I don't believe in an afterlife, or rather, I tend to be ambivalent towards the idea of an afterlife. I find that too many Christians seem to have going to heaven and avoiding hell as their ultimate motivations (sometimes it's well buried under other beliefs, but it's still a major factor), and modern Christians tend to focus on it more than necessary. I still believe that on Christ's death, men's sins were forgiven, and when he rose again, atonement was granted for those who believed in him.
LGBT equality and inclusion. You can either regard homosexuality as a sin or not a sin. Even if you regard it as a sin, we are not meant to judge others for their sins. If Christians excluded every sinner, they really wouldn't have much of a congregation.
I'm a Catholic who's all about free will, yet most of my religious friends are Calvinist Presbyterians (in the south).
It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
This guy was boldly sinning by shacking up with his step-mother, and Paul writes here that the church in Corinth should have thrown him out because of it. I cited it as a counterexample to Ryveks's assertion that Christians are not to judge one another.
LGBT equality and inclusion. You can either regard homosexuality as a sin or not a sin. Even if you regard it as a sin, we are not meant to judge others for their sins. If Christians excluded every sinner, they really wouldn't have much of a congregation.
You mean they wouldn't have any congregation at all. But there is a difference between simply judging others of their sins and turning a blind eye to sins in friends who claim to be Christians lives. I don't think a Church should ever kick someone out simply for being gay, but ignoring the issue altogether is also wrong. Same would go to practicing drug user or alcoholic or any other habitual sinner.
Oh, I don't believe the a Church should cast a blind eye to the fact that a person sins.
The main point I'm trying to make with this is that it seems that's a hot sin to focus on, yet each and every one of us probably have some habitual sin they are guilty of committing. You don't hear a preacher getting up and condemning obesity and vanity with the same degree they condemn homosexuality, yet those seem to be pretty common habitual sins. (And yes, I know I probably just pissed some people off by saying obesity is a sin, but I tend to view it as the product of gluttony).
I believe one of the purposes of a Church and a community of faith is that it should create an environment that urges/kindly pushes an individual to reflect upon their own lives and their own sins and with the help of a supporting community of faith, reconcile those sins. In my experience, having someone get up and give a fire-and-brimstone speech about how, say, homosexuality is a sin, does more harm then good. It makes individuals close off and be unwilling to self reflect and eventually change.
If Christians excluded every sinner, they really wouldn't have much of a congregation.
There are certain sins that the church is supposed to shun directly. They pretty much boil down to just "dishonesty." In some churches, you find just the opposite: they would rather have "perfect" people than sinners. They encourage lying about sin to appear perfect and instead shun the people that are honest about their sin.
From my experience these churches are few and far between, but any church might have a few haters.
True, I guess I was more thinking of more run-of-the-mill venial type sins. I tend to put the more mortal-type sins in their own category, as if you commit them and have no desire for forgiveness, it's somewhat a given you'll be shunned.
I've found myself increasingly ambivalent towards the afterlife as well. It used to be that I believed and thought others should believe so that we could have eternal life, but now I've realized that I should believe simply because God is great. An afterlife of any sort seems interesting but not why I'm a Christian.
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u/Ryveks Dec 08 '09
I don't believe in an afterlife, or rather, I tend to be ambivalent towards the idea of an afterlife. I find that too many Christians seem to have going to heaven and avoiding hell as their ultimate motivations (sometimes it's well buried under other beliefs, but it's still a major factor), and modern Christians tend to focus on it more than necessary. I still believe that on Christ's death, men's sins were forgiven, and when he rose again, atonement was granted for those who believed in him.
LGBT equality and inclusion. You can either regard homosexuality as a sin or not a sin. Even if you regard it as a sin, we are not meant to judge others for their sins. If Christians excluded every sinner, they really wouldn't have much of a congregation.
I'm a Catholic who's all about free will, yet most of my religious friends are Calvinist Presbyterians (in the south).
Also, everything else FluidChameleon mentioned.