dagblog - Comments for "Know the Truth, and the Truth Shall Set You Free "

I attended a Unitarian church

Oxy Mora — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:15:22 +0000

In reply to Rm, Organized religion is a

I attended a Unitarian church for years. I remember one "sermon' very well--"The religion of Jesus and the religion about Jesus.

I don't care much for organized religion either because to my mind a great deal of what is practiced has little to do with the actual sayings of Jesus, assuming we can trust those sayings in the New Testament to be somewhat correct.

My father and mother to my knowledge never attended church and I never thought of them as "religious" But once my father told his son to stay in the car while he went into a church and joined a meeting of the elders. I never got the whole story of the meeting but the son was thereafter encouraged by the elders to get the best college degree he could before he continued his religious outreach activities. The son went into business.

As for my father, a black minister whom I didn't know came to my father's funeral and I learned for the first time that my father had donated the land to build his church and had contributed money to the church over the years. Good works, it seems, are silent works.

I totally agree. CVille.

Wattree — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:41:10 +0000

In reply to Thanks so much for this,

I totally agree. CVille.

These huge churches are far from houses of God. They serve as monuments to the arrogance of the various preachers. They're opulence alone is a testament to the hypocrisy of man. How much good might they have done for the poor with the money they spent building these monstrous hog pens?

Thank you, Richard. Elder

Wattree — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:33:46 +0000

In reply to He used to take me with him

Thank you, Richard.

Elder Hampton didn't just preached sermons, he lived them. I am so glad that I came into contact with that man. While I have very little use for churches these days, that little unassuming man defined my life - and the irony is, he probably died never knowing that every time I pick up a pen I'm preaching a sermon that I learned from him as a child.

Rm, Organized religion is a

Wattree — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:22:46 +0000

In reply to Mega-churches are the new

Rm,

Organized religion is a slap in the face of God. It's not the worship of God - it's the worship of what man tells us about God.

Thanks so much for this,

CVille Dem — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:58:38 +0000

In reply to Know the Truth, and the Truth Shall Set You Free

Thanks so much for this, Eric. Itnis hard for me to find a way to understand the needs of those who crave the belonging of an institution that acts more like a social/health/babysitting club than as a center of spiritual renewal. I don't want to be a snob on this issue, but I can't for the life of me, find anything other than a self-congratulating weekly visit. I kind of wish I could get it, but I tried for decades. It's not happening.

He used to take me with him

Richard Day — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:38:46 +0000

In reply to Know the Truth, and the Truth Shall Set You Free

He used to take me with him to visit the old, the poor, and the sickly in the neighbor...

I swear to God you have me weeping.

Sometimes I forget, I forget how wonderful some people really really are!

Thank you for this!

Mega-churches are the new

rmrd0000 — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:27:00 +0000

In reply to Know the Truth, and the Truth Shall Set You Free

Mega-churches are the new Black. Several black ministers in Ohio got taken in by the GW Bush Religious Outreach Program. The good ministers were convinced to urge their parishioners to vote against the Democrat who might have supported Gay marriage. Of course the ministers missed the message about Sodom being judged for the way the city treated the poor, rather than what people were doing behind closed doors. Once Bush got the votes, he never returned to the black communities of Ohio.

Conservative minister Jesse Lee Patterson praises the white man for slavery so that blacks could become Christians. Al Sharpton appears to be getting a slot on MSNBC. And the band plays on.

Unnoticed, the small church ministers go about the work of seeing to those in despair. No Rolex watches. No Ferragamo shoes. No Armani suits. Just bibles and caring hearts.