I am with you all on the "they are not REAL Christians" line

I am a Christian (hopefully, I can post this here without getting deleted), and I agree with your refusal to accept that line.

The truth as I see it is that many, if not most, of those who do evil and claim to be christian, ARE in fact Christian. What I have learned from Christianity that everyone is tempted to do wrong, and frequently succumbs to temptation, Christian or otherwise. Being a Christian is no impediment to committing evil deeds. It makes one susceptible to spiritual pride, which is at the base of many of said evil deeds.

Disowning those who do evil as "not real Christians" tempts people to think of Christians as those who only do good. That is wrong. It leads to spiritual pride, as well as the (wrong) conclusion that all people who do good are Christian. Then you get "you are more of a Christian than they are", or something similar. I expect most of you all would seriously object to that as well.

We who are Christian should not disown our brothers and sisters when they do evil, and we should look at their fate and think "There, but for the grace of God, go I", and remember to be humble.

and I appreciate your weighing in on this issue.

I always thought that the actions of the "bad" fundamentalists helped highlight the difference between them and the "good" (liberal) christians.

Like the difference between liberals and the conservatives, we are all American citizens, some just prefer to control the lives of others.

Using them as an example of what not to become is an excellent idea.

Every Christian denomination cherry picks portions of the Bible they like and excludes the parts that don't fit THEIR definition of what is "Christian". Every Christian believes they are the REAL Christian and they are, in a sense, correct. Absent god (which is a given on this forum) to clarify discrepancies and disagreements, everyone is equally correct because no one follows every law or teaching in the Bible (thank goodness).

:shrug:

I could PM you. It might be better than posting explanations of the little that I know of Christian doctrine in an atheist/agnostic forum.

If it was rhetorical, then never mind.

and agreed with several atheists.
That seemed a very brave thing to do.
I know how adversarial these threads can get, I wonder if anyone else heard you.

I spent the fist 20 years of my life in a Baptist church. I learned a lot about c'tianity in those 20 years.

The notion of exclusionary Christianity is so insulting.

I am tired of Christians pointing to people that have done awful things and saying their corruption is proof they are athiests.

I read the church billboards as I drive by them just for amusement. Most of the time they cause me to roll my eyes, occasionally to chuckle. The most recent one on one of the churches a few miles away read:

"Christians are not sinless, but they should sin less"

Now there was one I actually liked. Truthful, to the point, non-proselytizing. None of that backstabbing, fingerpointing, hatemongering and the like. It was very refreshing.


:hi:

In short, "Christians" believe in the divinity of Christ. While "christians" follow his teachings.

The problem is what to do when it starts a sentence.

--IMM