What're the differences between major Christian groups?

Too many to mention really, all with certain spins on the Bible or a prophet who showed them a better way. They all purport to know the truth, so I guess someone is lying or misled.

@dannyc Even those who aren’t a member of a Christian group purport to know the truth. XD

But yes.. there are far too many differences to list here.

Each Christian group is like a different bra. Every bra is different.

The Catholic supports the masses.
The Presbyterian supports the fallen.
The Lutheran keeps them staunch and upright.
The Baptist makes mountains out of molehills.

some like the pope, some don’t. some like women and gays, some don’t.

that’s pretty much it.

There are supposedly 3,000 (and I’ve heard 30,000) sects of Christianity. If you think they are all the same, try getting a devout Catholic and a devout Southern Baptist in the same room to agree on anything about religion. There is only one sect of Evelynism, as it should be.

Not sure if this is exact, but I believe that Baptists take the position that you cannot “fall from grace” once you are saved, and Methodists believe that you can. There are a lot of differences b/t these two but this is a lesser known one.

@evelyns_pet_zebra There are a lot of things that those two people would agree on. I find it hard to understand why you or anyone would say “try to get them to agree on anything”. They are both Christian religions, but interpret some parts of the Bible in different ways.

@ABoyNamedBoobs03 That’s definitely not pretty much it! Not at all.

Obviously there are major differences between these “Christian” outfits, or we would only have one or two of them around.

all of the religions have the same basic tenets…christ is the son of god and savior of mankind…the apostle’s creed probably best states the commonality amongst the mainstream christian religions. beyond that, the religions are more or less secular, recognize differing sets of texts as sacred, acknowledge differing folks as prophets, adopt differing sets of sacraments, have differing views as to how to get God’s ear. that said, the creed best states what makes a christian religion, christian.

There are differences in thinking about:
the virgin birth and the immaculate conception,
the place of Mary,
the place of baptism,
what the trinity actually means
transubstantiation,
predestination,
women in the clergy,
how non-heterosexual people are to be treated,
whether or not one should speak in tongues, or handle snakes, or celebrate holidays (or even birthdays),
how one should deal with the body sexually or with regard to using blood or using doctors
whether or not to get involved in social justice or politics and how to do that
and on and on and on.

Everyone interprets the bible differently. The word “catholic” means universal, BTW, but that was just a bit of PR on their part. There have been different sects since the religion began.

@BBSDTfamily okay, how about a Born Again Evangelical and a Jehovah’s Witness, that far enough apart for you? I’ve seen those two types of Christians go after each other like Mexican kids going after a pinata.

It isn’t just Mexican kids who bang away on pinatas! @evelyns_pet_zebra

@zendo yeah, christians and mexican kids…at worst the latter are likely a subset of the former however imperfect both may be…now evelynites…who knows

Their beliefs! Baptists don’t dance, stuff like that! I’m Baptist so can’t say much about the others!

The Catholics are different than the other Christians, the Born again Baptists and other Protestan’s think the Catholics are just awful that they pray to other people besides Jesus/God. And, the Catholics seems to undertstand that the bible is not word for word the actual words of God (or at least the average Catholic gets that). And, my Catholic friends are fine with gay marriage and understand why the seperation of church and state is important.

@JLeslie are you sure you’re not unitarian? :)

@avalmez Atheist Jew.

@JLeslie I don’t know any Catholics that believe gay marriage is okay… the Catholic church believes that sex is sacred and for reproduction (why they do not believe in birth control either) and that any act such as using a condom or having sex w/ a same sex person where you cannot potentially produce a child is wrong. At least that is how every one of them have explained it to me. Of course those are my own words not theirs, but that’s how I understood it. (I’m not Catholic)

@JLeslie I forgot something… many Catholics are just like many other religious people… they don’t exactly agree with 100% of what their church teaches. I am speaking about the Catholic church in general, not every Catholic person.

