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To: MineralMan
A loving Christian would not do that. Most Christians leave the "rebuking" to their deity. A small percentage of Christians, however, misunderstand their role, in my opinion, and take great pleasure in "rebuking" all and sundry, including other Christians.

As much as I appreciate your keen intellect and "devil's advocate" function on these types of threads, in this area you are in direct contradiction to the writings of St. Paul.

As for the "pleasure" they derive from such rebukes, I submit such pleasure is the direct analog to the "self-righteousness" the truly "wicked" are continually harping about. One wonders if such people have any notion the term "righteous" is even possible to separate from the "self" qualifier.

679 posted on 05/03/2006 12:15:37 PM PDT by papertyger (Our Constitution isn't perfect, but it's better than what we have right now.)
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To: papertyger

"As much as I appreciate your keen intellect and "devil's advocate" function on these types of threads, in this area you are in direct contradiction to the writings of St. Paul. "




I am often in direct contradition of the writings of St. Paul, I'm afraid. Paul's letters, I believe, have carried far too much weight in Christianity for a long time.

I remember thinking, as a mere teenager, that it was odd that the church I attended spent very little time teaching from the four Gospels, where one could find what was supposed to be the words of Jesus himself.

Oh, they showed up as the readings around Christmas and Easter, but not so often in between. Almost every Sunday, the pastor's sermon was based on some part one of Paul's letters.

I remember sitting in the Pastor's office asking him about that. He and I had weekly discussions in his office. Often, they turned on fine points of scripture and doctrine, since I was an avid student at the time.

His answer, regarding the letters of Paul, was that those letters had more relevance in today's world than the Gospels. I thought that odd, and still do.

Long ago, I began thinking of denominations which largely ignore the Gospels as Paulist in nature, rather than Christian. While Paul was certainly a central figure in the early church, the constant focus on his letters always seemed a bit strange to me.

I'm no longer a Christian, or a believer in any deities at all, but I still study the Judeo-Christian scriptures, since they play such a large role in western society. I still have many of the same questions.

For me, were I still a Christian, I would always read Paul's letters with an eye towards Jesus' words. Sometimes, they are in conflict with each other.

As for Paulist churches, I wish they would simply acknowledge that in their names.


684 posted on 05/03/2006 12:29:46 PM PDT by MineralMan (non-evangelical atheist)
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