Christianity In The USA

Hermetic Seal said:
(in this case, money/stability of employment by being a highly-paid megachurch worship band staff member instead of the flux of touring musician.) This, in turn, made evangelical culture more averse to taking stances that could hurt the flow of cash, and more eager to embrace the "business growth" of new "customers" outside the traditional clientele.
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This is pretty much the bottom line:
"For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows." The prosperity "your best life now" gospel was previously the domain of certain more extreme charismatic churches, but now seems to be commonplace in many mainstream Baptist and non-denominational type circles. Even my brother, who was a pastor for many years, left the ministry in search of more money/financial security. His wife had frequently done female counseling in his churches, but suddenly decided she wanted to get paid top dollar for it (many of the people were poor), rather than continuing to do so out of love and Christian service. Their older teenage son had felt called to be a missionary, but they successfully dissuaded him from doing so on the basis of "money is where it's at" parental advice. Sad state of affairs.
 
My 2 cents on some of the decline in church attendance and decline of Boomer Christianity (evangelical).

1. Excessive altar calls. In the early 2000s I attended Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. We had to go to church service every Sunday and 3 chapel services on Mon, Wed, Fri. At the end of every service, all year long, every year, the pastor conducted an altar call with accompanying sappy music. He often used phrases like "do you know that you know if you died tonight you'd be in heaven". I heard of people going up a few times, because, hey, were you really sincere that last time you said the Jesus Prayer? Well, I've been living like a Christian, trying to follow His commandments, etc. Ah! Ah! Ah! That's works bro, that's works.

It didn't take long for me to sour on the Jesus Saves message. I suspect it didn't take long for others, either. Then it dawns on you, why am I listening to all of these sermons if all that matters is the altar call? If I've altar called a few times, and I'm saved, what's the purpose of church? I guess to keep the altar call cycle going. But then let's do the altar call, a quick baptism station and be done with it. Can you spare a minute to get saved? We'll give you a free towel with the Star of David on it. The altar call cheapened church to the point where it's superfluous (the church). If Christians aren't attending church it's because there is, quite reasonably, no reason to do so. You believe, you're saved by grace, now go on and have a blessed day and don't come back now unless you're ready to tithe.

2. Debating atheists. A lot of boomer Christians got caught up in the (((atheism))) debates. By trying so hard to get people to believe God exists, Christianity and living a life for Christ is completely overshadowed. Now the debate is on the age of the earth, the efficacy of science, philosophical problems like the problem of evil or suffering, and examining the historical-critical interpretation of the Bible, the historical method, historical evidence, semantic debates, and on and on. I got caught up in this and felt, "well, what's the point in the rest of it if you don't even believe God exists?" But now we know what the point of the rest of was because of how foul and corrupted our culture has become with the woke and Clown World stuff going on.

I think the 'once saved, always saved' stuff has failed. It didn't conserve our society and culture or even Christianity and so American Protestantism begins to decline. Focusing on whether or not God exists moved the goalposts so far away people even lost power over pronouns. The culture has become clearly demonic, meaning there must also be an opposite, which isn't just what's traditional, but what's Christian. And yet that seems lost, which is why I'm an orthodox inquirer, because I had never heard of theosis (and apparently neither has (((spellcheck))) ) before, I figure there has to be something beyond the simple salvation prayer stuff, which is a recent invention anyway, and that one has to do some kind of work or put in effort into their faith.

I will close with a small anecdote proving this point where some Christian guy produced his own movies. One of them was a movie where he, known as Gramps, goes to college. This was 2000s era. The premise of the movie is how this good Christian man is stunned by the sinfulness of the students and the college. It should be really good with a lot of great points being made all over the place, the field is ripe for threshing, or so I thought. The film quickly degenerated into where gramps debates a science professor who is teaching evolution. The whole thing becomes about this debate and how science is undermining Christianity. I think a lot of good people were duped into having that debate and it helped maintain a lukewarm Christian church.
 
