These because, there must be a compromised on certain christian's values.Yes, it is ignorant again.

 

I just love how Christians think that books like Ruth were written by, for, and about Christians. 

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So yesterday my friends took me to their bible study, they have been invited me for a while and yesterday I agree to do a trial. Please remember that they are very good friends and not some crazy fundie.

 

So the format is:

1. start the bible study in the big room and sing few songs (about 15 minutes)

2. go into groups and discuss the bible chapters in smaller rooms (1 hour)

3. back to the big room and hear one preach about the chapter discussed (45 minutes)

 

They also gives weekly homework based on the bible chapter to make sure you read the bible

 

I was welcomed nicely by one of the ushers, and asked to go to the big room to join the praise and sing session. After that I was given some explanations and registration form. Then I was led into the smaller room to join the group discussion.

 

Here's the twist: they asked about the person who brought me there before led me into the small room. And they gave me a group that filled with none of my friend. Great, they decided that the best thing for a new guy who does not know anything or what to do, nervous, and awkward is to put him in a room with 12 strangers instead of with one of his friends.

 

The group discussion was awkward for me, since I came on the second week, I was the only one who did not know the topic and did not read the bible. Thus, I'm just listening to them talking about the book of ruth. The people were okay, they tried to summarize about the book of ruth to me, which is nice. However, I was Wendytwitch.gif when they discussed one of the questions in the homework about life comparison between us and moabites back then. One answered that physically, it is different because life in north america is very good but spiritually, it is similar because more and more people are getting away from jesus. Yep, ignorant answer there.

 

Back to the big hall, I was Wendytwitch.gif by the preacher, for a topic about book of ruth, she spent quiet sometimes to explain about unequally yoked, which mean christian cannot marry non christian and even go as far as a christian cannot doing business with non christians in one part. These because, there must be a compromised on certain christian's values.Yes, it is ignorant again.

 

About business with christian only:

My reaction: for north american with christian majority, doing business with christian only is still possible (2/3 of the market are christians) but if you do that in my country, you'll ended up in the bankruptcy because christian is minority (about 9%) and centralized in certain provinces or tribes.

 

About married with christian only:

She said that it would led into confusion for the children and source of the fight for husband and wife.

My opinion: christian marrying christian does not guarantee that there would be no differences, considering that every people come from a different family, nation, culture, values, etc. And I believe even christian marrying christian is still an unequally yoked. Considering 41,000+ denominations,a catholic can marry a protestant, fundie can marry a progressive, o evangelist can marry a liberal, and so do calvinist can marry lutheran, etc. 

 

At the end my friends asked "how was it? are you coming back next week?"

I politely said "it was okay and I am still considering to"

to be honest, it was not okay and I won't be coming back again

 

Not sure how I would approach buying food in a grocery store....should I ask all the employees if they are Christians? What about the truck drivers? The packagers? The food growers?

 

I only have 1 power company, 1 water company and 1 garbage company in my town and I'm not sure if all or any of those employees are Christians. :-)

 

Should I wear a bracelet that says, "Only Christian doctors and paramedics may save my life..."  Those end up being business transactions, after all. :-)

 

Was my cell phone made by Christians? What about my tv, my computer, my car? The gasoline I put in my car may have come from Islamic Iraq or Iran or some such ungodly place!

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Friends don't take friends to Bible study.

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If you want to have a bit of fun, you should go back and voice your opinions about Christian to Christian only marriage.  I would make that group leader cry tears of blood trying to justify how 40k+ different theological teachings = equally yoked and how is acceptable. 

I really like your idea of trolling, I wish I wrote this in the middle of the study

but I do not want to come back to that class

note to myself: don't come to my friend place on wenesday 

 

Francesco,

 

You must be a really good friend to have subjected yourself to that.  

thank you, but I don't want to make a fuss over this simple thing

it was a trial session, so I tried and not interested to continue

 

 

 

 

Back to the big hall, I was Wendytwitch.gif by the preacher, for a topic about book of ruth, she spent quiet sometimes to explain about unequally yoked, which mean christian cannot marry non christian and even go as far as a christian cannot doing business with non christians in one part. These because, there must be a compromised on certain christian's values.Yes, it is ignorant again.

 

I just love how Christians think that books like Ruth were written by, for, and about Christians. 

 

while they are saying it was just an old testament laugh.png

 

 

 

Back to the big hall, I was Wendytwitch.gif by the preacher, for a topic about book of ruth, she spent quiet sometimes to explain about unequally yoked, which mean christian cannot marry non christian and even go as far as a christian cannot doing business with non christians in one part. These because, there must be a compromised on certain christian's values.Yes, it is ignorant again.

 

About business with christian only:

My reaction: for north american with christian majority, doing business with christian only is still possible (2/3 of the market are christians) but if you do that in my country, you'll ended up in the bankruptcy because christian is minority (about 9%) and centralized in certain provinces or tribes.

 

 

Not sure how I would approach buying food in a grocery store....should I ask all the employees if they are Christians? What about the truck drivers? The packagers? The food growers?

