It was in a letter of 1897, about his cousin James Ross Clemens, that Mark Twain famously noted that "the report of my death was an exaggeration." He...
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the evangelical church has almost become a cult full of lists of to don't. everything seems to be a sin and everything is judged. they appear to open their doors to the "lost" but if you don't "reform" to look and act just like them losing your entire personality in the process then you must not be "saved" and therefore need to be "de-demonized". Satan is around every cornor and constantly trying to get to you. It's "them" against the "outside" world. I actually had the church and it's leaders tell me that all my family problems were due to my rebellious 13 year old and I needed to "kick him out of the family". When I asked for biblical backup scriptures for that I didn't get any and was told that I had a problem with authority. We left that church and to this day my son, now 22 has trouble spritually. He was not into drugs, or anything illegal. He was not a bad 13 yr old. Just a normal rebellious 13 yr old that didn't want to listen to his mom and I am a single mom. When I tried to start a program and asked to and used a particular church as an example that has one in place that screens their men carefully makes them commit to a year and they mentor fatherless kids from broken homes or homes where the father died or something. The paster responded to me with "go join that church then" He totally missed an opportunity to minister to the countless kids in need in his own congrgation. How sad. My son is a wonderful dad and husband and the best kid I got. Very much a mama's boy in the way that he always checks on me and makes sure I have what I need. I keep praying that he will return to his upbringing and depend on the Lord again. It was the only church he knew that we all went to as a family but he was also raised in a Christian school and exposed to wonderful Christian people in his lifetime. Unfortuately the majoraty of his exposure memories are the dozens who call themselves "christians" who don't have any clue how to be a true deciple of Christ and therefore give it a bad name that turns him off. There are millions of hypocrites in this world but when you say you are a "Christian" and you are a hyprocrite satan lets the whole world know it and it gives us all a bad name. It is those who quietly practice and don't make all the noise that bring on the true converts and no critisim.
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Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith by Diana Butler Bass
nanamarcy, March 17, 2008
the evangelical church has almost become a cult full of lists of to don't. everything seems to be a sin and everything is judged. they appear to open their doors to the "lost" but if you don't "reform" to look and act just like them losing your entire personality in the process then you must not be "saved" and therefore need to be "de-demonized". Satan is around every cornor and constantly trying to get to you. It's "them" against the "outside" world. I actually had the church and it's leaders tell me that all my family problems were due to my rebellious 13 year old and I needed to "kick him out of the family". When I asked for biblical backup scriptures for that I didn't get any and was told that I had a problem with authority. We left that church and to this day my son, now 22 has trouble spritually. He was not into drugs, or anything illegal. He was not a bad 13 yr old. Just a normal rebellious 13 yr old that didn't want to listen to his mom and I am a single mom. When I tried to start a program and asked to and used a particular church as an example that has one in place that screens their men carefully makes them commit to a year and they mentor fatherless kids from broken homes or homes where the father died or something. The paster responded to me with "go join that church then" He totally missed an opportunity to minister to the countless kids in need in his own congrgation. How sad. My son is a wonderful dad and husband and the best kid I got. Very much a mama's boy in the way that he always checks on me and makes sure I have what I need. I keep praying that he will return to his upbringing and depend on the Lord again. It was the only church he knew that we all went to as a family but he was also raised in a Christian school and exposed to wonderful Christian people in his lifetime. Unfortuately the majoraty of his exposure memories are the dozens who call themselves "christians" who don't have any clue how to be a true deciple of Christ and therefore give it a bad name that turns him off. There are millions of hypocrites in this world but when you say you are a "Christian" and you are a hyprocrite satan lets the whole world know it and it gives us all a bad name. It is those who quietly practice and don't make all the noise that bring on the true converts and no critisim.(5 of 14 readers found this comment helpful)