If this offends you, you're welcome. If we were less reluctant to speak ill of the dead, perhaps the living would take greater care to avoid giving those they leave behind cause to condemn their memory.
We are lookin for more folks to join our #AnimeBlogging team. Are you a #Christian who likes to talk about the intersection of #anime, #manga, & faith.
I've been thinking about sin and sinners after studying the parable of the two debtors in bible study(Luke 7). The below is my current thoughts. Constructive criticisms from a Christian Theological perspective welcome:
sin is relational.
We don't want anyone to be sinners, we want all to be righteous.
Be humble. Our pride makes us biased regarding our sins and the sins of others.
One shouldn't look at a sinner with a heart of revenge/grudge.
repentence, reconciliation, mercy should be the goal. Just punishment for the unrepentant.
Before repentence comes a realisation of wrong doing (by modes such as: divine revelation, warning of a prophet, self realisation and faith in God)
It is good to communicate a need to repent but be wise, it depends on context, duration, audience and mission.
Repentence occours before reconciliation.
The repentant sinner holds a special place of intamacy with God.
Sin has negative consequences regardless of reconciliation or punishment.
Biblical reasoning for the above:
Jonah in Ninevah
Jonah's incorrect view of the sinner. Getting revenge via just punishment by preventing reconciliation/warnings.
God's view of the sinner. Reconciliation and repentence desired. Warnings given, punishment via Justice as a last recourse.
Daniel in Babylon
Acts as Gods Prophet and dream interpreter to the King and doesn't call on Babylon to repent in the same was as Jonah. Different context, duration, audience and mission.
Babylonian Exile and Annias & Saphias
God warns and punishes his own people if sinful.
Parable of the Lost Son.
Older brother incorrect view of the sinner. Bearing a grudge post reconciliation and ignorant of his own sin.
Young brother. Sins, repents and comes home. Repentence is part of reconciliation. Although the consequence of the prior actions isn't undone (he's had his half share of the property, he doesn't get another half)
Jesus Annointed by a Sinful Woman
Pharisee's incorrect view was a repentant sinner shouldn't touch a prophet.
Jesus's view is a gratitude for forgiven sins and faith grants intimate access to prophet/Jesus/God.
we have all sinned
The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
We often think of ourselves as more than we are and others less than they are. #sin#Christian#theology
note: if you are a secular person reading this the rough equivelent to sin=toxic and righteous=healthy. Though it misses out on the relational aspect of sin/righteous.
Well, this is one of the most unsettling, borderline terrifying things I've read recently. An evangelical group that has issues with the overreach of government during the pandemic wants to install fundamentalist political candidates and try to oppress us for real (some more than others, of course). And it's all tax free!
> is sex ed grooming? or is it only grooming when gay people do it?
Oh it's all grooming. And it's not just that; sensual/sexualized media, pornography, softcore porn is television programming and movies, the general encouragement of sexual activity while young, beauty pageants for children...it's all part of it.
But a lot of conservatives get more upset when the grooming is #LGBT related because either they don't want their children to be groomed into being confused about their gender, or they're afraid that their children might be gay.
> the vast majority of society is constantly telling kids that straight relationships are how you are supposed to live. so it's a problem when people push gay relationships?
i have been asked to give a sermon and this time i am ready :)
i have been assigned the parable of the fig tree in the book of Luke in the bible, and the parable of the olive tree from the book of Jacob in the book of Mormon.
i have some foundational ideas. will expound upon them later.
as well as that we must take an active role in making the Church and the #Christian community (and in our specific case the #LatterDaySaint Movement/ #Mormonism, hence pulling in the Book of Jacob) instead of just waiting in expectance for fruit and then cutting it down before trying to make it a healthier/more fruitful place.
God will help us, but i don't think God will do it for us. we have agency and must use it and take action. this goes for a lot of things
Mary-Jane Rubenstein gets super deep in the proverbial weeds here. And it’s very clear, even if we forget it most of the time:
To #exploit the #environment as ”resources” is ultimately a #christian thing to do. The #theologism that prepared us to think that way is right there in the first book of the #bible, Genesis.
#God gives the earth to humans to do as they please with, and places humanity above the rest, separate from it.
While listening to K-Love 80s I was reminded of the Christian singer Leslie Phillips.
As a young believer in the late 80s her albums 'Dancing with Danger' and 'Black and White in a Grey World' were much played by myself. I almost wore out the cassette tapes.
I see Leslie had 4 Christian albums before changing her name to her nickname of Sam, and went more mainstream. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Phillips_(musician) #LesliePhillips#SamPhillips#Christian#ChristianMusic
"If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it's not so bad."
-Attributed to C. S. Lewis #Christian#Christianity#Catholic#OrthodoxChristian
Shannon Rodriguez is a FL school board member who says God appointed her to “keep these minorities from infiltrating.” She's one of Gov Ron #DeSantis's #Christian soldiers, enforcing yesterday's 4-bill "#SlateOfHate" that's driving #LGBTQ people out of the state.
What did God tell Rodriguez to do? Get a teacher criminally investigated as a child abuser for showing a Disney film. I kid you not! The teacher is gone and her 5th graders are scared.
@freemo “Autonomy” isn’t a right. I’m a big freedom guy tho so I do wanna give people as much autonomy as is reasonable, but letting people kill other people without just cause is not reasonable.
Granted, the #prolife position doesn’t really make sense unless you believe in the supernatural/the spirit world. In most religions (I am a #Christian), humans who are alive are people. So, a fetus “has self” (or personhood) so long as it is still alive.
I'm going to trial 'Lean Coffee' to run the mens bible study tomorrow. https://agilecoffee.com/leancoffee/ . I've three parables (The growing seed, The two Debtors, and a lamp under a bushel) for us to study. Due to 'dead mans shoes' I've become the new leader. Will be curious to see how it goes. #Bible#LeanCoffee#Agile#Parables#Christian#Religion
The Shadowy Financial Empire Built Around Liberty HealthShare Is Showing Signs of Strain
Beers family members built a “conglomerate” — including an airline, a bank in the #Ozarks, carpet stores, a #marijuana farm, and more than $20M in #RealEstate — by selling a #Christian alternative to traditional #health#insurance.
They’re now scrambling for cash, even though they received millions in #PPP loans that were later forgiven.
If you read stories of #conservative#Christian families being lured by #Russia as the “last bastion of Christianity in the world”, be sure to read the history of Eugen Martens family who moved to Russia with huge coverage from Russian and conservative media, and then quietly returned to #Germany after being unable to survive in the shithole they were granted by the Russian authorities…
"The problem is the #Christian uses God as an excuse not as a standard of morality. They claim they are all sinners, in that I believe" - the cross Jesus died on
(russian propagandist saying white americans are fleeing to russia en masse because russia is the last "normal" county as opposed to the US where queers are not killed on sight.)
3/ Today, religion is far from uniformly reactionary — in the US for instance, the rise of Christian nationalism is being opposed by religious people and organisations who support LGBT rights and workers' struggle, through groups like the Institute for Christian Socialism