This pastor guy refused to marry a friend of mine because he was not Christian. So my friend over the years became a believer and now wants to renew his vows as a Christian; with the same guy. A beautiful thing I thought, until the BS of it all sunk in… This Pastor is an A-HOLE! Isn’t the point of church to have open arms to the nonbelievers? To accept others for who they are? This kind of poop shooter thinking gives organized religion a bad name. I for one value the core principles of the Christianity. Grew up with it, love it, bla bla…But I bounce once the snake oil comes out. This ignorant, limited, in the box, separatist, diarrhea rational is what breeds prejudice, ego, racism, class-ism and all the bad ‘ ism’s’ in the world. It’s just wrong! This makes me so mad. My friend gave me his rational, and I get he loves his wife and the pastor seems like a nice guy. But so are pedophiles! They all seem like nice guys. This quack is allowed to teach his message to children?! How does one justify this kind of thinking? ’I do not accept you because you are not Christian.’ Well why not accept because he is shorter or darker or less educated… you get my point. So sir…You are the ASSHOLE OF THE WEEK! ARGGHHH! Help me understand!
Anyway, I feel better. ADIOS!
Sung, this just made me smile…and yes he is an a-hole a jerk, he is everything that is wrong with America ^_^
From what I hear… which may or may not be entirely true… many “faiths” do not marry intra-faith (or marry 2 people of differing faiths)… I think this is because to the ministers or pastors of each faith, you must believe the tennants of that faith for the marriage to be true… you must follow their God and their perception of God and what their God believes. Pastors of a particular faith usually will not preside over a marriage if they do not believe the marriage will be a true marriage. I think that right there may have been this problem.
I think I need more information before I come to believe this particular pastor is or is not, in fact, an a-hole… and you KNOW I have no problem pronouncing such judgments should I feel the need. lol.
bonne foi, sweetness. =)
I was confused there for a second. At first reading, I thought this guy pastor refused to marry (i.e. refused to exchange rings with) your guy friend. I was thinking that many of these religious dudes hate gays and that the fact that he wasn’t homophobic (and was gay himself) was a good thing.
I understand it now. In the pastor’s defense–if that’s what you might call it–the Bible teaches that it’s wrong to be “yoked” with “unbelievers.” The pastor was just following the Holy and Mighty Word of God.
2 Corinthians 6:14: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
So according to Scripture, Christians are righteous…and the rest of us are sinners amid the darkness.
Well you are right.
GOD welcomes everyone with open arms. You should always have an open mind to others and what they believe in. Who is to say your a non believer just because you learned about GOD a different way.
I forget what it is under in the bible but it does say the angles will come down and speak in tongue so all will understand
Also there is only one judge and that is GOD. You really should not judge others for thier beliefs or say they are non believers.
We are all right and we are all wrong… we are guaranteed to be one or the other at any given time. I think that is the only thing guaranteed us except God’s salvation.
The Bible also says that preachers and teachers of the Word will be held that much more accountable because they are representatives and are teaching the only things some people will ever know of God. Almost everyone is only trying to do the best job they know how. And we ARE to judge everyday…. NOT anyone else’s salvation because THAT is what is forbidden to us… ‘lest we also be judged’…. but we are called on to judge everyday. Let’s face it… any one of us can find any meaning in the Bible to justify just about anything… some will be closer than others. None of us will know who is closest until we get there and actually hear the pronounced judgement from Dad himself.
Until then, let’s continue to do the best we can…. truly a case of
bonne foi.
=)
Spice… I believe there is a similar quote in revelations…
I find it hard to believe that someone who could write such an insightful piece about body lotion could write such an angry piece about religious mentors, even if they are pedophiles.
Sal,
religion and politics… those two subjects are the most volatile subjects of all time or people… almost guaranteed to start crap with almost everyone…
sometimes I enjoy them so much too. Who is surprised? lol.
Personally, Sung, you’ve always known I enjoy discussing these things and finding out what you think… I never like to argue about such things or push my will on others… but I love a good debate.
you know it… bonne foi,
=)
oh the wonderous embodiments and sensations of lotion the angles did declare…
LMAO… naughty and bizarro girl’s last transmission (of the day)
This is an interesting one for me–I’ve been on different sides of this issue. Short version of a long, sad story…I once got very upset with a friend because she married a man who was a non-believer (in the sense of your post above). At the time, my beliefs were much more black and white than they are now. I feel bad about this now, though we’ve since made up.
Ultimately, we all make the choices we make for a reason. Others may agree or disagree, but I am no longer willing to drive a wedge in a friendship over it. My attitude is live and let live.
I do uinderstand what PP said–maybe the reason the pastor would not do an interfaith marriage was out of true concern that the relationship would not work.
However, I do think we need to be so careful about the boxes we put people in.
Sung,
I’ve recently been going to church a lot more. I found a great one you should check it out http://www.hpcem.org and listen to some sermons. We advocate that we are the church for the “Broken.”
But to get to your point, the reason why it is crucial to be in a relationship with a Christian is because you both have a foundation within Christ instead of a foundation based on societies beliefs of what a relationship is supposed to be. I mean look at the divorce rate within this society it’s ridiculous. Once you are involved with someone who’s foundation is Christ, then 1+1 = 11 rather than 2. Meaning you are interdependent rather than independent or dependent.