@BBSDTfamily I am not saying the Catholic church is ok with gay marriage, but all of my friends in the midwest who are catholic are fine with Gay marriage being legal. They feel like it doesn’t affect them to let other people who think it is ok to have the right to do it.

@JLeslie Gotcha. That’s what I thought you would say… I wrote you another response right below my first one. Agreed.

@BBSDTfamily Sometimes I think the Catholics need to do what the Jews did and have an Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed Catholicism so we kind of know how religious they are without having to ask. I think it would help them too, because I think they many times like to identify Catholic, but don’t go along with the chuch on a lot of things. The other Christians seem to at least put on the facade of marching along like good soldiers. But, I realize I am generalizing too much here.

@JLeslie the unitarians would readily accept an atheist jew into their community

It doesn’t cover every denomination, but this is a pretty good website for comparisons.

@JLeslie generalizing to the extent of stereotyping marching christians.

@JLeslie I agree that the Protestant Christian religions are specifically divided out and which religion someone belongs to gives you a pretty clear idea of what they believe (although there are and always will be differing degrees of religiousness in each category… even individual people change during their lifetimes). Catholics are all lumped together for the most part.

@avalmez It is an over generalization. I’m living in the bible belt right now, you have to forgive me.

@avalmez why do you want me to be a unitarian?

i don’t get this discussion about catholics versus other christian religions. i’ve never read a defense or apology for catholics versus the other christian religions. for centuries, christianity was catholicism. the differing branches of christianity were born in direct opposition to many catholic tenets. to advance the notion that catholicism is somehow more liberal than the other christian religions is just counter to history.

@JLeslie i don’t want you to be unitarian. and i do forgive you for living in the bible belt.

@avalmez but in practice in America, the Catholics seem to be more liberal than the other Christian faiths. I am not talking about unitarians, more like the Baptists, Church of God, Methodists, can’t think of more right now I am getting tired :). When it comes to politics they don’t just vote with the church—some do, but a lot don’t. Seems like the Pope cares about science, the last two agree that evolution is most likely true based on the preponderance of evidence, the Catholic church is against In-vitro fertilization and embryonic research and abortion (I am for those things) but at least they are consistent, a lot of the other Christian faiths are just fine with IVF, but if you know what is really involved it is inconsistent. When you create those embyos most of them are destined to die statistically, or they could be frozen for years, if you believe it is a soul how can you do that? I could go on, but you get what I mean.

@JLeslie Evolution doesn’t necessarily go against Christianity. The teachings of the Bible and evolution can go hand in hand. It’s when people take it to the extreme that Christians seem radical and unwilling to accept factual evidence, when that is not the case at all.

@JLeslie i get you. i still find your views interesting. especially as a methodist considerring the perspective of an atheist jew. your remarks relating to IVF w.r.t a soul make me think you’re possibly not as atheistic as you may think you are, and from my perspective, that’s not a bad thing. i’ve been there myself :)

@avalmez I interpreted @JLeslie ‘s response as she doesn’t agree about the soul starting at conception, but is saying that if the church believes it they are inconsistent if they support IVF. She said she is for those things.

@evelyns_pet_zebra Yes those two are further apart in their chief beliefs… however I am sure they could find someothing to agree on. I would give you an example if I knew very much about the two, but I do not.

@BBSDTfamily read she supports IVF, embryonic research, and choice. read she appreciates catholic church position as consistently against the same. a paradox that i read something into perhaps.

@avalmez @BBSDTfamily Right, I don’t believe the soul is at conception, I am saying IF you believe that how can you do IVF? And, I completely agree that evolution and God can go hand in hand, it’s the Christians who don’t (when I use Christian I am excluding Catholics) why is it so hard to believe that God created the universe, put everything needed for life to form there, and evolution was part of the process?

Some religions originally split over things that are no longer relevant, but they have a vested interest in keeping their possessions and leadership separate.

A long time ago, the Catholic clergy started selling ‘dispensations’ which are a form of “get out of sin free” cards, and many people protested that practice, and they followed leaders who agreed with them, forming the Protestant religion. It is this type of thing that leads to the many different denominations.

