CynthiaWVirginia
Posts: 1915
Joined: 2/28/2010
From: West Virginia, USA
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: juliaoceania
quote:
Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.
More here
I would suck at that survey, because I am unable to retain names and dates. That doesn't mean I don't read my bible a lot as well as other books to help me understand the history of what was going on and what life was like in those days.
I left churches, except for rare occasions, and belong to no denomination. I tried out almost every one when I was in my twenties and thirties, including some others. Even that Buddhist (see, I cannot spell that and I'm too lazy at nearly 2 a.m. to look that up) one that was popular in California...where we chanted words we were never told the meaning of and was told that it was for world peace.
I have learned more from reading my bible than I have ever learned in Sunday schools and in churches. As a child, I went to anyone's church that asked me...the rest of my family stayed home. I left one church after 2 1/2 years because I kept hearing about their book and not the bible, and was told by the church leader that if I want to know more about Christ and the bible then I need to do this at home. This was a Christian church...one that has been mentioned here. :)
I've seen too much politics in churches, too many people going to be seen or to attain power. Two of the times when I had lymphoma, I was peer pressured/dragged to the front of a church for the laying on of hands...and I felt in my heart it was wrong...members were doing it for self-glory. I also know what talking in tongues IS and IS NOT from reading my bible, and the group noise that passed for this was definitely not.
When none of the chemos worked and my oncologist put me on wait and see (see catagory for f*d), my mentor put me on a massive prayer list on the internet. There was no self-glory here to people "laying on hands" but it felt more like prayer done privately, in a closet. I went into remission that time. I still don't know why I'm alive and my close friend died two Decembers ago from the same kind of lymphoma I had. I only brought this up to show what I feel is wrong in a lot of churches...the need to outdo each other and for self-glory. We are the church...not the buildings or organizations that decide which ministers are going to go where.
Their primary job is to be teachers. Most are failing in this duty. When I want to learn, I have to read by myself or with my mother...yes, we disagree a lot but even that is enjoyable. I don't really need to know the history of churches, or important people who helped define different groups...I need to read my book (so okay, I have over 6 versions) and think about the lessons it tries to teach me about how to live, history, and the mistakes of others so I can be careful not to repeat them in my own life. I have my instructions, and can refresh my memory anytime I wish. I don't need some denomination telling me how to interpret everything.
One of my old friends here in WV is a preacher. Mom decided to discuss and debate some things from the bible with her...but my preacher friend was unable to. She told both of us that she doesn't actually read the bible...but reads tracts from other ministers and is inspired. We were inspired never to attend her church. 
Around holidays, attending a church can be nice. Sometimes it just feels good to go...and other times I feel about fellow Christians in my area (and more distant family members who are fanatics and just plain wrong) like what Ghandi said. We seem to be serving two totally different Masters, but at the same time I find it hard to blame the students when the teachers aren't doing their job.
One Sunday school class I went to as an adult...the teacher was male...and...didn't...wear...his...TEETH...that day. Yeah, holy shiite. I strained hard to decipher his emphatic mumbles. The lesson that day was about death and burials and Heaven. He was against organ donation, cremation, etc., because when we rise up from the dead, if an arm is missing our new bodies won't have one. I debated with him for a while and gave up.
Another minister told my mother's group that the reason why Pharoah's army's chariot wheels came off while chasing Moses and the Israelites through the parted sea...is because God made the wheels square. Poof, they were square and not round. Mom believed this for years at the truth, because a preacher taught her this, until an aunt laughed at her and then mom looked it up to prove her sister wrong and then discovered the truth.
Mom has read her bible from start to finish several times now...so it's fun talking things over with her. We were going to bible study in her building once per week, but the church the minister was afiliated with decided to send him on the road to several states (guess they have no preachers of their own there) and left nobody in his place for about a year. He's back now, but now it's just music and singing and no real time for bible study so we don't go anymore.
People might think they've done a lot of study and learning, but if they are being taught stuff someone "inspired" decided to pass off as the real deal, then maybe they are scoring low on this survey too.
My friends have been from all religious beliefs and we all get along fine. Those whose beliefs are different from my own challenge me to understand my own better.
I would never go to a Jewish nursing home and start telling people they are going to Hell if they are not Christian. People enjoy singing and activities but resent being treated the way they are. Instead...I've gone to the activities director, found out what was needed...and as my tithe donated DVDs, big boxes of gummi bears from Sams, beading kits, whatever they told me they could use...including large print bibles that were in modern day English. Some movies were Christian made, like the movie Fireproof, but this was a small percentage of the DVDs...most were comedies, Disney, action adventure, and stuff like James Bond movies. I need to pick a new nursing home this year, especially since I found a different pawn shop in a nearby town that sells DVDs for $2, instead of the $3 - $5 I've been paying.
I may not know church history well enough to pass come Christian literacy test, but...I know who my Master is and what He wants me to do. Churches would hate the way I tithe, but...I see the money collected often going for the wrong things.
Time for bed. Night all.
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RE: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey - 
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