#christian culture

[christian-culture-is]

autistic christian culture is never being properly taught how to pray as a child but all the sources you can find are like "praying is about building a relationship with god try to build a relationship with god" and it's like,, okay?? that's what it's about?? but how is it done?? what's the structure?? i can't do the thing?? if you don't me how to do the thing?? or even just one of the ways to do the thing??

like,, please 🥲 i don't want flowerly language i want an answer to my question

hahah mood

[technicalgrimoire]

I went on a Christian podcast to dispel some of the fear and misconceptions about D&D.

I hope folks listen to this and feel encouraged to try out roleplaying games for themselves, and discover what a life-giving hobby it can be!

[llinstarr]

Being non-Christian but loving Christians symbols is a hard challenge

[esters-notepad]

So I have this semi-secret liturgical art project. It's supposed to be a cycle of four images: white, red, violet and green. I had a lot of trouble putting the violet image together. It wanted to be in portrait format when all images have to be landscape. This morning, I realized that if I let the crucifix and the priest switch places, such that the crucifix is in the middle and the priest is off to one side, then the image works!

[nightsealeafrainwing]

To all Christians who think patriarchy is supported by the Bible, it’s LITERALLY listed in the Curse put on humanity after the fall, right next to birth being extra traumatic, the ground being hard to cultivate, and death. So if trying to increase people’s lifespans, giving mothers epidurals, and innovating better farming technology are good things, then SO IS FIGHTING THE PATRIARCHY.

[idlespright]

Altarraum der Jesuitenkapelle Trier

[ryuutchi]

the thing about cultural Christianity is that it's easiest to discuss on people who aren't Christian:

For example, A pagan says "if the Rapture comes, I know why" because someone is drawing disgusting porn -> I see the cultural Christianity in the reference to the rapture, in the assertion that a wrathful deity cares about the imaginary sex life of humans -> I say "wow, that's a very Christian way of responding to this" -> That pagan gets upset that I'm calling them a "Christian", despite their actual affiliation

But the problem is that whether or not they practice Christianity, the Christian normative values (the rapture is a thing, sexual thoughts are bad, a deity will take negative interest in bad sexual thoughts) are still quite present in the thought pattern.

If the person's Christian, it's just their theology. If a non-Christian perpetuates it, it's Christian CULTURE.

[feedingtheflockministry]

How the DEVIL tries to DISTRACT YOU...

This is how the devil tries to distract you. In this video, Daniel explains how the devil attacks you and keeps you from doing the things God wants you to do.

[gnothi-seayton]

I’ve been catching up on the “culturally Christian” discourse. I’m a bit disappointed that the most active posts are atheists going, “How dare you call me Christian?” instead of taking the opportunity to interrogate some aspects of themselves that are not as de-Christianized as they’d assume. I spent a large part of my youth trying to find those blind spots and I’m a second generation non-Christian.

But this points to what I see as one of the corner stones of Christian culture: emphasis of belief over practice. It started with Paul’s epistles where he introduced the centrality of faith. Jesus spoke of faith in the gospels, but not nearly as much as exhortations about how to live a moral life. Next, the Council of Nicaea established its creed, a series of “we believe…” statements that Christians still recite every week. Nicaea and every subsequent Council has laid down further obligatory sets of beliefs and anathematized anyone who refused to toe the party line. Christian states have made heresy a crime. Conversion became a prerogative. Many were killed because they refused to submit.

This emphasis on belief got cranked up to 11 in the Reformation. Where Catholicism teaches the importance of faith and works, Calvin taught sola fide, salvation by faith alone. Modern philosophy started around the same time and was self-consciously a merely intellectual exercise, unlike ancient philosophy. So when major breaks with Christianity came on the scene, it shouldn’t be a surprise they defined themselves with terms like “atheism” and “skepticism.” Their emphasis was also on (lack of) belief. Atheists evangelize their beliefs and are quick to ridicule any one for wrongthink. Politics are much the same, especially here on Tumblr.

Now contrast that with Judaism and Islam and other religions where relatively more emphasis is placed on correct practice than correct belief. There are certain doctrinal red lines, of course, but it doesn’t come up as often as the importance of prayer ritual (think of phylacteries or salat) or following certain behavioral rules (dietary restrictions, wearing certain clothing). Christian chauvinism tends to look down upon halakah and shariah as being backward or “medieval”. From an orthopraxy perspective, the Christian emphasis on highly specific doctrine might seem like a weird fixation.

I think it’s no coincidence that the Ethical Society was founded by a man who had once trained to become a rabbi. His organization focused on secular congregations and public outreach. Many of the culturally Christian atheists of the time were more interested in publishing tracts or debating Christian ministers.

So to think that even though you come from a Christian culture and perhaps were even raised actively in a church, that simply switching out one belief for another will radically transform who you are and how you interact with the world is incredibly naive. Start by looking at the ways in which you privilege belief over action in your life.

[christian-culture-is]

It really frustrates me when people who aren’t Christians celebrate our holidays. If anyone did that with any other religion they would (rightfully) be called out but when it comes to us nobody cares or worse people will tell us we that deserve it or say we are over reacting.

No matter what someone’s opinion is on this whole debate we can all agree how frustrating it is to have people belittle us whenever we say something about this matter

[esters-notepad]

Hey! Do you have a favorite hymnal? (whether because of the music or because of the hymn texts, in any language)

Hey!

I don't have a favourite hymnal in the sense of "collection of songs for the congregation". However, I do have a favourite organ book. It's this one:

https://digital.ub.uni-paderborn.de/ihd/content/titleinfo/744302

It's a book with organ accompaniments to the Catholic hymnbook of Germany - from 1904. I mostly use it for Catholic hymns from the 19th century. It has the most beautiful Romantic chord progressions. Also, every hymn comes with several intros, so I don't have to write them myself!

[nightsealeafrainwing]

Christian Church culture is fucked up. I’ve been to a ton because I was in a military family (lots of moving), and every time, there’s so much focus on what counts as *not* loving/good/etc that there’s constant pressure to have a perfectly clean mask on while you’re there. Every member of that society is forced to lie about our imperfections despite being reminded often *by our leaders* (the biblically accurate ones anyway) that imperfection is inevitable for us. The whole reason we needed help in the first place is we do shit that breaks relationships and hurts people, making them a little more loveless and continuing the cycle. How are we supposed to support each other (“bear one another’s burdens”) and love each other (every other syllable out of Jesus’ mouth) if we can’t even be completely real without being slightly distanced *at best*? Heart hospitality’s missing, It’s straight up toxic. Subtle when you grew up in it, but toxic. Top priority being “what is loving” and it being “not what is not loving” might sound interchangeable on paper, but this is what happens when “avoid not-love” is more emphasized than “do love” in a community. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk 😆.

[toni-onone]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pastor Mike Jr. (PMJ) (@pastormikejr)

Fruit trees don’t eat the fruit 👀🤔

[noagskryf]

Me: how is it obvious that i was raised in a Christian household

My S Club 7 playlist: huh, i don't know

My autocorrect correcting God to have a captial G: idk man

JATATDC: you've only watched me a couple hundred times

[transfaabulous]

LMAO THE NANOSECOND I POSTED THAT