This was a direct response from the loony bin pastor defending the idea of going to church every Sunday.
“Oh you go to the movies/ the mall/go out to have fun. Yet you can’t spend a measly two hours in god’s presence?”
“The church teaches valuable life lessons and provides wisdom. At least lend an ear and listen. There’s always something to learn at church.” “Is listening to sermons such a bad/wicked thing?”
The valuable life lessons/wisdom consisting of stupid spiritual warfare and being an “open-minded” slave to god, amongst other stupid things. Also, it’s my time I’m wasting in a church and I’d rather spend it elsewhere. Even if it is two hours (also it’s three hours.) But of course, this doesn’t stop the mountain of excuses:
“You’re interpreting it wrong.”
“Well that’s just how you think, it doesn’t mean you’re in the right.”
“You shouldn’t approach the word of god with such a negative outlook.”
“I think you should read the bible a second time.”
“You’re taking it out of context.”
“God works in mysterious ways.”
Oh boy, the same excuses I’ve heard a million times that doesn’t actually address the criticism. It only adds another layer of questions. This “religion” falls apart under the tiniest bit of critical analysis. Also, screw going to church. It doesn’t matter how long it is, this cult insists that you spend every Sunday of your life sitting in a church, and that’s where I take issue. It’s my own time I’m wasting.
(Just to be clear I can’t exactly opt out of going to church. Not in my position. It’s becoming so tiring.)
I could spend 2 hours watching paint dry. Doesn't mean I wanna!
Well, god asked Abraham to kill his son Isaac. God ordered the Israelites to kill everyone in the so called promise land.
And Christians are demanded to worship that genocidal asshole.
If Yahweh was proven to exist I still wouldn't worship him. I'd be investing in Iron Chariots to keep his fae ass away from me.
Don't forget that God also killed tens of thousands of his own people simply because the king did his taxes wrong.
Yahweh is a killing god
I mean, they ARE asking you to sign your name in support of the killing of people
In the same way that attending and participating in a political rally (to say nothing of actually identifying as a member) is an endorsement of the party's policies, beliefs, and actions, so is attending a church an endorsement of the policies, beliefs, and actions of Christians - a people who have done more killing in the average millisecond of history than I (and probably you) have in your entire life.
Then they’ll just say “they’re not true christians/ that was the past, it was a different time back then, this is the present/ that wasn’t a good representation of christianity.”
Those are all excuses. The only question that they need to answer is whether they will kill someone if God told them to. They either take a life or disobey God.
Bet they’ll say “god will never tell me to kill anyone.” Or “you’re making up scenarios that’ll never happen.”
Oh course they will.
Just ignore numbers 31 or judges 11 or Genesis 22 or Exodus 12 or Exodus 20 or Ezekiel 20.
Those don't count because it makes them uncomfortable. Just go read the warm and fuzzy Jesus parts and ignore the other 85% of the Bible.
It happened in the Bible. So they must not believe God is active in todays world. In any case, their lack of faith is revealed by their comment.
Isn't part of the purpose of Bible stories to imagine whether we would have the same faith as they did. Or whether we could tolerate what they did. If those examples aren't important, then let's not read those parts. And Jesus taught in parables, which are made up stories. We can stop reading those and stick to facts. Since we are only to do what God tells us to do, we can stop reading all of those books Paul wrote, because he never even saw Jesus. The old testament doesn't apply because Christians follow only the new testament. So we can get rid of that also. See how I made it a whole lot easier in less than 5 minutes?
As I listened, he said to the others, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mothers and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple. Then he said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out and began killing throughout the city."
I mean, they've killed over half a million just this year with just their USAID cuts, voted for by the majority of Christians - including people in their own church that they could excommunicate at literally any time, but haven't - because they consider those people fellow Christians.
So, they can say that all they want, but they're all transparent and obvious lies - easily disprovable lies. Their own actions attest to the fact that they don't believe a word of that.
But, even if they did, they're asking YOU for YOUR attendance - for YOUR endorsement. The only thing that matters is whether YOU believe it, and the can make no compelling case that you should.
A good thing to bring up to slow their roll for this kind of thing?
"Then what are you doing to stop them?"
After all, one bad apple and all that. If this church isn't standing up and actively fighting back against this stuff, then they are still actively enabling it.
"What, specifically, is your church doing to fight back against Trump? What, specifically, is your church doing to fight back against ICE? What, specifically, is your church doing to fight back against..."
I used to go to a megachurch where the pastor would spend the first five or so minutes of every sermon shaming people for getting up, moving, or leaving the room because "you can sit for a two hour movie, you can sit for an hour with the Lord". Sure, I can sit for a two hour movie because it adds value to my life. There's nothing valuable about a sermon where we go over one or two verses from the same book you've been preaching out of for the last two years because if you drag out the gospel long enough you don't have to address how it contradicts the other gospels.
I also don't get shamed if I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the movie. Hell, nobody gives a shit if I walk out of a movie.
That pastor is bad at analogies and an asshole.
There are far more important things I'd rather do for 2 hours than go to church. Laundry is one of those things, and I hate laundry
If it helps, here’s a nice, subtle reminder that could help remind you to do your laundry. https://youtu.be/Jm6huaxUMnI?si=U_2HuoWisY53tMMs
Yeah, it's a problem in a lot of ways.
It's also really probably not true that they want you to just go two hours a week. That's just the starting point. Once you're in, they'll try for more. They want you to give your life to God, which can take a lot more of your time, and potentially lead to other people being brought into the faith (possibly through indoctrination). If it was just about two hours of time listening to somebody tell lies, that'd be one thing (still useless), but I don't think it's ever just that.
In any case, I've already wasted years of my life on Christianity. I'm not going to waste more of it.
"2 hours in gods presence"
I'm sorry, thought god was everywhere. Why do I have to go to your building to pretend I'm communing with him?
I can do that in a park or coffee shop or my bed.
If y'all don't understand your own theology I'm not wasting my time in your church.
"I think you should read the bible a second time" is a classic from folks who never read it the first time.
Fixed that. They may not be asking you to kill people at this moment, but based on their history, it's only a matter of time until they do.
Or endorsing those who would and do kill people.
“You shouldn’t approach the word of god with such a negative outlook," says the person who views anything not overly Christian as being demonic and worldly.
The plea for open-mindedness is always interesting. Like we're hearing new information instead of a longstanding, culturally dominant narrative.
Do not take anything Christians tell you about their religion seriously. I've had many an argument with Christians online and their favourite 3 lines that I've noticed are:
"ALL athiests are immoral and bad people"
"Why is killing bad?"
"Everyone who isn't Christian, and especially athiests, are mentally ill and should be locked up because they're a danger to society"
They're all entitled narcissists who shouldn't have the right to vocalize their delusional cultist takes and force it on their children and others to live by THEIR rules.
I gotta admit, both the phrase "loony bin pastor" and your flair "I Hate It" strike me funny. 😂 But that does sound so tiresome. Also, "we're not asking you to kill people" is a really weird defence, right? It's like, sorry this is gross but it's the morning and it's all I could think of, but imagine someone said "here have a shit sandwich! What, you don't want it?? It's not like I'm asking you to kill someone!" Wtf??!
Edited to improve wording
You expect me to listen to bigot ideology? You would have to pay me.
They want you there as much as possible because that’s how they get the money. It’s a business.