Question for you Christians

[stevehut]

why do Christians not accept those who have been divorced? They outcast them in the church and don't accept them

Hmmm...I've been a Christian for 14 years...I've never rejected a divorced person. Nor has my church.

Who is this you're talking about?

[Draigon]

Hmm this is getting ugly.

Dont try and find fault in another religion when you cant even fully explain your own Draigon. If you can tell me EVERYTHING there is to know about Wicca, without contradicting yourself, then feel free to point out the faults in Christianity.

But for some reason, I dont think you can do that.

Chazy.

I have already told you that I know little about it because I am learning about it...

why is it that when non-christians start to ask questions, that get hard to answer, christians make it out like we are the bad people? I am not getting that. we are asking questions to find the truth, that is what we are to do is it not?

[Draigon]

why do Christians not accept those who have been divorced? They outcast them in the church and don't accept them

Hmmm...I've been a Christian for 14 years...I've never rejected a divorced person. Nor has my church.

Who is this you're talking about?

I am talking about my step mother and father, who both were devorced, and no churches around here that say they are christian accepting them...

I am honestly telling the truth when I say that christians have brought more pain into my life then others..those are my feelings though.

[littleladyinblack]

You seem to forget, I am not a Christian :-)

Chazy.

[Guest silver-bullets]

Hmm this is getting ugly.

Dont try and find fault in another religion when you cant even fully explain your own Draigon. If you can tell me EVERYTHING there is to know about Wicca, without contradicting yourself, then feel free to point out the faults in Christianity.

But for some reason, I dont think you can do that.

Chazy.

Typical last resort response. Is this board devoted to Wicca? Is Wicca the matter at hand? No to both those questions. I will point out the faults in my religon, there are none. I will now point out the faults of your religon; everything. Although there are some nice stories (I like David and Goliath). The amount your religon is twisted and abused is disgusting. There are so few people that actually believe in Christianity, yet so many people dress up as one, why is that?

-Cheers-

[Draigon]

You seem to forget, I am not a Christian :-)

Chazy.

oh it is not just you, all of you are getting deffensive now that I have someone here with me, instead of you having me one on one...We are just asking QUESTIONS, that the Bible or you should be able to answer...that is all, any offence taken then I am sorry.

[Kabowd]

Hmm this is getting ugly.

Dont try and find fault in another religion when you cant even fully explain your own Draigon. If you can tell me EVERYTHING there is to know about Wicca, without contradicting yourself, then feel free to point out the faults in Christianity.

But for some reason, I dont think you can do that.

Chazy.

I have already told you that I know little about it because I am learning about it...

why is it that when non-christians start to ask questions, that get hard to answer, christians make it out like we are the bad people? I am not getting that. we are asking questions to find the truth, that is what we are to do is it not?

There is nothing wrong with searching and asking questions. In fact, it's good to seek, as long as you are seeking in the right place. On one hand it's good that you are asking Christians questions about their faith (because we should know what we believe and why), it is also bad because most ppl don't know the answers to the hard questions (just like you dont' know all the answers about Wicca). The really bad thing is when ppl try to explain things they don't understand ... and end up looking stupid. What I like about you, is that you will at least admit when you don't know something. Alot more Christians would do well if they just said "i don't know", instead of making up some reason. God doesn't need defended. Christians just need to live what they believe, without contradiction and we would have a much less difficult time trying to "prove" our faith is real.

I know that didn't answer any of your questions...lol...just my $.02

Edited August 5, 2004 by Tess

[littleladyinblack]

Its not that you are asking questions...

The problem seems to be that you are asking questions simply to prove the Christians wrong. And the lack of respect coming from Silver-Bullets is doing nothing but giving Wiccans a bad name.

Chazy.

[apothanein kerdos]

Well now...

Answer me this...why do Christians not accept those who have been divorced? They outcast them in the church and don't accept them, but I thought christians were to accept anyone who came knocking?

just a question.

I'm assuming your the type that would read a book even if it did have a Christian overtune to it. I highly recommend "Son of a Preacher Man" by Jay Bakker. He's the son of Jim Bakker. He talks about the nasty things that fellow Christians did to him and his family after the Bakker scandal broke out. Here's his website.

Anyway, to answer your question, Christians do that because human are inherently evil. The problem with a lot of Christian churches is that they've adopted fundamentalism and/or legalism. Thus much like the Puritans in "The Scarlet Letter" they act as if though they are without sin, and those with sin must be cast away. Divorce can be a horrible thing (there are exceptions where it is needed). As Christians, we should embrace people who suffer through it instead of turning our backs on them. There are extreme cases where we should turn them away (if they divorced for another lover and claim to be a Christian...), we should always be ready to welcome them back. I'm interested about what happened to you in this circumstance.

I am not trying to be disrespectful, if you think I have then I am sorry, just getting some points across that you seem to over look.

Sometimes people can come across disrespectful only because they are hiding behind hurt.

Now, do you realize that if God is omniscient he knows what we are going to do before we do it, therefor we have no choice in the matter, meaning we have no free will. The other possibility is that we have free will and God is not omniscient. Take your pick, but he isn't both, just like he isn't omnipotent.

but if we are given free will, then why is are life already planned out for us? that is not free will.

Silver Bullet, you propose an excellent arguement. The problem with attempting to answer this is that the doctrines and theories of Calvanism, Armenienism, Open Theism, and Absolutism (just to name a few) have to be expounded. Thus, I will try, in a simplistic manner, to explain to you a Biblical stance on the issue.

The problem when people attack free will is that they hold the concept that Christianity teaches that we have absolute free will. This is not the case at all. There are certain things in our lives that are predetermined by God. The man one of these being when we die. It is true that God has a plan for everyone's life. At the same time we can deviate from this plan (sin). That is where our free will comes into play. We have the ability to leave God's plan and live life on our own. God, in turn being Holy, will adjust His plan and have others fufill it.

As for God knowinig the future eliminating our ability to have free will, this is a paradox that doesn't need to be. Under human terms yes, it is impossible for future knowledge and free will to exsist. They are mutually exclusive. The reason for this is if a human has future knowledge of an event, it is destined to happen. Yet with God, using the theory of the Christian God of course, He exsist outside of time. Thus we are able to see how He avoids the paradox. When an event happens, God knew in advance that it would happen, but at the same time is watching it happen for the first time. Not being limited by time, He sees the past, present, and future all at the same time. Thus if you are a in a car wreck tomorrow, while God knew about it, it is also happening at the same time, and is already in the past. This is a hard concept for humans to grasp, but once we begin to understand that, we begin to see how God's foreknowledge of events doesn't eliminate free will.

[apothanein kerdos]

why is it that when non-christians start to ask questions, that get hard to answer, christians make it out like we are the bad people? I am not getting that. we are asking questions to find the truth, that is what we are to do is it not?

Christians are lazy and afraid of study. I get the same responce when I debate someone on the scripture. I'm told I'm not listening to the Holy Spirit and looking too much at logic. Go figure.

Typical last resort response. Is this board devoted to Wicca? Is Wicca the matter at hand? No to both those questions. I will point out the faults in my religon, there are none. I will now point out the faults of your religon; everything. Although there are some nice stories (I like David and Goliath). The amount your religon is twisted and abused is disgusting. There are so few people that actually believe in Christianity, yet so many people dress up as one, why is that?

Well silver bullet, I believe you are hard pressed to prove "everything" in Christianity is twisted and absued. I will admit, a lot of Christians do twist and abuse Christianity. Yet this is merely an arguement against the religion of Christianity (in which case I will join you) and not against the faith.