 

I only have 1 power company, 1 water company and 1 garbage company in my town and I'm not sure if all or any of those employees are Christians. :-)

 

Should I wear a bracelet that says, "Only Christian doctors and paramedics may save my life..."  Those end up being business transactions, after all. :-)

 

Was my cell phone made by Christians? What about my tv, my computer, my car? The gasoline I put in my car may have come from Islamic Iraq or Iran or some such ungodly place!

 

Exactly, it was ignorant to think that christian is so special that they only want to interact only with other christians in the global and secular world 

just as you already explained

 

Friends don't take friends to Bible study.

hahahaha

florduh, if only I could give you a reputation

I laugh so hard reading this 

but I cannot blame them, they enjoy this activity and hope that I can also enjoy it

I don't see any bad intention from them

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A bible studies go that sounds rather long drawn out - and presumably you were invited with the aim of somehow pressurising/persuading/converting you, however nice these friends might be.

 

I wonder what would be the solution for the unequal yoke that results from deconversion?  Or maybe the preacher would think that could never happen as no true Christian can ever be "lost"...

 

Your ability to endure this without one or more of:

  1. Merciless sarcasm
  2. Starting a major argument
  3. Walking out

utterly confounds me

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Finally found what I remembered about the book of Ruth.

 

Francesco, check this out.  It should start at the right time, but if not the Ruth bit starts out at 6m 20s.

 

http://youtu.be/bhswjyJ7qhY?t=6m20s

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Two hours!  You spent two hours in that bible study!

 

Reading your account brought back some flashbacks to bible studies and the tedious nature of them.

 

I could not bear to go to one again.  Even to be snarky.

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Two hours!  You spent two hours in that bible study!

 

Reading your account brought back some flashbacks to bible studies and the tedious nature of them.

 

I could not bear to go to one again.  Even to be snarky.

I feel exactly the same way.  In fact, I attended a bible study one week before deconverting.  That bible study drove me over the edge, thankfully!

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Wow, cutting you away from your friends like that - way to isolate someone from their support to try to put some group-think leverage on 'em. I call foul, here. It's not a strong point, if you have to bolster it with all sorts of peer pressure. (That's also why door-to-door missionaries almost always come in groups of at least two - so that they have at least one other person to monitor them, and apply social pressure, in case any of the sheep are thinking secretly of making a break from the fold... Looking at you, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses....)

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A bible studies go that sounds rather long drawn out - and presumably you were invited with the aim of somehow pressurising/persuading/converting you, however nice these friends might be.

 

I wonder what would be the solution for the unequal yoke that results from deconversion?  Or maybe the preacher would think that could never happen as no true Christian can ever be "lost"...

 

Your ability to endure this without one or more of:

  1. Merciless sarcasm
  2. Starting a major argument
  3. Walking out

utterly confounds me

my friends know me as a christian, I just did not tell them what kind of christian I am :lol:

 

and about the solution, at one part, the preacher suggest to break up (if you have a non christian gf or bf) or try to convert 

so I guess that break up or even divorce would be the solution

 

it's hard, but i'm an introvert so i don't really want to make a fuss out of small problem like that

it's not worth it, and I know how it's like, I won't attend it any more

 

Finally found what I remembered about the book of Ruth.

 

Francesco, check this out.  It should start at the right time, but if not the Ruth bit starts out at 6m 20s.

 

http://youtu.be/bhswjyJ7qhY?t=6m20s

Thanks

I never thought that book of ruth have that "dark" side

I cannot imagine if children in sunday school were told the story that way 

 

Two hours!  You spent two hours in that bible study!

 

Reading your account brought back some flashbacks to bible studies and the tedious nature of them.

 

I could not bear to go to one again.  Even to be snarky.

2 hours + driving time + gas to be exact :lol:

kinda regret it though, should have just go home and playing football manager instead :lol:

I cannot bear it either, especially the preaching was delivered not by priest/pastor

I know this because the usher that welcoming told me that

kinda worry for my friends about what they have been hearing based on the preachers qualification tho

 

 

 

Two hours!  You spent two hours in that bible study!

 

Reading your account brought back some flashbacks to bible studies and the tedious nature of them.

 

I could not bear to go to one again.  Even to be snarky.

I feel exactly the same way.  In fact, I attended a bible study one week before deconverting.  That bible study drove me over the edge, thankfully!

 

do you mind if I ask what happened to your bible study?

 

Wow, cutting you away from your friends like that - way to isolate someone from their support to try to put some group-think leverage on 'em. I call foul, here. It's not a strong point, if you have to bolster it with all sorts of peer pressure. (That's also why door-to-door missionaries almost always come in groups of at least two - so that they have at least one other person to monitor them, and apply social pressure, in case any of the sheep are thinking secretly of making a break from the fold... Looking at you, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses....)

yes, that would be the stupidest thing they could done to newcomer: make them isolated and lonely

how f*cked up this bible study is

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Two hours!  You spent two hours in that bible study!

