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Goodbye Jesus

Question About Christian Culture


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Guest number6

Haven't been around for a while; being a Godless Professor kinda takes up my time :)

 

OK, what I'd like to ask the group is: Now that you're out of Christianity or at least "backsliding" a bit, what is it about Christian culture that you found really annoying?

 

For me, it was any attempt by a pastor or other Christian entity to sound "hip." I noticed this right away, back in '75 or so when I had just drunk the Holy Kool-Aid™. The literature they gave me was so self-consciously "hip," it was ludicrous. And it used slang from wildly different times in history, combining "groovy" and "gnarly" in the same sentence. They even gave me a survey asking me what language I used, thusly: "Please list how many times you use the following expressions: daily, weekly, monthly: Far Out. Groovy. Man. I Mean Like... You Know. Dude." I felt like telling them "Dude, I mean like man if you can't tell what's far out and hip, like don't even try!" :)

 

Much later in my Calvary Chapel phase, I had to hear things like "Jesus is a TOTALLY AWESOME DUDE!" Kinda loses something in translation, you think? I imagine now the Christian world is trying to co-opt hip-hop talk. THAT must be a hoot.

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Haven't been around for a while; being a Godless Professor kinda takes up my time :)

 

OK, what I'd like to ask the group is: Now that you're out of Christianity or at least "backsliding" a bit, what is it about Christian culture that you found really annoying?

What I find most irritating is the prideful and arrogant attitude of having the "only Truth". No openness for new ideas, unless it comes from the pastor. No understanding of the intricate parts of knowing, believing, thinking, analyzing, etc., but still claim to have all that better than anyone else.

 

 

:HaHa: The hip language of Jesus. Well, personally I didn't have any issue with that. Only that it kind of proves my previous point, in the sense that they sound stupid and not clever enough to think through what they really believe. It sounds very hollow. Like "our new toothpaste, new and improved formula", and you know they only changed the taste a bit, and added some more color to the package, but in essence is the same old toothpaste.

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Guest eejay

I think I can answer that one pretty quick, at least for myself. These things I find annoying.

#1-The failure of the x-tian to take the log out of his eye, before complaining about the toothpick in mine.

#2-Their inability to see both sides of the coin.

#3-When something goes bad or good in their life, god still gets the honor either way.

#4-The fact that they don't stop bible thumping when you ask them too.

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I think what annoys me most even now is that they make up looney shit and then try to tell you that Gawd said it. Like my mother's pastor telling her that they shouldn't have images of nocturnal animals in their house (owls for example) because those were images the devil would inhabit! WTF!? Didn't Gawd make owls, rats, snakes, bats???

 

Heather

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  • Super Moderator

Guitar services. Testifying. Mens breakfasts.

 

Eventually, it was ALL annoying!

 

- Chris

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Oh, this is easy! I always HATED "passing the peace" in church! If I wanted to hug and slobber all over everybody, I'd find someplace else to do it; like a bar, where at least I'd be drunk.

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The whole atmosphere of emotional fakery -- there was nothing that seemed real, honest or true about the Christian church culture. In the end I hated it all.

 

I hated the damn aesthetics. It was cutsey, prissy, "precious moments," Thomas Kinkade paintings. It made me want to gag.

 

I hate the special "christianese" language -- all about "love", "souls" "god laid it on my heart" - a crappy language that isn't honest and doesn't really mean a damn thing.

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What annoys me about my church / chrisitans/ and atheists.

 

 

My pastor is always preaching sermons tantamount to singing a barre of "walk this way". He is prolific for guilt trip and tithe sermons, "act like good chrisitans, evengalise becuase Jesus is comming." sermons, and "i should be able to look into your private lives." sermons. That last bit he sneaks in there rarely but it speaks of his desire to be center of athority for his church.

 

 

And i am freaked out that the christians use the scripture like mental band-aids, instead of deep lessons to be trained by. And as blinders to talking about god, instead of one of a myrid languages god may be expressed in? As if they are not experiencing God at all. And if they doubt it is because, maybe they dont want it bad enough? I feel like how come these people never have a little moment of awareness and realise the wishfull thinkingness of their actions in church. And inquire after what would be, to them, the real god , or the knowledge of truth?

 

It annoys me that when people liberate themselves form the ole ball and chain of chrisitianity, they sequester themselves in the realm of the sceptic club, which likewise will eventaully limit and distort personal and experential spiritaul journeys for meaning , wisdom, truth, and understanding.

 

They forget the whole fight that set them upon spiritaul quest to find god in the first place. They have only learned that the bill of sale they signed wasnt what they where looking for. SO now they stand about and shout about it and bring new hearts over to their side.

 

same behaviour therefore same illness.