In recent times, some have actually joined with others to merge their differences.

@JLeslie not correct to state non-catholic christians do not support evolution.

@JLeslie also, again, your response makes me think you really are not as atheistic as you think.

@JLeslie Catholics aren’t the only ones… I am a non-Catholic Christian and I am the one who stated they can go hand in hand. I actually do not know any Christian that disputes proof of evolution. They dispute that purely evolution got us where we are today, but not evolution totally.

@BBSDTfamily Good, glad to know that.

@avalmez You’re wrong. Not sure where you are getting that from? I was raised an atheist, it does not even occur to me to pray to God, I don’t think there is someone up there judging people. I don’t really believe in a soul, in the sense of it going on to an afterlife. But, everyone defines God differently, maybe I do agree with your definition?

@BBSDTfamily when you say you don’t know any Christians who disputes evolution, you mean from your personal circle, right? You do know there is a bunch of Christians who completely reject the idea of evolution, some of them actually seem appalled by the idea.

@BBSDTfamily well, I’ve seen it first hand, so don’t assume I don’t know what I am talking about. Secondly, @avalmez and @Zendo, I meant nothing disparaging about Mexican children when I mentioned them banging away at pinatas. It was simply a comment to illustrate a point. I assume pinatas are Mexican (or Spanish) in origin, and it seemed like a good way to draw a mental picture. Who knew I was going to labeled in a bad light for making such a statement? Seems Political Correctness once again rears its ugly (and overly sensitive head) over an irreverant comment.

@evelyns_pet_zebra try making your comment in the middle of east L.A. and you’ll learn to appreciate PC-ness and something about reverence as well :)

@avalmez, well, I stand corrected by someone who assumes my use of words is inherently racist. Perhaps I should have instead said something about Canucks and hockey, since most Canadians are above taking the simple use of a term as offensive.

@evelyns_pet_zebra I just got accused of being racist too on another thread, people are ridiculously sensitive.

@evelyns_pet_zebra now your stereotyping Canucks and making prejudicial statements about them…peace! peace!

also, Canadians don’t have the history of racist treatment in this country that Mexicans do. i can accept that your comments did not intend to offend, but think of them as a car accident – don’t matter those involved didn’t intend to crash into each other, they did and intentions don’t count

The difference is hermeneutics i.e. the study of interpretation theory. Contemporary or modern hermeneutics encompasses not just issues involving the written text, but everything in the interpretative process. This includes verbal and nonverbal forms of communication as well as prior aspects that impact communication, such as presuppositions, preunderstandings, the meaning and philosophy of language, and semiotics. Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of sign processes, or signification and communication, signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. It includes the study of how meaning is constructed and understood. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_hermeneutics

There are several special literary aspects to look at when studying the bible, but the overarching theme is that each genre has a different set of rules that applies to it. Of the genres found in scripture, there are: narratives, histories, prophecies, apocalyptic writings, poetry, psalms and letters. In these, there are differing levels of allegory, figurative language, metaphors, similes and literal language. For instance, the apocalyptic writings and poetry have more figurative and allegorical language than does the narrative or historical writing. These must be addressed, and the genre recognized to gain a full understanding of the intended meaning. The hermeneutics of religion can be seen as another form of continental philosophical theology.

The system of hermeneutic interpretation developed by Paul Ricœur has heavily influenced the school of thought. A central theme in the hermeneutics of religion is that God exists outside the confines of the human imagination. Trajectory hermeneutics or redemptive-movement hermeneutics is a liberal teaching in postmodern Christianity that parts of the Bible can have progressive, different meanings as a culture unfolds, advances, and matures.

One teaching under this view is that homosexuality was once a sin, but has become acceptable due to cultural changes and advances in understanding of psychology and the social sciences. Proponents of trajectory hermeneutics may point to Romans 1:18–32 and explain that Paul has always been speaking to those who violate their sexual orientation, those that go against their natural desire. But a homosexual’s natural desire is for the same sex, which is now defended as natural.