 

Reading your account brought back some flashbacks to bible studies and the tedious nature of them.

 

I could not bear to go to one again.  Even to be snarky.

I feel exactly the same way.  In fact, I attended a bible study one week before deconverting.  That bible study drove me over the edge, thankfully!

 

do you mind if I ask what happened to your bible study?

 

 

It was just an ordinary bible study group and I went along for the first time to see what it would be like and it was badly run, the person leading it just let everybody talk, it went an hour over time.  But the main problem I had with it was that it just didn't make any sense.  I couldn't understand the passage they were studying.  My deconversion occurred for other reasons (several) and this was the icing on the cake.

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I wonder what would be the solution for the unequal yoke that results from deconversion?  Or maybe the preacher would think that could never happen as no true Christian can ever be "lost"...

 

and about the solution, at one part, the preacher suggest to break up (if you have a non christian gf or bf) or try to convert 

so I guess that break up or even divorce would be the solution

 

I think I've seen that sort of suggestion elsewhere on these boards - but, as regards married couples, it puzzles me as my experience of conservative Christianity would indicate "no divorce at any costs". It also angers me to think that a preacher would presume to seek to control another's marriage.

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You went, you tried, and you're a good friend for doing that. But now you've seen it's not for you, and it's your prerogative to decide not to go again. Don't let your friends pressure you into it.

 

I was taught about that unequally yoked thing when I was still in bible school. You aren't even allowed to be with someone who doesn't share the same beliefs as you. So if you're with someone who belongs to one of the other christian denominations, that's also considered unequally yoked, and potentially dangerous. Bunch of morons.

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The book of Ruth is precisely about people being unequally yolked, and why this is a good thing.  It has been traced to the post-exillic period when lots of people were returning from captivity, and they noticed that peasants, who weren't important enough to be taken captive, had intermarried with other cultures while they were gone.  That's really what the book of Ruth is about.

 

But that's actually kinda boring.  If you go back, you should try and find out what they think 'uncovering his feet' means, and what they think really happened on that threshing floor.

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Two hours!  You spent two hours in that bible study!

 

Reading your account brought back some flashbacks to bible studies and the tedious nature of them.

 

I could not bear to go to one again.  Even to be snarky.

I feel exactly the same way.  In fact, I attended a bible study one week before deconverting.  That bible study drove me over the edge, thankfully!

 

do you mind if I ask what happened to your bible study?

 

 

It was just an ordinary bible study group and I went along for the first time to see what it would be like and it was badly run, the person leading it just let everybody talk, it went an hour over time.  But the main problem I had with it was that it just didn't make any sense.  I couldn't understand the passage they were studying.  My deconversion occurred for other reasons (several) and this was the icing on the cake.

 

 that's sounds better than my experience

at least no isolation and the Wendybanghead.gif moment

 

 

 

I wonder what would be the solution for the unequal yoke that results from deconversion?  Or maybe the preacher would think that could never happen as no true Christian can ever be "lost"...

 

and about the solution, at one part, the preacher suggest to break up (if you have a non christian gf or bf) or try to convert 

so I guess that break up or even divorce would be the solution

 

I think I've seen that sort of suggestion elsewhere on these boards - but, as regards married couples, it puzzles me as my experience of conservative Christianity would indicate "no divorce at any costs". It also angers me to think that a preacher would presume to seek to control another's marriage.

 

religion nowadays is to control people in as many as possible aspects of life

it's no longer to guide people towards good 

btw based on that we can troll fundie: get married as christian (equally yoked), deconvert (unequally yoked), reminds them that divorce is prohibited :troll:

 

You went, you tried, and you're a good friend for doing that. But now you've seen it's not for you, and it's your prerogative to decide not to go again. Don't let your friends pressure you into it.

 

I was taught about that unequally yoked thing when I was still in bible school. You aren't even allowed to be with someone who doesn't share the same beliefs as you. So if you're with someone who belongs to one of the other christian denominations, that's also considered unequally yoked, and potentially dangerous. Bunch of morons.

No I won't let them, just need to remind myself to not go to their place at Wednesday

so unequally yoked things make people exclusive rather than inclusive, interesting.......

 

The book of Ruth is precisely about people being unequally yolked, and why this is a good thing.  It has been traced to the post-exillic period when lots of people were returning from captivity, and they noticed that peasants, who weren't important enough to be taken captive, had intermarried with other cultures while they were gone.  That's really what the book of Ruth is about.

 

But that's actually kinda boring.  If you go back, you should try and find out what they think 'uncovering his feet' means, and what they think really happened on that threshing floor.

indeed, the first chapter of ruth is about living together with moab community for ten years and marry the moabites, how could you preach to equally yoked based on unequally yoked story is kinda WendyDoh.gif

especially since there was food scarcity in the place where they were equally yoked

I wonder if they would prefer this family to die from hunger but equally yoked or survive with food with unequally yoked?

 

yes, that uncover feet and lie down until morning things must be hilarious to ask laugh.png

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