Please help. Really struggling.

seven-day-weekend

Errata wrote: »

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

http://www.watchman.org/occult/samhain.htm

Celebrating All Saints Day is not the same as celebrating Halloween, with with its worship of the dead and celebrating witchcraft which have their roots in the occult pagan festival of Samhain.

(The dates of Christmas and Easter arise from Pagan Festivals too, and some Christians do not celebrate these either).

Reams

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

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!

I didn't talk to them, I told them what I thought of them. You have completely glossed over what a true Christian would have done in the circumstances, which would have been to help me!

Do I care how many they recruit? No. Do I care whether they reach the kingdom of God? No. What a load of nonsense.

I was brought up on this mumbo jumbo in the Catholic church and in a Convent. Believe me, when you've had the blunt end of scissors thrust into your back because, "God gave you fingers to press a seam" it kind of makes you rebel.

seven-day-weekend

Did they know you needed any help? If they did then I agree they should have offered.

Please do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because some who profess to be Christians do not behave properly, doesn't mean the whole thing is nonsense.

(BTW, I am not and never have been a Jehovah's Witness. Neither have I ever been a Catholic or C of E. I was brought up as an atheist and am now a member of an independent Church).

Reams

Billie-S wrote: »

Thank you SDW. You're so sweet.

As for your first point. I have experienced quite a few people like this; people who bully someone into submission (or try to.) Why do they do this? If someone says something that I disagree with, I just say 'let's agree to differ' as I believe that people are entitled to their own views.

But on occasions, when I have said that, they say but WHY do you believe this and that and WHY do you think that? Ummm, I don't think I have to explain why I believe or think what I do.

A little while back, I said to someone when we were talking about something, 'I guess nobody knows for sure,' in a 'let's agree to disagree' kind of way, and she said ' But I DO know for sure, and what you're saying is rubbish.' I actually just shook my head and walked away from her. I can tell you that I wasn't thinking very Christian thoughts right at that moment. :rotfl:

Seriously though, it's OK to believe and it's OK to not believe, but nobody should be bullied and intimidated into explaining their beliefs and why they believe them, (or explaining why they don't believe.)

Thanks again

I think you, SDW and a couple of others here deserve one another. So why not go off and create a Bible class of your own?

Reams

Billie-S wrote: »

LOL, loving these posts. Thank you so much

I agree Pauline that Archergirls's post is fab!

Journalist?

wik

I have just read this thread, and wanted to comment...20 Years ago I was a member of Church Of Scotland, Having moved to Scotland and married in the church there.
I hadnt really been to church much before that - just weddings funerals etc.
I enjoyed going to the services, and there was a very pleasant congragation, and we had an amazing minister, who since we were in a farming community didnt mind if we missed a few weeks between attendence. He said that God knew where all his flock was, and if that meant tending thier own flock so be it (Oh and he was also very kind to ALL his congregation - including several same sex couples who were regulars.)

It was a very sad day when he retired I went to church the sunday after 9/11 and that was apart from a couple of weddings and rememeberance day was the last time.. The new minister stood there and said it was Gods Will that all those people had died...

On the note of homosexuality and things like occult, paganism etc... Well its only some (supposidly) ancient writings that say these are wrong!

I did have to giggle earlier - my cousin who is an initiated witch said that she was going to a cousins wedding today (in a catholic church) and should she be nawty and wear her pentacle I of course had to encourage her :A

cazpumpkin

Ok lets re write the Bible.........Once upon a time there was a Rainbow, Pink fluffy bunnies and golden unicorns and everyone was happy and lived blessed lives . The End. There..............dont trouble yourselves with crucfying the flesh or worrying about living in end times. Those that want to live worldly lives can carry on regardless ......Meanwhile the rest of us can carry on trying to pick up that heavy cross and follow Christ.

meritaten

I don't have a bluddy clue what the hell you are on about cazpumkin! almost everything you say you question - could that be because it is so archaic?
what branch of 'christianity' are you allied with?

cazpumpkin

meritaten wrote: »

I don't have a bluddy clue what the hell you are on about cazpumkin! almost everything you say you question - could that be because it is so archaic?
what branch of 'christianity' are you allied with?

I don't understand a word of this either

edited to add I practise mainstream Christianity such as practised in the Anglican church , based upon the Trinity & The Bible.

MrSmartprice

I have just returned from holiday (2 weeks on a ship built by professionals;)) and have been amazed at the bigoted drivel some people are prepared to post on the subject of religion, even by MSE standards!

I find it incredible that people who promote one form of superstition (religion, 'god') are prepared to pontificate that people should not get involved in any other branch of what is essentially the same thing, such as tarot, astrology, etc. To state that people should not be involved in predicting the future is pretty hypocritical when that is exactly what the christians are doing by predicting the myth of a future heaven/afterlife.

When you factor in ideas like that we should be hating what homosexuals do, it is clear that christianity turns some people into brainwashed zealots with truly horrible traits. One of them is the po-faced expectancy that people should live their lives in a particular way. That seems to be the point of this thread; the OP was effectively bullied by the judgemental mob (of so-called 'christians') who always think they know best when it comes to the preferred methods of bowing, scraping and grovelling.

I am so glad my life is not controlled by this bunkum and that I retain free will.