• FosterMolasses@leminal.spaceEnglish
      13·
      22 hours ago

      Storytime: The last sermon I sat through was literally a hate sermon.

      One of my buddies in grad school talked me into coming to his church for a session one Sunday, and me being mostly agnostic/pagan at the time figured “Ahh, why not? I’m all for you sharing your culture and beliefs with me, I’ll hear it out.”

      Shit. You. Not. 20 minutes into the thing… The preacher was talking down the “evils of pride month” and how if you ever feel “ostracized” on your campus for “standing against” the satanic “influences” of the LGBTQ, you always had a “strong community” to turn to here.

      If you’re cringing reading this… now just imagine this obviously queer 20s something sitting in the middle of the crowd with this giant rainbow scarf on (it was February) while these aryan karens and nutjobs to my left and right are casually nodding along.

      Made a fucking beeline for the door and never spoke to that crazy fucker (or went back to church) ever again lol

      • RamenJunkie@midwest.socialEnglish
        7·
        21 hours ago

        Makes me think that the church encouraged people to invite their “heathen gay friends” that week so you would hear the gospel and repent or some nonsense.

        • diablomnky666@lemmy.wtf
          4·
          17 hours ago

          Nah, the pastor wanted “the gays” at church so he knew which ones he could play tummy sticks with in a motel after service.

      • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
        1·
        16 hours ago

        And that’s why I left the church. Priest kept drumming up hatred for little zero reason

        Been getting more involved with a small non-denominational church over the last few months though. The pastor really steps back when to earth when he gets off the little stage, just back to being a normal guy

        I love community and hate hate… There’s no room for hate within me, I won’t let that poison taint me

      • FreddiesLantern@leminal.space
        3·
        21 hours ago

        I’m so, so sorry that happened to you. And I am so glad you didn’t give into the guilt and shame they tried to put on you. Probably saved you a few years of deep fucked up guilt, if not your life. (I’ve lived it, post religious trauma is real and heavy).

        That’s their entire model: making emotional hostages through guilt.

        I’ve left that behind a good 10 years now and I’m feeling so much happier but boy it’s been a ride. I’m still rediscovering life and myself to this day.

        Thanks for sharing. Thanks for standing up and walking out of there, hopefully you ignited something in some of them. As hateful as they are, a lot of them are victims, being held there by fear against their will.

    • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
      12·
      1 day ago

      Suffering is not a glitch in the Christian life—it’s part of it. In this conversation, Matt Smethurst and Ligon Duncan talk about how pastors can prepare their people to face pain with faith and endurance. They discuss what it means to view hardship through God’s providence, why the “victorious Christian life” often looks like just hanging on, and how preaching, hymns, and patient shepherding can help believers trust God when he seems silent.

      i know so many people who justify their suffering like this.

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.worldEnglish
    33·
    2 days ago

    Lucifer is the reasonable one in the Bible, God is the one who wipes out millions for amusement.

    Did you know that according to the Bible they hang out and talk shit together? God never hangs out with anyone else.

    • rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      1 hour ago

      A key reason why the church suppressed education for such a long time in what is now referred to as the dark ages.

      If intelligent people were able to read the source material then they would learn what utter shite they were being fed.

      Fortunately for religious organisations we now live in a society where most people are able to read the source material but choose not to and blindly follow the words spoken to them.

    • FosterMolasses@leminal.spaceEnglish
      4·
      22 hours ago

      Lucifer is the reasonable one in the Bible, God is the one who wipes out millions for amusement

      Now I don’t wanna sympathize with the devil, but…

    • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
      3·
      1 day ago

      that would make some kickass memes to send to your fanatically christian uncle.

    • LeonineAlpha@sh.itjust.works
      11·
      2 days ago

      Love how the religeous claim certainty that THEIR instructions from God, and they all seem to justify their “grandad’s” values as to when to break their own principles.

      Ie:

      Love thy neighbour but MY NEIGHBOR got a Windmill so I should be allowed to arson!

      If a thief takes your cloak, also give him your coat… but no socialism for anyone I dont know, they r all lazy bums

      Etc etc

      No chance any of this is u know who, or maybe just your ego? Oh no, you know cause a gut feeling and old folks said so

      • stringere@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        1 day ago

        When I was a kid, one of my parents’ friends had a fun idea she shared with us. She posed the thought that maybe all the different religions were real and the world was just a game of chess they were playing with us as pieces.

          • stringere@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            20 hours ago

            I read a really fun new age book titled something like “the most attractive place in the universe”. It was all kinds of woowoo psuedo-judeo-christian but there were fun ideas in it.

            What follows is a rough summary of some of those ideas an in no way represent my view of the cosmos.

            Stars are angels and solar radiation is the method of sending divine instructions to creation. Our sun is Lucifer and our solar system is an experimemt in free will which makes it a desirable place for our celestial selves to choose to be incarnated. It is supposed to be a school as well as experimental lab of sorts but because free will is so attractive souls keep reincarnating here which is causing issues.

            There was a whole lot more going on but this was like 30 years ago that I read it.

        • RamenJunkie@midwest.socialEnglish
          1·
          21 hours ago

          Even some Christian texts acknowledge that their God isn’t the only God, he is just the one you are supposed to worahip.

          • stringere@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            20 hours ago

            YHVH was the Canaanite god of war. Different tribes/groups would prefer one god over another. There were even specific deities for some cities/cities which devoted themselves to one god above others.

            Edit to add the wikpedia page for Yahweh

      • Deacon@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 days ago

        No chance any of this is u know who, or maybe just your ego? Oh no, you know cause a gut feeling and old folks said so

        In Evangelical circles, we refer to this as discernment. Discernment is great, it explains why the bible might be confusing to some people, why it might seem to definitely contradict itself, and why it seems to be so broadly open to interpretation. To navigate all of that, you don’t trust your evil sinful gut - you use Discernment

        It’s spoken about as if it is a super power you get when you become a Christian. Unfortunately, you don’t magically become discerning once you become a Christian, and plenty of people are just dumb.

  • voidsignal@lemmy.world
    50·
    2 days ago

    When I see all those christian pedo-nazis, if I were to believe in all this BS (which I fucking don’t), Hell is for sure where I wanna end up. I don’t want to spend eternity raping children and shooting people of color in paradise.

  • Tempus Fugit@lemmy.world
    29·
    2 days ago

    Satan is not out here murdering 168 school children. Christians are doing that. Satan is not out here raping and genociding its neighbors. Jews are doing that. Satan is not out here murdering peaceful protestors. Muslims are doing that.

    • prole
      20·
      2 days ago

      Satan doesn’t kill a single person in the Bible. Yahweh on the other hand…

      • samus12345@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        18·
        2 days ago

        Satan isn’t really much of a presence in the Bible at all. Christians made up more shit to have something to blame for everything they don’t like.

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      12·
      2 days ago

      “I’m not in the business of murdering innocent children. That’s God’s jurisdiction.”

      - Lucifer, The Devil’s Carnival

      • njm1314@lemmy.world
        5·
        2 days ago

        Eh, don’t know if you can truly separate the IDF and their religion. Certainly the rhetoric they employ relies upon it.

        • lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          4·
          2 days ago

          Because of nationalism and colonialism. They might use religious rhetoric where it suits them and there are religious people in government, I don’t deny that, but over all it’s a ethnic supremecist ideology and religion is only one identity marker, not the motivator.