@avalmez Are you Mexican? My husband is Mexican and would not care about Evelyns statement. George Lopez would say the same thing. Many Mexicans do use Pinatas at parties (my husband’s family doesn’t) but why is that even a bad thing anyway?

hermeneutics in action…

i never once claimed racism was behind the comment. i made a comment about a comment and let it run. i also never said it was a bad thing. i do think the wording is somewhat insensitive – i mean, why Mexican kids? as you mention, pinatas are commonly used throughout the US and usually the highlight of a kid’s birthday party. so, why not have left it at “bunch of kids going after a pinata”? How is the original wording not unlike the following: “like a bunch of black kids running after watermelon”? Do you kind of get it?

again, i can accept no offense was meant, but i hold to my car accident comment as well. review each of my responses and responses to my responses – i accused no one of racism. my aim was to point out unfortunate wording.

@avalmez I just don’t think anyone looks down on Mexicans because they have a tradition of Pinatas, but I understand your point. If someone said “they lifted her up in a chair like a girl at a batmitvah,” I would not get upset.

back to hermeneutics…

@mattbrowne in the context of this thread, your response seems to suggest different christian religions differ from each other based on their interpretation of scripture, correct? with respect to hermeneutics itself, it is the study of interpretation, right? not an accounting for a specific interpretation?

@JLeslie agreed and i hope i made it clear that the wording was unfortunate not the intent

@avalmez – Not only biblical hermeneutics, because in some forms of Christianity the bible is not the only source of wisdom, although it’s one of the most important ones. See the example above about trajectory hermeneutics.

The difference is they should be unified. But instead tend to be “their own team”.

@ChazMaz I always say I don’t understand why the Protestans don’t like the Catholics. Seems like their major worry is that you accept Jesus as your savior and the Catholics do. All of these little details and differences seem unimportant to me. But then, I am not a Christian.

@avalmez now you’ve gone too far. I am friends with a great many Canadians and to assume the term Canuck is racial or somehow derogatory only goes to prove you know nothing about the term Canuck or Canadians in general. If you want to accuse me of being prejudiced over one stupid little comment, well that’s your prerogative, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Once again, you show the error of the whole Politically Correct crowd and their assumption that racial terms somehow make the user insensitive. I am friends with people of all colors and races and gender identities; you want names, I can give you names. One of my best Mexican friends tells me ‘illegal alien’ jokes all the time, so you my friend, are quite wrong in your assumption about me.

You want to attack me for being insensitive, go for it, but you have no idea what my intentions are, and to assume so shows a complete lack of knowledge about how people think or what certain terms mean.

And I said nothing about black kids and watermelon. That’s a stereotype. Everyone eats watermelon. Pinatas are Mexican in origin, but I guess you just can’t see the forest for the trees.

@evelyns_pet_zebra are we both reading the same string of comments and responses? are we checking our sensitivities equally? in any case, i applaud you for the diverse crowd you hang with and that that crowd includes at least one mexican who likes to tell illegal alien jokes, all the time. i do not require names – i believe you. otherwise, i grant you the final word above.

@JLeslie i dont think protestants dislike catholics as much as there are differences between the two (as well as within each) and some of these differences are rather fundamental

for example, catholics believe in something called intercession wherein praying to a virgin or saint is a way of gaining god’s ear to hear your cause. protestants believe in praying only to god and that praying to any other entity violates god’s commandment.

catholics also believe in a set of rituals called sacraments that they believe must be observed in order for a person to get into heaven. protestants believe in a subset of these sacraments (namely baptism and communion).

catholics believe that only catholics can get into heaven. some protestant religions have a similar belief but by and large, methodists acknowledge they will have to sit next to baptists in heaven.

where i used the term catholic above i probably should have used the term catholicism as per your experience, catholics vary as to their actual beliefs and observances.

@JLeslie What Christian church are you referring to that disputes evolution all together?

