Interesting religious stuff - Teach other people about your faith without being a cancerous pimple on the backside of Chris'...

[blackmarketbaby]

Wondering if this should be in the "regret" thread.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

My Mormon Bishop was a nice man but he kind of seemed like somebody who was there unwillingly

Yeah, you regularly have a different bishopric every few years or so, and so you'll get a wide variety of personalities you pick up on pretty quick. The ones I've had would at least try to help, but it's a calling in the church that's pretty heavy so if the bishop's not ready for it or keep his head up, he's gonna struggle. I've noticed a difference from the family ward to single's ward, but it could also just be that the bishop treats/looks at you differently once you become an adult, I dunno. Gets awkward to meet with them if you're not involved in church activities and such.

This was a great one that they played at the church I went to.

It's hard to find the exact songs, the same way they were performed, but I think this gives a general sense of it. Now, there was a lot of variety, but in general it was this Black-influenced, jazzy/funky music.

That's pretty cool. I've noticed that it looks like some sects have their own songs that are well-known in their churches, unless it's such a small roster that every couple weeks or so they rotate songs. I imagine they have CDs, too, they give out to their members, but it might mostly just be by ear. Like they're not bad songs at all, they're definitely something to have on a playlist, and yet I've never heard of them before so I wonder where they come from.

Pentecostals believe that the fun/energetic atmosphere is worshipful in the more true sense. It's supposed to be an ecstatic feeling. These songs don't reflect it real well, too, but the singing often involved a lot of explicit "praise you God" type lyrics.

Musical worship really goes hand-in-hand with God and other deities, hence the need for hymns and why angels are traditionally depicted with harps and trumpets, but I think the amount of energy is based on the scale of reverence depending on how you view the house of the Lord. Congregation participation tends to be the loudest hymns get thanks to the number of people singing, I've noticed, while dances of worship seems to be reserved for ceremonies and celebrations. I think other temple dedications do this for their countries and states, so when the Gilbert Arizona Temple was being dedicated in 2014, there was a cultural celebration that night with music and dance that was the biggest cultural celebration held (think still even to date), which was the most I've ever seen dancing performed in person and for spiritual reasons if only to give praise to God (any time there was dancing at Young Women's Camp, it was mostly for fun). The segment I remember most, though, was members of the Pima tribe doing a couple of traditional dances. (Time-stamped, hopefully.)

Ooh, I really should go look more into dances of worship, actually. Hinduism in particular believes dance to be sacred, honestly wouldn't be surprised if particular dances have no video footage or photographs. Wonder if the ancient Greeks had dances for their gods, too.

By the way, my ideal religion would basically take the afterlife and Eternal Progression concepts of Mormonism with the iconography of Orthodoxy and the music and general worship style of Pentecostalism. And the church would be peopled by Baptist youths and Mormon adults and we'd have that Baptist pastor in charge. The members would give sermons once a month, but the pastor would do it on the other weeks.* There'd be ancestor worship elements like Confucianism, but more focused on recent ancestors as opposed to famous distant ancestors. There'd might be something like Orthodox saints, but I'm not sure about that.

Oooh, that sounds lovely. Honestly, I do believe every religion and spiritual system is connected in some form or another from one original religion/belief, and bits and pieces survived but are scattered. It's why I think music is the key that holds it all together because it's so universal, but other ideologies can be linked in some way or another. Meditation is another connection, but the method varies based on where you look for spiritual enlightenment.

I also sometimes think about star-worship, like taking astronomy/cosmology and just layering spirituality over it, but I haven't developed that idea much.

I feel like I've seen this concept before, if not in other cultures, it was in a sci-fi show. Stars in the heavens more-or-less already have roots in religious symbolism, hierarchy for example, although adding other layers to it could make for an interesting perspective on the concept of eternity or how finite mortality is.

*For those of you who don't know, in Mormonism, you don't have the bishop (priest) delivering the sermon, usually. Instead, it rotates through the members. I think it's really nice to have members do that, it makes it feel more tight-knit and gives a variety of perspective, but it also suffers because you lose the polish/learning that a professional preacher has.

I wouldn't say there was ever professionalism in giving talks, probably is why I find it odd most other churches just have the one preacher that's like their job or something to that effect, though Sunday schools still seem to be commonplace to get another perspective/ interpretation. Majority of the time for sacrament meetings, though, assigned speakers draw more from previous talks and scripture verses, it's actually rare to write an original talk. It's mainly used for like personal review/reminder or personal revelation, but some speakers get lazy and rely too heavily on scripture to fill the time or use made-up "urban legends" for their testimonies like "Oh, there was the time my cousin twice-removed was getting married and the prophet happened to be there and initiated the ceremony and it was just so beautiful and a blessing" stuff like that. Actually heard the latter used in person about a year before a seminary teacher brought up urban legends in casual talk before class. Funny stuff.

Do religions have their own unique "urban legends" by any chance? Not really something like "Jews are born with their hands to their foreheads to hide their horns" but more along the lines of bleeding/weeping milk statues (or that's similar to like seeing Jesus' face on toast), or religious figures being rumored to have inspired characters or been involved in convenient rescues. Stuff like that.

