Went to Church Sunday

[◊ Krowb ◊]

and I don't miss it one tiny bit.  It was a typical old school Southern Baptist service with the average age of congregants to match it. Pretty sure only my family and one other were under the age of 50.

 

It was a baptismal service and the sermon was geared around the topic of baptism with a lot of asides and a very passionate tale of baptism literally saving a man on the brink of death from tuberculosis in the 1600's.  His pastor refused to baptize him in that cold river in January; the man couldn't even ride his horse; but had to be held in place by another; since the pastor refused to do the baptism on account of the man's condition and the cold, he was baptized by his friend; when he lifted his head out of the water he yelled "Praise Jesus", ran 50 feet up a tall hill, proclaimed "Jesus is Lord", ran home, ate a full meal, and fully recovered, cured from TB.  This rousing tall tale was met with equally strong verbal affirmations of Jesus' power.  The present day pastor went on to briefly admonish the tale's pastor for not trusting Jesus enough.  He should've baptized that almost dead man and let god work his miracle, all things for the glory of god.

 

We had to stand when the pastor was reading from the scriptures.  The praise band tried singing all four parts, but pretty sure at least two are tone deaf.  I know the songs; I grew up singing those old hymns and even played some for night service.  This is a tired, old church with not even 50 people in attendance.  My mother attends because her friend says they preach the whole Bible.  Those megachurches only preach the New Testament and are leading people astray.

 

It was as though I stepped into a bizarro world.  Seeing it from so far on the outside, absent a personal experience like Paul, I see no way that I could convince myself to hold beliefs so far out of step with what the rest of the planet appears to experience.  It is such a small bubble to live in.

[◊ Weezer ◊]

I know how you feel.  I havent attended a church service in over 25 years, but at a Baptist funeral of a relative a few months ago we basically got a sermon.  Like you, I sat there thinking, "how in the world did I ever believe all this stuff".

[pantheory]

The Baptist church is pretty cool on baptisms. It's pretty much 19th century religion concerning the procedural aspects of it, and kind of fun for me to watch, a step back in time in that way