@BBSDTfamily I know some of my mormon friends don’t believe in evolution, but I don;t know if all Mormons think that. My Jehovah friend was taught evolution is ridiculous. Why are there fights in courts about taking evolution out of the schools, if they believe in it? I know there are people who just want creationism and evolution taught, but there are plenty of people who want evolution out altogether. Didn’t they ask the presidential candidates during the primary if they believe in evolution and several said they don’t? Or, do I remember that wrong? Or, are you saying that they believe in evolution, just not for Human Beings? Maybe we are miscommunicating?

If I live a perfect Christian life according to your religion, but don’t accept Jesus as the son of God, I’m not going to heaven right? Or, am I wrong? If a Catholic lives their life like a really good Methodist would, does he get to go to Heaven? I am asking, I seriously don’t know the answer. I am not making an assumption here.

@JLeslie There are debates creationism/evolution. The problem Christians have with the theory of evolution is when people believe that evolution alone is how we are all in the development stage that we are today.

To answer your question, I will tell you from my own denomination (Baptist). I can’t answer for Catholic or Methodist exactly, but I am pretty sure they’d tell you the same answer. No, you will not get to Heaven just for being a “good person”. There is a lot more to Christianity than trying to be a good person.

@BBSDTfamily Does the Catholic get to go to Heaven? It is sooo hard for me to wrap my brain around it, that being good is not good enough.

I don’t think that the message that Baptists believe in any part of human evolution is out there for us non-christians, it seems the opposite. So, I don’t mean I don’t believe you, I do, I am just communicating that it doesn’t seem that way. Do you think Creationism should be taught in schools?

The catholic believes that he does.

the protestants believes that they do but most would say the catholic doesn’t for reasons described in my prior response above.

seventh day Adventists hope to be among the 200,000 chosen by god at judgment day.

the mormon lives to live another day (reincarnation, though they won’t call it that) until he becomes a jesus of some planet in the universe.

thing is, christians like jews have their own beliefs but nobody knows. does the orthodox jew believe reform jews are practicing true judaism? do all jews believe gentile
convert are legitimate jews?

faith and belief is in the mind and heart of the practitioner.

But the Jew doesn’t believe the Christian is wrong and needs saving. All good people can go to heaven.

@JLeslie The reason that being good is not good enough is because God calls Christians to follow him, trust him, and believe in him. Being good isn’t what gets you into Heaven by Baptist standards (and many of the Christian denomination’s standards). A lot of atheists believe that being good is what it’s all about for Christians, that’s what turns some of them off to Christianity when they see “hypocrites” because obviously Christians are not perfect and so they assume that even Chrisitans don’t take it seriously. Being a good person without any thought of God does not bring glory to Him; God gives guidelines on how to live and the purpose of living His way is to honor Him. Being good just because you want to be good, but not believing in God, is completely different. The actions are the same, the reasons are different.

@JLeslie after seeing the sort of Christians I have in this life, Heaven seems more like Hell to me. Oblivion sounds sooooo much better.

Most people who claim to be Christian aren’t. How could they be, acting the way they do?

@Zendo Apparently you don’t know much about Christianity.

@BBSDTfamily LOL…right

@Zendo If you really think that you can judge that someone is not really Christian by the way they act, you don’t know what you’re talking about. It just doesn’t make sense. Especially when you say “most”. You are giving yourself too much credit here… you don’t know as much about it as you think you do and who are you to say you know what most Christians believe? Chrisitanity is first and foremost about your beliefs, not actions.

@BBSDTfamily i would submit that christianity is first and foremost about your christ like actions, in concert with your christian beliefs.

@avalmez Actions play a big role, but beliefs are what you have to have hands down. The correct actions are what you strive for, but even the Bible says that everyone falls short. God doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He does expect us to believe in him.

@BBSDTfamily sorry, but actions speak louder than words. words are professions, actions are effective.

@avalmez Nobody mentioned words…. not sure where that came from. I said beliefs.

beliefs are words…professions…you know?