 

it is all a distraction. Finding truth doent have much to do with prooving the bible or the stupidity of a stupid man, or the fine ability to construct the perfect aregument.

 

Jessy

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I also hated the fake nicieties of church "fellowship." People would pretend to be nice and friendly to you, but the moment you start to deviate from the group mentality, they insist that you must conform to their theological ideals or they'll cut you out of their lives. I also hate how Christians claim to not judge others, but whenever Christians do good things, people will always praise them for their contributions to society. Then whenever Christians do bad things, instead of actually taking responsibility for the fanatics that their religion produces, they disown them in a heartbeat and say "those aren't "real" Christians" or make judgmental statements about how God will judge those "fake" Christians. I especially get annoyed when liberal Christians will claim to be superior to their fundie counterparts but then turn around and judge the fundies as "not being real Christians" and that they aren't following the bible the "right" way, but then insist that they know the "right" way to follow the bible and act just as smug and judgmental. In other words, anything that would discredit Christianity is suddenly not following the bible "the right way." I mean, seriously, when was the last time you saw an atheist say that an atheist that did something bad wasn't a "real atheist"?

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Oh, man...

If I had ever had to listen to ultra-bullshit like this as described in the OP, I would probably have decompensated...

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OK, what I'd like to ask the group is: Now that you're out of Christianity or at least "backsliding" a bit, what is it about Christian culture that you found really annoying?

 

Other than Christians?

 

 

 

:cunn:

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I hate the dogma and all the stupid, debasing 'submission' lingo that comes with it: Surrender your life to Jesus, your will be done, Amazing Grace, the worship sessions with strummed guitars, palms raised, eyes closed, people swaying back and forth as they declare themselves unworthy of 'God's plan of salvation'. None of this ever sat well with me; the atmosphere was almost nauseating and I did what I could to avoid it. :Wendywhatever:

 

On the plus side, In the time I didn't spend singing to the invisible sky-man I managed to get a lot of reading done. The trick was to bring a book that was long enough; Les Miserables is a fine pick.

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What I really hate the most is the willful ignorance, the arrogance, and the mindless platitudes. I also hate the idea that people are seen first as potential converts, rather than interesting human beings worth getting to know for our own merits.

 

At its worst religion shuts down people's brains. I have a hard time dealing with people who've turned off their critical thinking skills in favor of a comforting fairy tale.

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Haven't been around for a while; being a Godless Professor kinda takes up my time :)

 

OK, what I'd like to ask the group is: Now that you're out of Christianity or at least "backsliding" a bit, what is it about Christian culture that you found really annoying?

 

The smarmy ready-made answers: WWJD, It is god's will, It wasn't meant to be, ... bullshit answers for serious questions turned me off the most. Then it was the science of xtianity--the lack of science actually. One would think that if god was telling people about the future, he would also include a few terms we find today, such as 'nuclear', automobiles, airplanes, space travel, etc. The babble remains silent about these world-changing discoveries.

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Guest laceknitter

Everything.

Christian culture is sooo tacky.

One of my favorite blogs is actually a Christian one that rips on other Christian stuff. :lol:

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Everything.

Christian culture is sooo tacky.

One of my favorite blogs is actually a Christian one that rips on other Christian stuff. :lol:

 

 

Gonna share a link? :-)

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I really, really, really hated how Christianity was pushed in us teenagers' faces, like some cool new product like an iPod or a PSP or something like that. Only the product in this case was eternal life rather than an iPhone, and the pricewas not $400 (though that would have been quite nice!) but our souls.

 

But really, walk into any Christian store and you'll find a LOT of things directed toward teens-- teen study Bibles, teen devotionals, t-shirts, books, anything. Christians were trying to look "hip" and "groovy" when really, they were making extreme asses of themselves (pardon my language, but it's true!)

 

What really ticked me off about my last church was that everything had to be "good clean fun". Every Sunday night there was AWANA, which was mostly playing dodgeball or some other AWANA-made game and then Bible study and memorizing Bible verses. I can't tell you how many times a night I heard John 3:16 (For God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten son so that whoeever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life-- no I did not just look at my Bible!) and Romans 3:23 (For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God). It was galling the way they tried to tie in Bible werses with average teen life-- as if any normal American teenager is goign to remember to look in their Bibles every time ebil Saytanisssssst spreads nasty rumors about them at school. ugh.

And at my old church, it was wrong to be "worldly". Worldly meaning "not everything is about Jeeeeeezus". So every kid at my old church listened to nothing but Christian bands, wore Christian shirts, and were basically controlled by their parents. Not to mention that during any church activity, a boy and a girl couldn't so much as walk to a vending machine together. Nope, it was wroooooooooooooong. It had to be two girls or two boys, or a group of girls and a group of boys. Girls had to stay away from the boys.

