Church Woes

I went to church today for the first time in a few years (I may have attended other Easters, I don't remember) and I was not exactly impressed. I started noticing the hypocrisy more and more. And I know Christians are fond of the whole "Seeing hypocrites at a church is like seeing out-of-shape people at a gym," but it's more like meeting your new personal trainer, and they're really unhealthy, however that looks for them. There's one member who if there's an -ism or -phobia associated with it, he's on the wrong side of it. Yeah, they went and made him a deacon. They all just pick and choose which bits of scripture are literal and which are just metaphorical. Like helping the poor? Well, they mean the poor in spirit, which means I just have to spread Jesus, not actually materially help them. And there's no idea that the concept of capitalism as we know it was not even conceived of during the time of the Biblical stories. Or a good chunk of the church's history. They're worshipping a god they made up that is only tangentially related to the Bible. I almost wish I could go back to not seeing this, but that is no longer an option. It's just sad becoming disillusioned with something that was a huge part of my life for so long.

19 comments

Didn't have to kill the pope about it imo
- These protestant evangelical shits pissed me off so much I killed the leader of a different-yet-related religion! (joking)
- not like there's a wrong time to kill a pope either.

One time as a kid I noticed they were selling tickets to a raffle in the foyer of the church and I couldn't get over it. The moneylenders Jesus drove off are such ambiguous figures because there's no context in the book it's just 'people selling things at the temple is bad,' so I learned the context and it made modern Christianity seem even less like what Jesus would have wanted. To make a sacrifice at the temple you needed a live animal offering, people living in cities or non-pastoral lives didn't have as easy access to livestock so they had to buy them. Often they did not have the money upfront so the moneylenders would sit outside the temple doing nothing but giving people (often usurious) loans for them to buy animals that they immediately burned. Rentseeking off of the functions of the religion is the only thing that makes Jesus turn to violence (aside from a fig tree being out of season one time)
- I went to catholic school, affiliated with a local church. There was a mother of some kids who was the “good upstanding Catholic woman”…really involved in the goings on with school and church. One day there was a car that had broken down at a set of traffic lights and this supposedly perfect example of a kind and caring Catholic was beeping her horn and making pissed off hand gestures at some poor guy who was just trying to start his car after it dying at a light that had only just turned green. Pretty much did it for me.
- (aside from a fig tree being out of season one time)
  God hates figs!

They're worshipping a god they made up that is only tangentially related to the Bible
i've seen the bible you don't want them to be the other way either.

they love to forget about this one

jesus is cool but christians are sick little perverts???
- Many such cases, it's pretty sad actually

I have been to Church exactly one time. My grandmother was catholic and she took us to easter service at a really beautiful cathedral in Mexico (we used to go every year for easter when I was a teen) it was all in Latin and the cathedral was pretty impressive but it was boring as fuck.
I was much more interested in the fireworks shop around the corner that simply had a cardboard sign over the door with sharpie writing on it that said "M9000 Terrorist Toys Sold Here!"
Yes I bought one and yes my dad and I made a crater the size of a volkswagon on the beach that night.
That thing was not a fire cracker that was like a quarter stick of dynamite. Mexico is wild. Also people go crazy with the fireworks on easter down there. Makes 4th of July in the US look like a bunch of kids with sparklers.
Here's just a small example lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6yE2yrPzSs
- I have been to Church exactly one time.
  I envy you. I was raised in a christian cult
- I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
  yewtu.be
  inv.nadeko.net
  yt.artemislena.eu
  piped.video

Christians give the most pathetic excuses when confronted with what's actually in the bible. All of them. The cognitive dissonance drives me nuts every time.

gosh danged superstructure amirite

Grew up as a non denomination christian cultist but found it easy to break away from all the nonsense from the hypocrisy I saw.
As far as capitalism is concerned jesus said that it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than a rich person enter heaven. It seems as if this is easily ignored or twisted by mental gymnastics to not apply in this day or age. These people are deluded, it's not even worth trying to understand their beliefs as they've been twisted through the millenia

if you don't like a church, you can go church shopping and check out other ones.
- If you like your church, you can keep it

Yeah. I'm not a huge fan of church shopping but sometimes you really do have to cut them loose and nail your theses to the door. I will say you can generally find socially progressive, even openly socialist congregations in most mainline churches.
The poor in spirit line is definitely cope, albeit cope that started in the relatively wealthy community that wrote Matthew.

19 comments