Please help. Really struggling.

Billie-S

Torry_Quine wrote: »

Being a Christian is hard though but we are all only human and not perfect.

I know.

Thanks Torry. I do respect your views and understand why you think as you do.

shegirl

Torry_Quine wrote: »

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

How nice for you.In your earlier post you mentioned they shouldn't hate them but hate what they do!Despicable!!!!

Hate?Really?Why does it bother you and why do you even think about it?It harms nobody.

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.

Horoscopes and tarot cards?A bit of made up fun.Jeez!!!!What is so 'bad' about it exactly?

Op,I'm not religious (certain people make me grateful and proud of that fact!!!) but it certainly sounds a tad evangelical and I'd look for a simple church that suits.

Torry_Quine

balletshoes wrote: »

just out of interest, why do you strongly believe that? As I've said already on this thread, all this "thou shalt not read horoscopes" stuff is new to me, having grown up in the protestant church.

Most Evangelical churches are protestant and like you I was brought up in the CofS and horpscopes were very much frowned upon.

We are told as Christians not to try and look into what the future holds.

balletshoes wrote: »

yes, those are my impressions from my old church, I thought that was what happened in most churches (although I knew the service was a bit longer in the Catholic church so there must have been a bit more to it in theirs ).
Threads like these always make me realise how different people's ideas and experiences of church can be - and also makes me think that none of it can be all right or all wrong, so we really can't be judgemental about those experiences on behalf of others.

Christianity should in my opinion be far more than a service once a week though.

shegirl wrote: »

How nice for you.In your earlier post you mentioned they shouldn't hate them but hate what they do!Despicable!!!!

Hate?Really?Why does it bother you and why do you even think about it?It harms nobody.



Horoscopes and tarot cards?A bit of made up fun.Jeez!!!!What is so 'bad' about it exactly?

Op,I'm not religious (certain people make me grateful and proud of that fact!!!) but it certainly sounds a tad evangelical and I'd look for a simple church that suits.

Really you think it despicable for me to be opposed to something which is against the teachings of my church.

I think some may disagree with you as to tarot and horoscopes being made up fun.

As I've answered the OPs questions I don't need to say anymore here.

shegirl

Torry_Quine wrote: »

Most Evangelical churches are protestant and like you I was brought up in the CofS and horpscopes were very much frowned upon.

We are told as Christians not to try and look into what the future holds.



Christianity should in my opinion be far more than a service once a week though.



Really you think it despicable for me to be opposed to something which is against the teachings of my church.

I think some may disagree with you as to tarot and horoscopes being made up fun.

As I've answered the OPs questions I don't need to say anymore here.

Yes.I think it is despicable to hate something that will never concern you and causes no harm.

I also think it's despicable for anyone who claims to be a believer in God,someone who people naturally assume to have morals and compassion for others,kind,to hate anybody or things they do that they know nothing of,due to them NATURALLY being 'different'.

I also think it's despicable to judge and want to condemn anyone to a life without the intimacy of a sexual relationship.

Errata

I think some may disagree with you as to tarot and horoscopes being made up fun.

Not me. A relative of mine worked as a journalist on a very popular womans weekly magazine. It had ten years worth of horoscopes on file and at the end of each ten years it simply printed them all over again.

KnightSmile

I was bought up a catholic and attended catholic schools but never believed in religion, but i respect people who get comfort from it.

In my experience the people who worried or preached hate about homosexuality tended to end up being exposed or suspected of being closet cases....

Live and let live.

Practise your religion and have your views but what is it with some 'religious' people's obsession with others sexual preferences? There is nothing wrong with being gay, bi, trans, straight- whatever!

always seems strange when people focus on this aspect of their belief system and not on practical ways to help other humans in need of love and nurturing or offering help to the needy.

shegirl

Errata wrote: »

Not me. A relative of mine worked as a journalist on a very popular womans weekly magazine. It had ten years worth of horoscopes on file and at the end of each ten years it simply printed them all over again.

Given how general horoscopes,tarot readings,psychics etc are it's hard to understand how anyone believes they're real!

paulineb_2

I think its possible to be spiritual and religious at the same time. I said before I come from a family who on both sides of my mums family, mum and dad were very very religious. On my grans side of the family, lets say there were people who some might describe as psychic. Now not everyone believes in that, totally their call, but my grans mum, used to read tea leaves, according to my mum she could see events that were about to happen to people (sadly, mostly negative, she never told people if anything bad was going to happen) and my mum said she was never wrong

Now, knowing the tales of my great gran as she was, if she was going to church in those days, Id be very surprised if at that time she was in a church that told people not to believe in any spiritual or practice it, because I would suspect that her faith mattered more than the spiritual side.

Whether people believe in psychics, mediums or even at the less sharp end, horoscopes, Id be very surprised if there was a passage in the bible that said "thou shalt not read a horoscope in the daily paper", thou shalt not read anyones tarot cards

Come on, when did religion become a great big stick to beat people with?

And as what hating some people do, when is sex an act that's unnatural?

Only when two people of the same sex do it because the bible says its wrong?

I'm glad I make my own mind up about what I believe in when it comes to issues like that.

Ive known people in the past who have been royally messed up because the church told them sex before marriage was wrong, abortion was wrong, lots of things were wrong.

I respect peoples right to have a faith, but theres a massive difference between believing and allowing the teachings of a church to determine your views on certain subjects.

If people think homosexuality is wrong because the bible says so, sorry, that's the most narrow minded view that Ive ever heard in my life and given that a lot of religious people in the church are gay, celibate or not, well that just shows as far as Im concerned that people are who they are, no wonder people hide their sexuality if some people hate the fact that they go to bed with someone of the same sex.

Archergirl

There are lots of good people who do not go to church.
There are lots of bad people who do go to church.
Pray at home and join a group of people for friendship that has nothing to do with church/religion.
Don't be too hard on youself and enjoy your life with your good husband.

balletshoes

Errata wrote: »

Not me. A relative of mine worked as a journalist on a very popular womans weekly magazine. It had ten years worth of horoscopes on file and at the end of each ten years it simply printed them all over again.

agreed - plus its not possible for a twelfth of the entire human population, by the accident of the date of the year they were born, to have the same things happen to them/happen around them etc .