 

[JustFuckinaDude]

all christian sects seem pretty much the same to me except for catholics

I mean...more or less. It’s style of worship more than anything else, in my experience.

 

[Sundae]

I'd be a hardcore Christian if we could stop this turn the other cheek crap and go back to reclaiming the holy land.

On the subject of turning the other cheek, years ago I read something interesting about that on another forum:

There is always someone that says, "Turn the other cheek" and they have no clue what it actually means. The closest translation to the original is this:

"but I say unto you, That ye resist not with evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."

This is NOT meant for you to be passive and just take it, it is an act of defiance. We need to touch on a little history to understand why. In that time (and even currently in the middle east in some places) the left hand was used to wipe your ass. There was no toilet paper. It is considered unclean to eat with your left hand as it would have the remnants of shit on it.

When a person has hit you on your right cheek they have used the left hand to do so. They have treated you like shit and as a second class person. The act of turning the OTHER cheek to them is an act of non-violent resistance! You are telling them with your action that to engage you again they MUST hit you with the clean hand. This would elevate you as an equal to them.

You resist them but not with evil or aggression but with their own beliefs and ideas.

Admittedly I'm not 100% sure if this is true or not, but I thought it was interesting none the less.

 

[WannabeDictator]

My faith is yiffism. Temples/alters of yiffists in our religion is called FurAffinity. We worship the gods of commision artists, and honor them by giving them a heavy load of our income and cum. We admire our gods by looking at their arousing artworks that they leave behind for us in FurAffinity.

. In that time (and even currently in the middle east in some places) the left hand was used to wipe your ass. There was no toilet paper. It is considered unclean to eat with your left hand as it would have the remnants of shit on it./QUOTE]

Ha and filthy arabs say that westerners are unclean and disgyenic

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

You can be a shitty muslim all year until Ramadan rolls around, Ramadan is a huge bonus round with BIG MONEY MULTIPLIERS on all good boy points earned during the month, so get to those Islamic deeds and use this one simple trick to gain one million levels!

 

[Carlos Thin]

Judaism doesn't have a concrete concept of heaven or hell. The sinful within the Torah who went against the instructions of God were simply annihilated from existence. Jews simply must lead a good life, else they should suffer the shame of being a bad person. Only Daniel describes an "everlasting life, or everlasting shame and contempt. " The concepts of Heaven and Hell came from the Talmud and were more than likely inventions by rabbis who weren't being taken seriously anymore. Even then they're extremely vague, and refer to a purgatory like existence. Heaven is described as being the garden of Eden.

 

[Wraith]

I'd be a hardcore Christian if we could stop this turn the other cheek crap and go back to reclaiming the holy land.

Ain't this the damn truth.
What most Christians refuse to examine, and some people who want to take advantage of Christians, is that in the New Testament, God's fine with taking people out still. It does say God never changes. So for today's interesting religious stuff, I present evidence that you're not supposed to be a pansy. You can look this up yourself, but you'll find it to be cool.

Topic - Does God orchestrate bad people to die?
1. - Jesus told his disciples to buy swords, the AR-15s of the day. Later this is confirmed when Judas the liberal shows up to sell out Christ and one of the cuts off an ear of a dude and Jesus heals the guy. The remaining 11 disciples were ready to fight (although it's written they only had two swords.) I wonder if they cleaned off the ear before Jesus healed it onto the guy. You don't want a gravelly ear.
2. - When Jesus was arrested and being questions, He openly admitted that if He called for it, He could have his servants fight, but this moment wasn't that time as that kingdom wasn't His. Why would you admit that if you're not ready to cut some heads? Jesus could never be Canadian.
3. - Book of Acts: 12, God through an angel released Peter from prison, and when it was discovered, all the guards were killed for failing to do their job in keeping him. One line says "four squads" (NJK version) were used. I"m not a Roman historian, but you can bet that's a lot of guys potentially offed, and God knew they would be punished with death when releasing Peter. When you put on the uniform of a slimy group of people running cross country causing hell, you put on all their sins too.
4. - Book of Acts: 16 - Proof of 3 is also in 4. When Paul and Silas were also in prison, an earthquake shook the prison and the cells were opened. When the jailer saw what happened, he feared the prisoners had escaped and was going to An Hero himself but Paul stopped him as all the prisoners stayed put. Why all those other guards were killed and this one spared? God knew the dude's heart. He immediately asked, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul then explained Christ to him. You have to understand Paul was also talking to a man 2,000 years ago, men who weren't the weak s.o.y boy faggot sissy cuck simp limp wristed libs of today. In verse 31 Paul said the guy would be saved, "you and your household." Why that phrase? Because the guard was a man, a real man, one that leads his household, his family. You can see the same determination in a man to lead a man's family in Joshua in the Old Testament when he goes off about he will follow the Lord and his family.
So on one side guards are expendable, on the other side, one isn't. God's not afraid to kill off scum.
5. - Book of Acts: 5 - Ananias and Sapphira got wiped out. Ananias sold some property and then only donated part of the money to the church to help out. That's 100% fine. What got him and his wife killed? They tried to play pretend by saying the part of the sale they donated was the whole part of the sale and the Holy Spirit killed them in turn. They tried to -virtue signal- 2,000 years ago and paid for it.
6. - Book of Acts 16: - (Again) with the situation where Paul and Silas were in prison, it is very likely Paul got people killed with God's permission. How? At the end of the chapter it is learned Paul is a Roman citizen. They arrested him and Silas and beat them uncondemned. What does this mean? Historically (as I was told) if you did something like this to a Roman citizen back in Rome's heyday, the entire government would come down on you for doing something like this to one person. They would likely kill you. So Paul admitting AFTER he and Silas were beaten and put in prison that they were Romans could everybody involved that had a hand in this killed with the death penalty. Paul, used Roman law, to most likely kill off those ass munches with God's permission.
7. - Book of Revelation - Yeah just Jesus coming on a white horse and wars that will happen, you can put that together.
8 & 9. - Psalms 18 & 144 - Old Testament, but God never changes. The author openly admits God teaches their hands to make war." God's not a pansy.
10. - I forget where it is, but there is a passage where God tells the Jews that the scum around where Israel is initially settled, they are partly there to train the Jews to be warriors by having to fight them. God gave them the first battle at Jericho as a display of His power, then made the Jews fight for every inch of territory because He didn't want them weak.

