tussin
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Rick Warren, Jim Daly, James Dobson, Joel Olsteen, .... They are often asked to "speak" for Christians in this country and their words are taken as the belief of all. I do not always agree with them, but I fall in their category.
2nd paragraph - This is a very difficult one to tackle in this thread but I will do my best(without sounding like a total wacko) while also trying to work:
A: A true Christian is anyone who follows the teachings of Christ and believes in the Trinity. One does not have to be involved in a religion to be a Christian. Also, simply because an individual is not part of an establishment, doesn't mean that they only keep their faith to themselves.
B: Exactly. Just as there are millions of people that attend religious services that focus on that religion more than they focus on the words of Christ. There are religious figures whose lives revolve around the church that do not live the life of a Christian - Priests, Ministers, elders, lay leaders, etc who all attend church or mass on a regular basis and are deplorable people.
C: Our churches today are so far away from what the church was in the New Testament. If you read Paul's letters closely and pay attention to the way the church was structured, there are no grand buildings, there are no rituals, there is no Priest/Pastor, churches were communities. They were people that came together in homes or public places to read the Word, discuss the teachings of Christ as a group, and Worship God. Church was not spectator sport where one person spoke and everyone else listened or gave a pre-planned response. Church was organic, it was truly the body of Christ, it was alive, and every person had equal opportunity to contribute.
Also, there were not separate religions with-in one faith. People were Christians.
Religion has caused Christians to be divided. Catholic, Southern Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Church of God, Church of Christ, Nazarene, Independent Baptist, the list goes on and on. When the church was formed there was no such thing as denomination - they were Christians.
Unfortunately, I feel like today we are nations of religions and not a nation of Christians.
Great response, a few things....
1. Rick Warren, Jim Daly, etc. obviously can't / shouldn't speak for all Christians, but are they appropriate leaders for their specific church? I really don't know enough to say. I thought your original point was that we have religious leaders that do not follow the teachings of their specific church. I can't speak for everyone but I am almost always in agreement whenever I hear my leaders speak to my faith.
2. Re: the bolded... I feel like this has always been the case throughout history and will never change. There are bad apples in any group of people and that should never define the group as a whole. I'm Catholic so it always pains me to hear the terrible stories of rogue priests or bishops; however, I'm proud of and put my trust in many of the leaders in my church today (most notably Pope Francis and Cardinal Dolan). I feel they are great evangelists for the Catholic faith. Pretty interesting video below of Dolan on Colbert that touches on the Catholic Church's views on homosexuality and many of the topics discussed in this thread:
Timothy Dolan Pt. 2 - The Colbert Report - 2013-03-09 - Video Clip | Comedy Central
3. Re: C... I think many of those characteristics still exist today. My parish has always felt like a true community. Sure there is a layer of organization and formality that didn't exist thousands of years ago, but I think that evolution is natural and within the Tradition of the Catholic Church. The general principles of Christianity have always remained the same.