 

I was often left out of everything at my old church because I would rather read Harry Potter than Left Behind (still would), listen to Linkin Park than some Christian band (Now I'd rather listen to Nightwish), wear black t-shirts than bright orange AWANA shirts (possibly because I can't stand wearing orange), and hang out with the guys rather than the girls.

 

:ugh:

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Guest spoonface

The list could be very extensive if I wanted it to be. Some of the things are terms such as 'the annointing,' 'on fire,' 'impressed on my heart.'

 

When dealing with contemporary prophets (haven't found one who makes a vivid picture of what's going to happen...very vague...or if they do speak of some horrible catastrophe for 'this year' it never happens), they use very much the same rhetoric as used in the OT prophets as if that makes it genuine. They often peddle their 'prophecies' on weekly basis. They also like to tag on the end, "thus saith the Lord.' ...Right...

 

I have mostly hated CCM trying to emulate the sounds of other popular secular groups without adding much originality to their own music.

 

I never could appreciate those aspects of Christianity but practiced the not judging thing. In any case, it didn't impress me then and doesn't even remotely impress me now.

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What is there about Christian culture that isn't annoying?

 

Fake people.

 

Brainwashing.

 

Conformism.

 

Intolerance.

 

Primitive.

 

Superstitious.

 

Blah blah blah I could go on for days.

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Yeah. Christians are all about conformity. I was always left out of crap when I was still goign to church.

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It annoys me that when people liberate themselves form the ole ball and chain of chrisitianity, they sequester themselves in the realm of the sceptic club, which likewise will eventaully limit and distort personal and experential spiritaul journeys for meaning , wisdom, truth, and understanding.

Skepticism is healthy, and simply accepting everything you are told as fact is ignorant.

 

Furthermore, the reason many people end up atheists is that they don't see any evidence of a spritual realm, and therefore "spiritual journeys" are meaningless. Scientific inquiry and critial thinking (along with a dose of skepticism) is the only thing that leads to wisdom, truth and understanding, as far as I am concerned.

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Thank you Mike, you beat me to the punch. Remaining a skeptic has not limited my ‘spiritual journey’ because I no longer feel the need to take them anymore. A journey to where? For what? The world and everything I was looking for is right here in front of me, it was all along. That is what I learned.

 

 

(Added 30 minutes later after reading my own post.)

 

I just had to laugh at myself. I sounded just like Dorothy Gale after getting home from Oz.

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It annoys me that when people liberate themselves form the ole ball and chain of chrisitianity, they sequester themselves in the realm of the sceptic club, which likewise will eventaully limit and distort personal and experential spiritaul journeys for meaning , wisdom, truth, and understanding.

 

 

 

Skepticism is healthy, and simply accepting everything you are told as fact is ignorant.

 

 

 

Furthermore, the reason many people end up atheists is that they don't see any evidence of a spritual realm, and therefore "spiritual journeys" are meaningless. Scientific inquiry and critial thinking (along with a dose of skepticism) is the only thing that leads to wisdom, truth and understanding, as far as I am concerned.

 

Thank you for biteing. I am trying to understand. I can conceed/accept that for you their is no meaning to the idealism others call spiritaul. But i cannot understand that. Yes i agree whole heartedly that healthy skepticism is a healthy thing. But Not everyting has a "proof" and proof-filled thinking can also dissapoint. Case in point, falling in love. Staying in Love, even during all the hells of living.

 

But then maybe for you the idealism of love is also separated from the one of spiritaulity. Perhaps the word for which i seek is no longer properly termed spiritaul. For what i seek is more along the lines of smooth flowing acceptence and meaning seeking in daily living.

Good human values and the joy of a fine cool breeze on a windy day. Things not legislated by religion or science.

 

IN my mentality i can not concieve "no spirit" but i cant dog you for it. Still trying to understand. There is a "insert word here" value to things like Taoism, American Indian worldview, Good ole Americana, and the Pioneering spirit of many of our collective pasts. These are important to me, their values and appreciation for things of deep care-filled meaning that i , perhaps carelessly learned and labeled as spiritaul values. I somehow link those ideals to an invisible god.

 

But my beef with the skeptic crowd, namely the internet nests of them, is wondering wether they completely oust the ideal of spirit simply because all human ideals of God are nill and unproovable.

 

J

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Guest laceknitter
Everything.

Christian culture is sooo tacky.

One of my favorite blogs is actually a Christian one that rips on other Christian stuff. :lol:

 

 

Gonna share a link? :-)

 

tominthebox.blogspot.com

Be sure and check out the archives-they're hysterical.

(Is it okay to post Christian sites on this mb? Don't want to get my hand slapped after I just joined.)

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I always hated it when people would say things like "God told me to ..." or "God is leading me to..." with this spiritually superior look on their faces. Sounds psychotic to me.

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