@avalmez No they aren’t, they are beliefs. You can believe something without ever saying it out loud. In my Christian religion, we leave it up to God alone to judge what is in our hearts and see that we strive to do what is right daily. But like I said, even the Bible says that we all fall short… nobody in the world today is perfect, and that does not keep you from being a Christian.

In my Christian religion, we leave it up to God alone to judge what is in our hearts and see that we strive to do what is right daily.

Leave it up to God to judge what is in our hearts (profess) and see that we strive to do (act) is what is right daily

i think we agree

@avalmez I think we do too on most things, except for the part that I said earlier about not being able to judge a Christian solely by his actions as @Zendo claims. If you decide that a person is not a Christian because they make a bad choice, then you are 1. making a false assumption and 2. making a judgement which is not yours to make. This is where you chimed in and started debating me, so I can only assume that you didn’t agree with what I said. Actions are a big part of Christianity which I already said, but belief is a bigger part. You have to have the beliefs, but you don’t have to have perfect actions… you just have to truly do your best. Nobody has perfect actions anyway.

@BBSDTfamily we do agree. no one is perfect, christian or not alike. but, christians have to be christian, not just profess to be christian. and i think it’s a good thing that non-christians hold christians to a higher standard. it’s a strange thing for me to write as i am a person raised as a christian who doesn’t quite get what it means to be christian as an adult fully.

@avalmez Right, but my point is that if someone is judged as non-Christian just because they sin, that is a ridiculous conclusion. I do not interpret comments such as Zendo’s as “holding Christians to a higher standard”. I see it as false knowledge of the Christian faith, trying to tear down the faith and the person, and passing judgement that is not theirs to pass.

ok…i get you

@BBSDTfamily – I think you pointed out a very important thing: ‘nobody in the world today is perfect’. In Christian belief God accepts us with our imperfection and this eases any burden related to a sense of indebtedness.

I think most Christians are fine with the idea that there are different people with different beliefs, but sometimes it feels like Christians think they are the only ones who are right and want to push it on everyone. I know that Christians want people to come to their faith, because they feel it will be good for that person, it is not out of malice or disrespect, but caring.

Imagine the country was 75% Jewish (it is 2.5% now) and there were stars of David everywhere, huge big ones that can be seen from the highway, on billboards, and the majority of the country does not believe Jesus is the son of God, most of your childrens friends barely realize Christmas is Dec 25th, there is rumblings now and again to get prayer into schools. I don’t think most Christians think about the minority position, but maybe I am wrong.

@BBSDTfamily “Chrisitanity is first and foremost about your beliefs, not actions.”

It’s Christianity. And Christianity is first and foremost your actions.

“If you really think that you can judge that someone is not really Christian by the way they act, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

It is always easiest to see a phony by how they act. Anyone can tell lies or be a hypocrite, but actions speak louder than words.

@Zendo Yes actions speak louder than words, but don’t assume that you know someone’s thoughts and feelings by observing them. You are in no position to make that judgement. And no again, Christianity is not first and foremost about actions. You do not have to have perfect actions to get to be a Christian, so it’s an absurd assumption to make that someone is not a Christian just because they slip up and sin. Actions are a huge part of it, but not so huge that you can just check that person off as a non-christian just because you see them do something wrong.

@JLeslie Because Christians celebrate their faith you take it as them not thinking about the minority position? You’re exactly right that many Christians think they are the only ones that are right… some people think that only their particular denomination is right, some people think only Protestant Christianity is right, some people think only Catholicism is right, and some just agree that as long as you’ve got the basics you’re fine. Of course they think they are the only ones who are right if that is what their religion teaches… just depends which particular religion they are in.

@BBSDTfamily but not all religions think they are the only ones who are right. No, I have no problem with Christians celebrating their religion, but I do find it odd to have a cross that is 10 stories high at the side of the highway. For me religion is personal, makes me think of family, community, and friends, not commercialized and shouted from the rafters.

I love the Christmas decorations and easter candy. I don’t mind the nativity scenes and that the news reports when the president goes to church. If someone says Merry Christmas to me, I say it back. I am not trying to squash all expressions of religion. All I was saying was I think a lot of times Christians do not take a moment to think about the minority position, One day they might be the minority.