Advorsor said:
Can someone educate me on the correct argument for debating those Christians (mainly evangelicals) who continue to preach we must support jews because “they are God’s chosen people”?

It isn’t clear to me and I’m sick of hearing this. I don’t yet have a clear grasp on the counter here.

Thanks in advance?
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Iacobus gave you a good link to a good thread that gets into this in depth, but to me it is very obvious from just a cursory reading of the New Testament. At Christ's time, some Jews believed in him and therefore came to be called Christians, but that's semantics. By accepting Christ they were just practicing the same true faith as the Old Testament prophets. With Christ's coming the true faith was opened to non Jews too, so you get St. Paul's teaching about how it doesn't matter if you're a Jew or Greek (non-Jew) anymore.

Other Jews rejected Christ and fought against him and betrayed him. Christ and St. Paul condemned them harshly, calling them children of the father of lies, the synagogue of Satan, and so on. These went on to become the ancestors of modern Judaism, which is almost entirely descended from the Pharisees, the main explicit enemies of Christ in the New Testament.

You don't have to be a Biblical scholar at all to see it. I'm not. In fact, if I'm wrong about any of this, someone please correct me.

The problem is that it's very difficult to bring any of this up with normies because they immediately hear badthink/antisemitism and stop listening.
 


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😆 🤣 😂

I wasn't aware of this - and this is insane.

Cardi B, ghetto illiterate thug whore, arguably one of the greatest representations of the destruction of modern women, 3rd highest paid Only Fans prostitute, horribly foul-mouthed female rapper, shill for Biden and globohomo, and overall distributor of endless filth, identifies as 'christian' and is an 'ordained minister' at the Universal Life Church.

She has several videos where she's preaching about 'god', 'the blood of jesus', etc. It's sad that she's misleading so many young women not only with her lifestyle in general but also by acting as their 'priestess'.

Here is the about me page for the 'church':


Here's Cardi B's landing page for it:


Here is the ridiculous wiki page that describes their 'beliefs and practices':


She's not Christian. She's not a minister. She worships satan, probably without even knowing it. This organization is satanic.

She is an extreme example but a lot of people are worshiping satan, at least on some some level, without even realizing it. Just because someone says they believe in God, or even claims to be Christian, we must ask, what god? What beliefs? We know them by their fruits.

America is an mental asylum when it comes to Christianity. 'Cardi B Christians' are running amuck. Her demonic spirit is palpable in others. Witches and warlocks are teaching children online.

There's a Way to avoid this. I know where I'll be.
 
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TrainedLogosmotion said:
Cardi B, ghetto illiterate thug whore, arguably one of the greatest representations of the destruction of modern women, 3rd highest paid Only Fans prostitute, horribly foul-mouthed female rapper, shill for Biden and globohomo, and overall distributor of endless filth, identifies as 'christian' and is an 'ordained minister' at the Universal Life Church.
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I understand your suspicion but be careful with your judgements. The Lord beholds every word you make.

Have we not walked in similar ways? Did not the Lord show us mercy? Be therefore merciful, otherwise the Lord may remove his mercy from you.
 
GodGiveMeStrength said:
A lot of online Orthodox accounts would benefit from worrying less about engagement and more about how they're presenting/representing the faith. I've practically muted more people claiming to be Orthodox than I have secular.
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Yes, we have to be careful to "travel sea and land to make a proselyte, then make him twice as much a son of Gehenna" as we are

Balance and intention are paramount.
 
TrainedLogosmotion said:
America is an mental asylum when it comes to Christianity.
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I agree that all of us need to be working on ourselves, repenting, and being sure to focus more on our own sins than on criticizing those of others.

That said, there is a place for commenting on the madness that passes for "Christianity" today, such as what TrainedLogosmotion is pointing out here. The church needs to have boundaries. Right now, things are so out of control that the word Christianity is losing its meaning. If it can be anything, then it is nothing.

To connect this with the "jesus mansion" incident elsewhere on the forum recently, this is why I don't think that guy was a glowie or a fed. He is simply one more among the many who turn Christianity into their plaything.

