Atheist

[Piamed]

just my observations first.... remember the same posters commentary on WHY the Philipiinnes is poor.... here were my comments at the time

The Pope could reduce poverty, enrich family lives and strenghthen poor countries overnight just by saying three words CONDOMS ARE OK!!!! ..... but then children might get educated and become more self reliant and begin to question some of the other teachings and where would the catholic church and more importantly the wealthy and powerful bishops be then?

My problem is not so much with religion or faith as I was brought up through the Church of Scotland where ny father was a deacon and elder but importantly you join at 18 by taking new communicants classes. there was no pressure even from my father to join.

My wife is JIL and loves going to her church in Palawan, in Hong Kong (packed out 400 at each of three services and what an atmosphere) and has found a filipino christian fellowship here in Bham. I go along and enjoy the services as they are bright, full of feel good factor and not at all like dour Church of Scotland services. I cannot quite get into all of the exhortations some make but all in all it is good to be there and I genuinely can see that the congregation get something from the experience. I prefer to keep my own counsel, and believe that faith is a personal journey and down to the individual. I totally agree with the view that children should not be brainwashed and forced to confession at six... how ridiculous is that!!!!.

You can see when you visit the Phils that the only growth industry is churches, have you seen an iglesia ni christo church!!!? talk about money! they are all there peddling their "brand" and grabbing the poor dumb filipinos money (some up to 30% of their meagre earnings). They sell hope and a better afterlife when they should be helping the poor filipino to improve his/her lot, get educated and self reliant but that would be self defeating for them.

I do get angry when I see jehovas witnesses, 7th day adventists, mormons and others all queuing up to steal the minds of people who for too long have been let down by their leaders.

Sorry if this seems like a rant but it does irratate me to see this going on.

Another poster summed it up well when they said religion needs faith but faith does not religion and also spoke of organised repression. People should take personal responsibility for how they live out their lives. Good morals, deceny and natural justice are not confined to the bible,Koran or other religous teachings.



and

I think your post uncovers some interesting and insightful points. Namely, as I mentioned in my earlier post, that given a church is a body of people and as such is a sum of the individuals within it. What i mean by that is that all churches are different. Even within the one denomination.

The classic Catholic church is very different to a Pentecostal one for example. I have attended many churches. The one I favour now but can only attend on occasion is in London, whilst I am in Leeds. I love this church as the body of people there have all bought into the concepts of developing progressive families. Thus we focus on strengthening men to be choice men, empowering women and developing children.

Our services are not about repetititious and incomprehendible rituals as some might think. All services are practically based and related to real family issues.

We tackle wife abuse, men showing love to their children and other issues that society is concerned with but few address. We dont talk about others we talk about tyhe church memmbers to make sure that we are the best we can be so that by doing so we can influence others positively by our conduct. We are imperfect but we aspire to progressive improvement.

I have invited some of my non-believing friends to my church and what they found was a group of very intelligent, successful and socially concious individuals who are not afraid to to dicuss and tackle the isssues that matter most. Their attendance was not about trying to indoctrinate and thus, they come whenever they feel like it bevcause they want to.

We sponsor local activities for the locals in neighbourhood (Kilburn). We have a day once a month when we go to the homes of the local elderly and do their shopping, tidy their gardens, etc. We also have a community barbecue once a year when up to 600 hundred attend. The men in the church pay for it our of their own pockets. There are so many other initiatives we undertake each year.

As far as I can determine there is no harm that we generate and consider it inappropriate to class all bodies of faith oriented individuals as being the same. Individuals are at fault and not faith per se.

My final point is that as has been said, faith is a personal thing. This I do not believe in Christening babies as it requires that a baby has a relationship with God which is not possible at that age. A baby dedication is an entirely different thing I believe.