“You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
― Anne Lamott
First, I want to explain the reason for choosing this quote in regards to my visit to the Living Hope Bible Church today. The reason I chose this quote because the pastor began the sermon by quoting the statistics of everyone who calls themselves Christians. He then proceeded to imply that the Orthodox, Mormons and Catholics are not Christians. It was strange to hear such a narrow definition of Christendom considering that in general it is not something I've seen directed at other Christians, it is mostly against other religions when you see such a strict definition of the religion defining what it believes or what it considers a definition of it's beliefs. This forever marred it since I think that attacking others within the sect of its religion is part of what is wrong with religion in general...it is a great tribalism that sees no room for outsiders who aren't part of the group.
To contrast this the people who welcomed me were kind and listened to me...they were a bit too eager to get me to join, but sadly I've come to expect that from most small churches. Invisibility and a place to listen is usually best found in large churches or congregations.
The building is small, simple and nice...it clearly isn't about the money from what I saw, which was something I liked about it...the negative of attacking others and using Jesus's quotes in John towards the Jewish leaders about how him saying that genetics wasn't the basis of virtue or the good started being applied to everyone else...beginning with the groups named above.
I don't see how one can live virtuously while condemning those who have not even been met and consuming those whose minds you do not know. It is a poison in religion that is propped up by most often the most literal interpretation of texts and the need to justify that which in the end so often to wrongs.
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