Posted on 09/24/2010 2:17:37 PM PDT by SueDi52
I am a Methodist, my parents were Methodist, my grandparents were Methodist. When I heard Glenn Beck say that some churches have a radical left-wing progessive agendas that matched our current administration's views, that they are working with the left, I thought, no, not the Methodist Church. But then I looked up the website of the NAACP and union fronted One Nation Working Together.org. Going down the list of partners I saw unions, the NAACP, black, muslim and socialist organizations and The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society (I can't find it there now). I looked up the Methodist GBCS site and, Surprise!, found the Obama agenda on Global Warming, Health Care, Women's Reproductive Health, Labor and Worker Justice and many more. Here's an excerpt on their views on government: "We hold governments responsible for the ... guarantee of the rights to adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, and health care." (Social Principles, ¶164A)http://tinyurl.com/2excgvj Sounds right out of the Socialist agenda, doesn't it? Methodists, please, please voice your concerns with your pastor. If he/she does nothing, then escalate. We must have our church out from under the Progressive Left's thumb.
Methodist church among the most egregious collaborators with leftism for decades.
“I left the Methodist church over the abortion issue”
This was one of MANY issues of why we left. The straw was dealing with the attitude of leadership over occultic practices. Apparently, visiting a psychic wasn’t a problem and if channeling leads to solace...well....have at it, then. The New Age is very huge....and no one questions anything from the pulpit.
http://www.rcrc.org/
The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is stomach-turning.
YES!!!! NCC is a truly evil organization.
I mean no offense but your church is supporting in numerous ways things that are both unchristian and detramental to liberty and freedom. I personally know fine spirit filled members of your church body but they are what they are inspite of the church, not because of it.
If you wouldn't dream of donating your resources to the communist party or a non-christian religion, then what are you doing in a church that takes your resources and supports this kind of activity?
If you are afraid that by leaving your church you would give up on your faith altogether, then may I suggest that the problem you have is your faith, not your church?. Being a christian is a wonderful thing, a joy, but if it is anything less than joyful, then might I would recommend that you consider a good deep look into a mirror.
By the way, I left a mainline (left behind position and power) in the mid 1980s. I didn't think I could do it and I thought that my life would never recover the loss of friends. But to my surprise, the opposite has happened. I also went from being Mr. Knowledgable in my old church to almost a theological infant and it took many years before anyone asked me to take a serious leadership position, but now that I have one I realize that I'm not as mature in the faith that I thought I was.
I'm not picking on you, really I'm not. But I cannot see a whole lot of hope for the bulk of the mainline churches in this country. 50 years from now I believe half of them will not exist as they do today. Liberalism in the seminaries, mergers and declining membership is eating them alive.
I marvel at the creative euphemisms for abortion, the choice that will not be named.
Yes it does. The Palisades Presbyterian Church. Which is why I haven’t been there in years.
Leaving is a very hard thing and takes the courage of one's convictions, so what the other poster wrote, I understand. But even though there is a price, if you don't stand by your convictions, then you might as well not have any. I was always a "follow-the-leader" type before then.
My best friend, very intelligent and far better educated than I, who is now deceased was into reincarnation, and I was curious about that and the occult at that time, too. I can't say I was directly exposed to that in church, but through some of the members. The book that so fascinated us at the time was "Gretchen, I Am."
Actually, I credit the Pentecostals the most for getting me to see the error of my ways in dabbling in the occult. At a catholic college course in Sociology, I wrote a paper about reincarnation and got an A on it although the professor said I quoted too much from a book." He should have flunked me lol.
I wasn't Catholic then, but two Catholic girls accompanied me to a seance in the dark basement of the spiritualist church here. By then, I was wary and prayed I wouldn't get any messages. Fortunately, everyone present but me IIRC got one. I was relieved I didn't. So theses poor naive Catholic girls did, and might not have gone were it not for me, may God forgive me for that. And I made other mistakes like that during that period of my life, looking for answers, takss a long time to be cleansed from all of it and an effort of the will.
Not too long after, the girls invited me to go with them to a witchcraft initiation at night at a local state park. That was just too far out after that spooky seance, and I wanted no part of it and declined, wish I'd known enough then to warn them that their church frowned on such things as that, officially.
I have since remonstrated (nicely) with some ignorant Catholics about what their church teaches about some of the things they get into.
I grew up Nazarene, I have a cousin on the board of trustees at Trevecca and all of my extended family except for some random Baptists are Nazarenes. I think every member of my family on both sides for the last 60 years has gone to a Nazarene college at least to start his or her higher education. Every few months I call one of them and ask "who are you and what the heck have you done with the Church of the Nazarene?"
For a long time, for me, the Church of the Nazarene had been like PBS is for most people, I had no use for it but it was a comfort to know it was there.