Take things like prayer in school. I have debated with a couple about this (I am not talking about Fluther members, I am talking about people who are hell bent on prayer in school, and they do not mean giving students time and space to pray when their own religion dictates it, they are talking about a prayer in the morning, in home room, that type of thing, tend to think non-christians are less moral, etc., I am not lumping all Christians together, so please don’t you do the same, be willing to admit there are Christians in our country who are very narrow minded and firmly believe that America is a Christian nation, rather than a country who’s majority is Christian, some of them are very vocal) and when I ask, “what if America was 80% Moslem, would you feel ok with empowering teachers to lead a prayer?” They say, “I would never live in a Moslem country.” They don’t even get the question. How lucky they are to be part of the majority. I am very proud to live in a country that was founded on religious freedom, my father referred to America as paradise when I was growing up for this very reason.

@JLeslie I do get your point and agree with you about mandatory prayer in school. I don’t see how having mandatory prayer is going to bring anyone to Christianity, but I think the reason some people are demanding that it is back in schools is just b/c they don’t like that the government took it away, and they feel like their rights are being stripped away one by one. I get what you’re saying though, just trying to explain what their mind set may be. Don’t know for sure b/c it’s not mine.

For many Christians religion is personal, makes them think of family, etc. too but that’s not where it stops. I don’t believe shoving religion down someone’s throat will make them turn to God; probably the opposite actually. It’s the wrong approach, but try to look at non-christians from a Christian’s perspective for a second… Suppose you are a Christian who firmly believes that if someone is not saved in the sense of their religion they will go to Hell when they die. Suppose you believe this, and you see people everyday who do not believe this or just dismiss it’s importance w/o a second thought of whether to believe it or not. Not trying to tell them about Christianity would be like not telling them that a bus is about to run them over. It’s that important and real to a Christian, that is why some of the ones who care about other people so much get so emotionally involved and go to extremes to try to turn these people’s lives around. It’s not that they don’t think about the minority, it’s that they truly believe something terrible is going to happen to them, and they do care for them.

@BBSDTfamily I do understand why they are trying to convert, that is why I wrote above, “I know that Christians want people to come to their faith, because they feel it will be good for that person, it is not out of malice or disrespect, but caring.” It seems to me like there is a conflict, you have to be willing to put yourself in the other persons shoes – golden rule.

I appreciate what you said about prayer in school. I never had prayer in school, so I don’t perceive it as being taken away. I guess maybe the gov’t stepped in and got rid of it in some of the states that were doing it? Maybe there was a court case? I have no idea, that would be interesting. It seems under separation of church and state it would be obvious not to have state led prayer in schools. I guess you are saying that people equate this erosion of God and religion as part of the contributer to some bad behavior we are seeing in our country. I too worry about, childrens health and safety, the breakdown of the family, integrity, being responible etc. What I know is that you can be all of these things without believing in God. What if the statistics say atheists have the same rate of divorce, same rate of teenage pregnancy, same rate of high school drop-outs (I have heard these stats are actually better among atheists, but I have no idea if that is really true) as Christians, the black and white won’t even matter to Christians from what I can tell, from the perspective of having a productive and loving society, they will continue to think that if everyone was Christian it would be better even if there is proof that it makes no difference. In this case it is not about them saving souls, I am talking about today, society, here on earth. I am in no way saying it is better to be an atheist, all I care about is behavior, I don’t care how you get there.

I have heard that Christians feel people are against them now, almost feel persecuted, well I wish they didn’t feel that way, but I can undertsand why they might. The thing is from my perspective it is a backlash towards them, kind of like “they started it” but I hate to word it in that childish way. In politics/media Christians imply all of the time that liberals and people who are not religious have no morals, no family values, and are ruining the country. So then we start pointing out all of the hypocrisy, all of the people who claim to be Christians and are doing less than Christianlike things. I think this is awful, I wish it would all stop.