After several years outside of their circles, I went to my parents' church over my vacation. Here's my rundown of the ~30min sermon:
--Pre-emptive strike at science and philosophy to discredit any opposition before it starts.
--Sexism (with vague swipe at feminism)
--Homophobia
--Transphobia
--An endorsement of capitalism
--Worm theology; it is actually part of their Statement of Faith -- a core, binding document -- that humans live under God's condemnation by default!
@sumpnlikefaith Did…did we grow up in the same church?
@iamwill1w9 @sumpnlikefaith
It's reading things like this which makes me realise how blessed I am. The UK church (all denominations) is deeply flawed and many folk can be hateful in their personal views, but never have I ever heard hatred from the pulpit.
I *have* seen homophobia on the corporate level. eg. some local churches signed a very homophobic letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury last year and guess what? Those churches are the ones which are dying.
@stueytheround @sumpnlikefaith Yep. I understand. Unfortunately, much of American Christianity was deeply influenced by anti-intellectualism, racist ideologies, and patriarchal systems in a nearly irredeemable way.
There are some beautiful exceptions in the US, but not enough. As much as I appreciate the good systems/churches/people, I’m not at all convinced we’re better off overall because of Christianity’s presence here.
(Bigger conversation needed, for sure.)
@iamwill1w9 @stueytheround And the church thrives on this "the way we've always done it" mentality, without any kind of awareness of how recent its patterns actually are.
So it keeps protecting itself from the changes that might redeem it.
@sumpnlikefaith @stueytheround Exactly. When the organization becomes the end itself, they’ve already lost.