Trevecca's a "University" now, as are all 11 or so of the old Nazarene colleges. They are not strictly speaking "Bible colleges" and haven't been for a long time. I remember the first time I ever saw a man wearing an earring... he was a professor at a Nazarene college, and that was 25 years ago.
“For what it’s worth, in the church of Christ, women don’t teach in any adult classes or in the worship service. Here’s an article about that from a coC perspective. Since each congregation is autonomous, what you read there may not apply to every single church of Christ assembly but it is what I’ve found everywhere.”
BUMP
Well, your response was far more reasonable than I’ve come to expect from religious forums.
I hope you didn’t get the impression that I was talking about leaving or losing my faith. That’s rock solid.
But I do think attending services helps one to stay ‘in the faith.’
I don’t give much because I don’t have much to give. My diocese is far more conservative than the national church.
I’ve thought about my options and this is what I’ve decided but thanks for your input.
ping
RCRC was offering a pastoral training to teach about counseling about “reproductive loss”. Miscarriage and abortion both fall under that term. The way they tout abortion as an acceptable choice for an “unacceptable pregnancy”.....what’s to counsel? If “it’s” just a “blob of tissue”.....why counsel? Having suffered a miscarriage early in my marriage, I would not have wanted to get counseling from a minister who looks at any baby as a “reproductive loss”.
A good rule of thumb, if your church has female pastors, it is veering to the left.
yep if you are a Methodist, yer darn tootin it does. I have written my pastor some not so subtle notes about keeping his politics out of the sermons.
don’t lecture me about care of the earth and donations to Haiti and health care. Talk to me about the Bible. And don’t tell me I need to tolerate Islam because then you are telling me to tolerate satan.
The churches in my region pretty much stay uninvolved in any pregnancy resource centers because of “neutrality” or they identify themselves as “pro-choice” flat-out. The pro-lifers in the congregations are tepid in interest and voiceless on any pro-life principles.
It isn’t easy to leave but there comes a time when it just becomes so clear that it’s time to go.
Growing up, I wasn’t into church at all and I was interested in astrology and read books like Amityville Horror and The Exorcist. I did attend church after I had kids but it was pretty much social stuff. Even after I had kids, I was searching for answers in books like Deepak Chopra’s or some Oprah-endorsed books. I look back and recognize that God protected me from those books. The books and activities offered through the church were definitely left-leaning and New Age in nature. It did no good to bring up any objections. People would just roll their eyes (yeah, even the so-called conservatives). I wanted my kids to have church friends but I was exposing them to leaders with liberation theology attitudes. The warning blips were there along the way but we finally got the klaxton and we couldn’t ignore that!
You are welcome and I wish you the best.
You’re correct, it’s actually Trevecca Nazarene University.
In reality, just a small fraction of the student body are ‘ministry’ majors (our son is one of those)...
Perhaps that is exactly what God has in mind.
The Catholic Church in my area is probably the most involved, women make quilts, baby things, have apts run by nuns where they can live in a safe area right close to the chancery, have extra collections for Birth Right, one-on-one counselling, met many nice people at church who try to help but not pressure the girls one way or another, just are there for emotional support But Protestants do good work, too, not sure what all, but one Lutheran church put up a whole hillside full of crosses representing only a fraction of the total lost.
Surely there are others who put their mouths where their money is, prayer vigils, picketing, life chains, and helping after the baby is born. I've not actually done any picketing where I would meet more, but I have done other things plus charity begins at home in my situation, practically raised my granddaughter and helped the others as best I could, like help keeping rooves over their heads for the childrens' sakes
All but one are grown up now and turned out pretty well under the circumstances. Now we have a bi-racial 4-year-old which I may not live to see grow up. He will be the most challenging of all because he is "slow"; hope I can provide words of wisdom, lots of encouragement and hugs as long as I can, do not babysit any more but that started with my son's second child years back when my health broke.
Some time ago, the UM churches were using the Andy Griffith series for Sunday School lessons. Each week, they would ask, what would Andy do? (I’m being serious) Not, what would Jesus do, but, what would Andy do? A fictional character in a fictional town was their inspiration. Now, we find out that Andy is a huge leftist liberal. (The real Andy)
Run, don’t walk away from that organization, or you will be held accountable in God’s eyes for staying in a place where they don’t uphold the Biblical teachings.
Also, read the letters to the 7 churches in the Book of Revelation. Jesus has some very harsh words for most of them. Just because a structure has the word, “church” over it, doesn’t mean God approves of it. In fact, the church isn’t a denomination, (sorry to my Catholic friends,) but, it is a body of people who are believers. And, that also encompasses rightly believing the teachings of the Bible, not what some pastor or priest tells you.
God tells us to ask for wisdom if we lack it. He will lead us and guide us into understanding of His Word, if we are sincere about learning.
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