Please help. Really struggling.

purple.sarah

I am also struggling with my faith. My family are Atheists so I wasn't raised with religion but when I was 18 I started attending church with my boyfriend at the time and his family and was baptised Catholic. I didn't do it for him but because I was drawn to the religion and the church community. After that relationship ended I continued to attend church but drifted away when I was 20 and suffered a miscarriage because I was grieving and I felt very angry at God for allowing it to happen. I no longer feel that way but what has prevented me from returning is my concern about the attitude of the wider Church, particularly to homosexuality. I found my local church to be very welcoming and loving and I used to think I could support them and follow the principles I did believe in, while avoiding the ones I didn't but now I worry that would be hypocritical. I'm also married to a non believer.

I was sad at Halloween to see some of my Christian Facebook friends saying Christians should not take part in Halloween. I enjoy Halloween, having fun with friends and handing out sweets to local children. I don't celebrate it in a pagan way but some people were saying Christians shouldn't celebrate Halloween at all. I just wish people who are judgmental could see it is this attitude that is scaring people away from Christianity.

There are no simple solutions. You could try looking into other churches that are more open minded. I have heard about Unitarian Universalism, which is apparently based on Christian principles but embraces diversity. I don't know much about it but that might be something to look into. I'm sorry I don't know the answer but I wanted you to know you are not alone in struggling with this issue.

seven-day-weekend

purple.sarah wrote: »

I am also struggling with my faith. My family are Atheists so I wasn't raised with religion but when I was 18 I started attending church with my boyfriend at the time and his family and was baptised Catholic. I didn't do it for him but because I was drawn to the religion and the church community. After that relationship ended I continued to attend church but drifted away when I was 20 and suffered a miscarriage because I was grieving and I felt very angry at God for allowing it to happen. I no longer feel that way but what has prevented me from returning is my concern about the attitude of the wider Church, particularly to homosexuality. I found my local church to be very welcoming and loving and I used to think I could support them and follow the principles I did believe in, while avoiding the ones I didn't but now I worry that would be hypocritical. I'm also married to a non believer.

I was sad at Halloween to see some of my Christian Facebook friends saying Christians should not take part in Halloween. I enjoy Halloween, having fun with friends and handing out sweets to local children. I don't celebrate it in a pagan way but some people were saying Christians shouldn't celebrate Halloween at all. I just wish people who are judgmental could see it is this attitude that is scaring people away from Christianity.

There are no simple solutions. You could try looking into other churches that are more open minded. I have heard about Unitarian Universalism, which is apparently based on Christian principles but embraces diversity. I don't know much about it but that might be something to look into. I'm sorry I don't know the answer but I wanted you to know you are not alone in struggling with this issue.

If you just want Christian principles then this church might be for you, but if you want to follow Christ as Lord then I think he is noticeable by his absence in this belief system.

Depends upon what you want.

(I also was brought up as an atheist and am now a believer in Christ).

Reams

Tiglath wrote: »

Some are nice, as with any group. They tend to be the quiet ones who'd rather walk their talk, and serve people.

Your post is to me is how a Christian should be Tiglath.

Not knocking doors to convert others or attending Mass every Sunday. Instead doing good deeds that are sometimes inconvenient.
Helping a neighbour, taking a collecting tin out in the November cold and rain, sorting through dirty clothes for a charity shop. Taking a 13 year old Cousin into the family as in another thread is Christian like to the extreme!

Aargh! Reminds me. Two men knocked my door a few weeks ago when I was suffering an injury. I shouted through an open window that I was on my way.
Took me an age to hobble to the front door in pain, only to find they were selling their religion. Had they been what I class as true Christians, they would have then asked if I needed something from the corner shop or something, but no, they'd rather have gained a convert.

When one said, "This is what Jesus did", all my pain and frustration let rip I'm afraid.

OP, could you possibly select the least fervent from the meetings and invite them for coffee at your home? Take it in turns, as I assume you find comfort in like minded people.

Deeds, not words, as Tiglath said.

Reams

Gigglepig wrote: »

Good grief, I didn't think hate was something Christians aspired to

The very word was banned from my childhood as apparently it meant "condemning to Hell"

Reams

Torry_Quine wrote: »

The Christian belief that this church and I follow believes that all sexual activity outwith a heterosexual marriage is wrong.

Oh my word Torry Quine, even your language is taking on a Biblical stance of its own.

Reams

Tropez wrote: »

This is a serious question but you probably won't like it...

Why for your first post on a Moneysaving in Marriages, Relationships and Families forum would you post about something quite so controversial and often inflammatory as religious beliefs?

Given that anybody who spends more than a week or two on this forum sees how these threads tend to go (I've already seen a few things I vehemently disagree with but just can't be bothered to argue about at the moment) it seems to me that it is such a bizarre place to make this enquiry?

Surely one of the many religious forums out there would be more appropriate or if it must be on MSE then the Discussion Time forum?

One thing that did surprise me is a Bible reader never having heard of "Yoked"

seven-day-weekend

Reams wrote: »

Your post is to me is how a Christian should be Tiglath.

Not knocking doors to convert others or attending Mass every Sunday. Instead doing good deeds that are sometimes inconvenient.
Helping a neighbour, taking a collecting tin out in the November cold and rain, sorting through dirty clothes for a charity shop. Taking a 13 year old Cousin into the family as in another thread is Christian like to the extreme!

Aargh! Reminds me. Two men knocked my door a few weeks ago when I was suffering an injury. I shouted through an open window that I was on my way.
Took me an age to hobble to the front door in pain, only to find they were selling their religion. Had they been what I class as true Christians, they would have then asked if I needed something from the corner shop or something, but no, they'd rather have gained a convert.

When one said, "This is what Jesus did", all my pain and frustration let rip I'm afraid.

OP, could you possibly select the least fervent from the meetings and invite them for coffee at your home? Take it in turns, as I assume you find comfort in like minded people.

Deeds, not words, as Tiglath said.

Whilst I absolutely agree with you that Christians should walk the walk as well as talking the talk, please be aware that if JWs do not knock on enough doors then they are disciplined, or maybe even excommunicated, by the Watchtower Society. And put yourself in their shoes, if you were a religious person who believed that to be outside the Watchtower was to be eternally excluded from God's Kingdom, then you would knock on the doors too.

Walk the walk, I agree, but walk in other's shoes as well.

However, you don't need to stand at the door talking to them if you don't want to!

Reams

Torry_Quine wrote: »

I certainly wouldn't call someone not a Christian as 'walking with the devil'! :eek: Religion can be abused as can many other things.

I must admit that I do strongly believe that no Christian should read horoscopes, tarot cards or anything related and am surprised at any church that doesn't teach that.

Halloween? Guy Fawkes?

seven-day-weekend

Reams wrote: »

Halloween? Guy Fawkes?

Short answer: Halloween, connected with the occult, so no, Christians should not take part. Guy Fawkes, is a political thing and there is nothing to stop a Christian joining in with it if they wish.

Errata

Halloween is the evening before All Hallows Day when chrisitans remember the dead. Nothing occult about that.