For those who weren't aware I was in fact a preachers kid, or a better known term a PK, I grew up my entire life in the church, the United Methodist Church to be specific. While I was growing up, my parents taught me how to speak about religion and Christianity intellectually, making sure I knew what I was talking about when I was referencing the Bible, or talking about different aspects of Christianity. It goes on to say that if you know me at all you know that I have strong opinions about not only the Christian Church but all of organized religion in general. I don't advocate towards blindly going to church and not really understanding or caring what the meaning is behind why you are going. I also don't really enjoy hearing older people who go to conferences or discussions about religion quoting every piece of literature that they have found about the Bible, Christianity, or theology in general. In fact that actually annoys me more then blind faith. It's not that I don't like those who like to fully understand what it is they are believing, I just don't like when it is all of the pious crap, trying to show off that they have read the Bible.
Here is my opinion, there is a difference between reading the Bible, studying the various theologies of Christianity and reading different literary works on Jesus. But if you are doing this all so that you can have dialogue, and then on top of that you aren't really acting like a true Christian, then I don't really want to argue your Bullshit research. Because theological discourse is not necessarily about being able to argue biblical context intellectually. No, you need to be following what the Bible is actually teaching. Pious Jesus talk is not necessarily making you a good christian, just because you go to church every Sunday, and you think you have a "relationship" or a "love" for Jesus, doesn't make you a Christian, when you are walking around judging others, and not really taking the time to engage your fellow man.
This ranting on my religious annoyances comes out of a day and a half conference that I attended called "Let Love Rule," essentially where we spent the whole time discussing or rather listening about how the monastics would say we should live with love. The problem was not the content for me, I loved the speaker, she made many great points, it was the audience that was participating in the discussion. First of all the conference was held in possibly the richest part of New Orleans, secondly the audience was for the most part elderly people, or those who consider themselves to be holy church going folks. Basically what I am getting at was that the content didn't resonate with the audience like it would if for example this conference was being held in a lower-income area, or maybe with a more youthful vibe. I am 90% sure that our group of LWP folks and the Presbyterian Young Adult Service group were the youngest attending the conference. To me, the whole idea of the conference was a waste of time, because we essentially spent 5 hours listening to older people showing off how much they thought they knew about the Bible and the original church fathers. I was fighting my inner preachers kid the entire time to not pull out a Bible and have those making the pious claims, to prove themselves.
Well anyway, I think I have ranted enough about my annoyances with Christianity on the pious level,
Peace.
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