Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Conservative til I die
The best part of Christianity is that it offers the essentials of Judaism for people who can't do without pork and foreskins. Because it springs from Judaism, its moral code is laudable. Apart from that, it's tainted by the twin lies of blood sacrifice and idolatry (both borrowed from the pagans long after its founder was gone). Because it's been so closely linked to politics over the course of the centuries, it has, like all other religions, been abused by those who interpret it in such a way as to justify all manner of evil--like the Episcopalians with their homosexual clergy and the Spanish Inquisition with its torture and execution of heretics.

Not that it's an issue, but for my part, I worship God.

49 posted on 10/05/2003 9:38:51 AM PDT by Agnes Heep
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies ]


To: Agnes Heep
You've got some really warped ideas about Christianity that really don't jibe with historical fact.

You took me to task for lack of humility. I think you need to have some yourself, because spouting these opinions (and you're not the first or last to come up with them) will get you laughed out of here in a hurry.

I'm no theologian, so I'll spare you the dissertation, but my brief response to your post is this:

1) You are mistaken that Christianity only exists because some Jewish people didn't want to be circumcised or prohibited from eating pork. Christianity existed because of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, whom His followers -and myself - believed to be the Messiah, and God Himself. He founded His Church on Peter, and Peter and His followers naturally began building that Church on His teachings. They attracted both Jews and Gentiles (Christ did say that He had come for both His flocks). As with any institution in its formative years, there were issues about what to teach and how to teach it. In the early Christian Church, a lot of the divide was based on whether the Church should be exclusivistic and just another sect of Judaism or not.

Jesus overturned the dietary laws, as can be found in the Gospels. He taught that only what comes out of a man (words and deeds) can be unclean, not what goes into him. Also, circumcision was a sign of initiation. Baptism replaced it.

2) Blood sacrifice? I'm guessing you're referring to Christ's crucifixion or the sacrament of Communion. What do you want from us. Christ said to do this in remembrance of me, so we do it! Christ also offered Himself up on the cross for us. This is just the way things happened, I can't change that.

Communion was not borrowed from the pagans long after Christ died. The Church was doing it right after He died.

3) You mention the Church's political ties. Well yeah, of course the Church is going to have some relation to every facet of culture when everyone in Europe was a Catholic in the Middle Ages (except for those areas overrun by Islam or some of the more remote areas that practiced their old paganism). But like you said, people do interpret (or rather mis-interpret or intentionally pervert) religion to their own ends. But a look back at history will show you that in terms of the murders actually performed by the Church in the name of God, there are very few. Much of the killing was done by secular authorities in God's name. In many cases, the Church spoke out against it.
50 posted on 10/05/2003 10:01:49 AM PDT by Conservative til I die (Scratch an evangelical long enough and you'll uncover a heretic or even a blasphemer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies ]

To: Agnes Heep
Not that it's an issue, but for my part, I worship God.

Why?

57 posted on 10/05/2003 2:24:30 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson