Being Christian vs. Being member of X churdh

[Bull]

There is a lot of news now about the conflict in the Anglican church. Same issue pops up a lot in Catholic, mainline, protestant, and evangelical denominations. In your opinion is being a Christian more important than being a member of a particular denomination of churches?

The answer for me is a definite yes. I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church. I am now a member of a community church which has no denominational ties and find the believers here to be much more in tune with the world in which we live. We are open and accepting of anyone who wishes to declare their love for Jesus and worship him with our congregation.

[Bull]

bump

[Gwen]

Too many evangelists, televangelists and crazy shit like Pentecostals make me think that just being a Christian doesn't actually means much. Not like my own denomination is much better, giving 230 known child rapists full benefits and retirement funds while keeping them out of jail :')
Obviously being apart of Chirstendom is the whole point but with the amount of denominations that aim to take advantage of people or work for monetary gains or earning from people's ignorance I think staying under certain denominations speak a lot more about what your personal beliefs are. Anglicans allow female pastors but that isn't going to happen under Catholic jurisdiction in a long, long time (Although it only took over a millennia before they'd let normal people read the bible and in a language that was still used, so I'm thinking we might have it around 2500 or so).

For me personally, I never say I'm a Christian but rather I say I'm a Catholic. There is just such a big difference in teaching, discipline, culture and following that I think the need to differentiate is more important than just generalizing. Plus a lot of Catholics and Protestants still dislike each other.

[northy]

As an outsider, I think that some christian churches influence the stereotypes more than others and give a biased view of what it is actually like. From what I can see, each Church has a slightly different take on the same text. Some christians take the bible word for word and some say that it is a collection of stories for you to model your life around. Basically, the extreme ends could get away as separate religions quite easily.

[phuckphace]

I've found that Baptists are among the more tolerable strains of Protestantism - visiting a Baptist church in the Midwest probably won't leave the average person with a bad taste in their mouths. they're silly in their own way, but earnestly friendly and humble. they won't sneer at you like a leper if you visit as a member of another denomination or even a non-believer.

this all contrasts sharply with the cult-like Churches of Christ - I have a few relatives in the CoC and we're all pretty much waiting on them to fly to New Jonestown and drink cyanide. the CoC is notoriously totalitarian and their theology is egregiously selective and arbitrary - their gimmick is "the Bible alone", but they'll hand you a 300-page pamphlet (rulebook) of arbitrary fatwahs against whatever the pastor feels triggered by. for example, using musical instruments during a worship service isn't in the Bible so we don't do that *drives to church in a vehicle with a combustion engine* *uses central heat/air in the church building* and heaven forbid they find out you associate with Baptists or Catholics - time to get shunned, bitch. I'd really like to visit a CoC one day and spark a blunt - all those pamphlets shredded to ribbons on my edges.

[Microcosm]

Nondenominationalists and people who don't focus on denomination are more realistic-minded in the sense that they realize that the chances of any one sect of Christianity being correct are incredibly slim and that it is best to follow a creed of Christianity that adopts the basic belief system of most Christians and stick with that.

Then again, I think the Christian Bible, doctrine, and beliefs are so widely disuniform and disagreed upon that there it's difficult to even determine what that basic Christian creed actually is.

[Porpoise101]

I think denomination matters if you aren't Protestant. To me pre-Reformation Christian Churches are some of the coolest to me just because of their ancient traditions. Protestants just seem to be either people trying to follow what they want in the Bible, fundamentalists, or people so lax about the Bible that they pick and choose what to follow. Maybe I just don't understand as a non-Christian but I've been around enough of them to make an opinion.

[Judean Zealot]

I think denomination matters if you aren't Protestant. To me pre-Reformation Christian Churches are some of the coolest to me just because of their ancient traditions. Protestants just seem to be either people trying to follow what they want in the Bible, fundamentalists, or people so lax about the Bible that they pick and choose what to follow. Maybe I just don't understand as a non-Christian but I've been around enough of them to make an opinion.

I share this opinion, with the added complaint of the Protestant transformation of theological intellectual rigour to some sort of pop - religion sort of nonsense.

[lliam]

is being a Christian more important than being a member of a particular denomination of churches


In my opinion, it is irrelevant what kind of church you belong to. Even your religion is totally insignificant. What counts is practiced tolerance and humanity.