So what's the point of this massive Wraith text? The turn the other cheek does have validity, but you're also not supposed to be a pansy. The "meek shall inherit the earth," needs clarifying. Jesus is a warrior. He isn't weak. Reading about how violent He's going to be in the book of Revelation, yeah he's no pansy like in a South Park episode.
If you're Christian, you are God's property as you were "bought with a price," Jesus' blood. There is a time and place for a little passiveness, but don't you ever, and I mean ever let someone tear up God's property. Know wisdom so you know when to reach for that sword, that AR-15 and when you get to see that delicious color red fly from the corpses of your enemies.

Sorry I violated my own desire not to make walls of text, but @Niggernerd is damn correct. People confuse one thing with being a freaking doormat, and God never made you for the sewers. You are to be the "head and not the tail."
There's my Friday teaching for today.

 

[Niggaplease]

fun fact you can eat capybara for lent.

 

[A Grey Cat]

I was born and raised Catholic but after the pedophil scandals and all the other shifty things they did over the years (seriously that church as collaborated with everyone from Nazis to commies even their supposed enemies the turks) I left them behind and haven't looked back. I haven't embraced full o atheism though. Rather I've decided to stay true to the basic principles of Christianity. That Christ was god born on earth to redeem his own creation from sin. And will come again to judge the living and the dead.

But at the same time I'm open to other ideas about the meaning of life and the universe I've dabbled in everything from biocentrism to being occasionally Agnostic.

Frankly I guess you could say I can't stand the idea that someday I'll be dead and everything I've ever done will be rendered meaningless because it'll be like a never existed. How do atheists live like that? It's no wonder people stereotype ones like that as nigholistic jerks who can't Emphasize with people over anything but themselves.

 

[Chan Fan]

The only Pentecostal person I had a long talk with about their religion ended up not being a very good person to ask because it turned out their church was actually a cult that had teachings based on one person's books that weren't rooted in anything Biblical and were pretty much only Pentecostal in name. I asked a lot of questions and later asked how they were able to believe some of the stuff the rogue "pastor" was teaching since it had no Biblical basis they got upset and wouldn't talk about it anymore. As a religious person I was enjoying the discussion but as soon as I asked for references I could study on my own later they got weirdly aggressive and angry, unable to find any place in the Bible to back up the cult teachings

 

[Lonely Grave]

I was raised as a devout Buddhist but due to the intricacies of the Theravadan faith it was not the stereotypical Buddhist way - eating meat was okay, for example. The real contentious part of the 'faith' was that a majority of its adherents were literally doing it wrong - they treated it like 'church' and ascribed ritual and superstition to it, despite the core canon explicitly warning against it!

Buddhism was never meant to be followed as a religion. It is a philosophy centred on self-enlightenment and principles of striving, not a faith based on prayer and divinity.

 

[Salad Dodger]

A few people have mentioned Pentecostalism. Thus far, that's the most fun religious service I've attended. Hillsong (I believe Aussie in origin) have centers all over. I've checked out NYC and LA. The music was pretty good, all slick production and performance. I didn't see Justin Beiber but it was a lot of fun.

 

[Wraith]

You ever wonder why Jesus used His spit in places like Mark 7 and 8 to heal people? Jews had a belief that a male child that opened the womb had special powers in his saliva. Jesus was doing this as a sign He was the first born. Weird.

 

[Wraith]

Sometimes little details escape the modern world. Ever notice that when the 12 disciples in the New Testament are mentioned, the second Simon is said to be a Caananite. In some circles, that's a mention meaning there was possibly of a brother-skinned-color.