This can happen on the "left" as with the chaotic, anything goes, "tolerant" and inclusive and morally-anchorless "Christianity" of Cardi B (whoever that is...).

But it can also happen on the "right", where jesus mansion types, who are probably legitimately fed up with Woke Clown World, cobble together their own ersatz philosophy of freedom, personal sovereignty and individual empowerment based around crypto, web 3.0, location independence, entrepreneurship, and a more-pagan-than-Christian, "traditional" (really feral) notion of male-female roles and relations. As "based Christianity" is -- in this day and age -- a form of rebellion, they add that on to their framework as an assertion of independence from and rejection of Clown World. But it really has nothing to do with real Christianity, and is simply a pagan and instinctive rejection of modern madness.

Anyway, my point is that Christianity has to have boundaries and some relatively fixed meaning. Church councils were held over decades to decide what many see as minor points.

Perhaps it is not the place of ordinary laypeople to get overly involved in fighting those battles, but there is a place for voicing up a defense of the idea that Christianity means something, and not anything, and certainly not the worldly and Luciferian things it is made to mean in much of modern day American Christianity, "left" and "right".

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Matt. 7:21-23​
 
Jeremiah Branch said:
I agree that all of us need to be working on ourselves, repenting, and being sure to focus more on our own sins than on criticizing those of others.

That said, there is a place for commenting on the madness that passes for "Christianity" today, such as what TrainedLogosmotion is pointing out here. The church needs to have boundaries. Right now, things are so out of control that the word Christianity is losing its meaning. If it can be anything, then it is nothing.

To connect this with the "jesus mansion" incident elsewhere on the forum recently, this is why I don't think that guy was a glowie or a fed. He is simply one more among the many who turn Christianity into their plaything.

This can happen on the "left" as with the chaotic, anything goes, "tolerant" and inclusive and morally-anchorless "Christianity" of Cardi B (whoever that is...).

But it can also happen on the "right", where jesus mansion types, who are probably legitimately fed up with Woke Clown World, cobble together their own ersatz philosophy of freedom, personal sovereignty and individual empowerment based around crypto, web 3.0, location independence, entrepreneurship, and a more-pagan-than-Christian, "traditional" (really feral) notion of male-female roles and relations. As "based Christianity" is -- in this day and age -- a form of rebellion, they add that on to their framework as an assertion of independence from and rejection of Clown World. But it really has nothing to do with real Christianity, and is simply a pagan and instinctive rejection of modern madness.

Anyway, my point is that Christianity has to have boundaries and some relatively fixed meaning. Church councils were held over decades to decide what many see as minor points.

Perhaps it is not the place of ordinary laypeople to get overly involved in fighting those battles, but there is a place for voicing up a defense of the idea that Christianity means something, and not anything, and certainly not the worldly and Luciferian things it is made to mean in much of modern day American Christianity, "left" and "right".

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Matt. 7:21-23​
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I think this is why Fr. Seraphim Rose said so many things would be jumbled up and psychological warfare would be to the extreme. In many ways, the world is getting smaller and that is what allows for such propaganda and living in fantasy realms.
 
I had to unjoin the Orthodox Christianity sub on reddit because I said something that violated their antisemitism rules. There is nowhere to go except here to find anyone who is willing to discuss the damage the Jews have done to Christian nations.
 
thinkreadwritecode said:
I had to unjoin the Orthodox Christianity sub on reddit because I said something that violated their antisemitism rules. There is nowhere to go except here to find anyone who is willing to discuss the damage the Jews have done to Christian nations.
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Can you share what you posted that they said violated their rules?
 
thinkreadwritecode said:
I don't want to dox my reddit account but I basically said something to the effect of asking someone if they thought the Jews loved Christ (in relation to Christmas not feeling like Christmas).
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When I talk about the Jews I try to distinguish between non-religious Ashkenazis, Orthodox Jews like Ben Shapiro, and everyone in between. I tend to view those indifferent to Christ, as opposed to hostile, the same as I would Gentile agnostics.

 
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