Born Again Christians

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Farsight one' post='1631402' date='Aug 19 2008, 12:14 AM']I suspect that in the next decade or so, there will be a huge movement in Christianity that begins to reject the trinity (Jesus was entirely God, and not also his son. The holy spirit is not God but just a spirit. Etc.)[/quote]
+J.M.J.+
pssst. they're called unitarians. or universalists. shoot, i can't keep them straight!

[jeffpugh]

didn't Budge keep screaming "Unitarian Universalists" a while back? I think that's the only truth she's ever spoken, that is, organisation's real name.

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='Farsight one' post='1631402' date='Aug 19 2008, 03:14 AM']I've noticed this for quite some time. It's Jesus this and Jesus that. They pray to specifically Jesus. They worship specifically Jesus. Sometimes, when someone prays to the Father, they'll get looks on their faces to suggest that they feel awkward. And there's just never a mention of the Holy Spirit at all. Yeah, they're all the same person, but concentrating on one aspect of that person seems to be improper. I suspect that in the next decade or so, there will be a huge movement in Christianity that begins to reject the trinity (Jesus was entirely God, and not also his son. The holy spirit is not God but just a spirit. Etc.)[/quote]

Are you sure you're not speaking from an experience slanted towards Pentecostalism? They are the only sect of Protestantism that systematically treads dangerously close (or crosses the line at times) of denying the three Divine Persons of the Trinity. You'll never hear someone like Rick Warren, Billy Graham, and I doubt even Joel Osteen challenge the Catholic Church about the Trinity. Every statement of faith you read on an Evangelical or other Protestant Christian church/organization web site will affirm the Trinity. This is probably the one belief that binds all Christians even more so than sharing one Baptism.

But, even if this movement you expect does come to pass, it won't be unprecedented. Only thing is, it would be such a huge and fundamental departure from orthodoxy that I just don't see how it could gain traction. Maybe society will become so relativistic that Christianity turns into believing whatever, in which even perhaps the shining light of Catholicism's authority will shine through the murkiness in a way that it can't at this point. I think the issues within Christianity will have more to do with morality, and especially sexual, reproductive, and other bioethical concerns, than doctrine itself. Obviously, we seen the beginning with contraception, and every time I read the headlines at The Guardian's web site, I think that can only be the beginning.

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='Lil Red' post='1632648' date='Aug 20 2008, 01:08 PM']+J.M.J.+
pssst. they're called unitarians. or universalists. shoot, i can't keep them straight![/quote]

Unitarian/Universalists don't believe anything except in embracing the equality of all religious beliefs. Any particular U/U can be a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, wiccan, or even agnostic/atheist (which I believe my U/U cousin is, but she's never explain what her beliefs are to me). Therefore, they don't deny the Trinity, just as they don't deny any other religious belief.

I suppose, in theory, one could be a faithful Catholic and U/U at the same time. That would be interesting...

[Selah]

We have unitarians around where I live, though they're scarce.

[MakeYouThink]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1632415' date='Aug 20 2008, 01:09 AM']DO NOT go there.
I swear, the next time someone makes a comment like that about me without actually bothing to pay attention to what I'm saying... I don't even know.
DO NOT try that.
Once again, you're 100% blatantly incorrect.[/quote]

I may be wrong, but it's not if I am right or wrong, it is what I perceive as what is going on here.

You make claims that people might perceive as stupid yourself, and go, you're 100 per cent wrong too. There are lots of people reading these posts, and they would go, what is he trying to say?

Nobody can read your mind over the Internet, so how do anybody know what you meant by this. I wouldn't even put such negative stuff on the internet.

[thessalonian]

To our detriment I have to say that many times Catholic neglect the Holy Spirit as well. I also would say it varies and perhaps some of the neglect is from those denominations that believe the gift of tongues and healing and some others ended with the Apostles. I don't know if you can overemphasize Jesus. Maybe if one begins to see him in a oneness manner.

I also find this discussion interesting because many times I get the arguement against praying to the saints that Jesus said to only pray to the Father. Yet when pressing some of these people about praying to Jesus or the Holy Spirit I don't usually get any kind of a response.

God bless

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='MakeYouThink' post='1633049' date='Aug 20 2008, 05:48 PM']You make claims that people might perceive as stupid yourself, and go, you're 100 per cent wrong too. There are lots of people reading these posts, and they would go, what is he trying to say?[/quote]
Please point these out and I'll gladly accept your point.
As far as I know you're wrong about that as well.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='LouisvilleFan' post='1632788' date='Aug 20 2008, 01:20 PM']I suppose, in theory, one could be a faithful Catholic and U/U at the same time. That would be interesting...[/quote]
I don't want to argue with your or anything, but I'm pretty sure that's not true.
To be a true Catholic you'd have to accept the Church as the moral authority, and infallible. U/U will assert that your own conscience by itself is of the utmost importance, and true morality lies soley with the individual. (They assume you won't go crazy, I suppose.)
Of course I'm not U/U, so I'm likely misrepresenting them slightly. No offence to anyone, of course. It's my personal take on it.

[homeschoolmom]

You cannot be both a Catholic and a UU. The one "unifying" belief of UU is that all paths are true and you can find your own path. Catholics, of course, do not believe that all "paths" are true-- just the narrow one.

[LouisvilleFan]

Yeah, I don't think it would work so well in practice, but it does point out the great irony of Universalism because virtually every major religion believes it is "the truth." Just as one couldn't be faithfully Catholic and U/U, same can probably be said for Muslims, Hindus, and others. Thus, in trying to embrace everyone and everything, the U/U philosphy ends up embracing very few people.

I joked with my cousin if I would be welcome at her Unitarian church with a Bush sticker on my car, a gun rack, and promoting traditional marriage.

Edited August 21, 2008 by LouisvilleFan

[MissyP89]

"What I mean is this. An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get in touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows...that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed toward that goal [of getting in touch with God]. So that whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers." -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

I wrote a blog post on this very topic last year. [url="http://faithandthemuse.blogspot.com/2007/03/playing-favorites.html"]Feel free to check it out.[/url]

[MakeYouThink]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1631379' date='Aug 19 2008, 01:27 AM']So... there are born again Christians in the media sometimes. They're very stereotyped of course, but there's something I've started to notice.

They really really focus on Jesus.
They pray to Jesus ("In Jesus' name...").
I get the impression that when they say "Praise the Lord!" they mean Jesus.[/quote]

Why did you say the above three sentenses?

So, instead of putting up the first three sentences, ask if the majority of they believe in the father, son and holy spirit, because it can be interpreted as a judgment.

You through process is not too clear here. Albeit, you did say a whole bunch of ifs, but this is primarily a Catholic Message Board, so you can expect a whole lot of negative comments after this. Some protestants might think you are setting up people to be nasty comments like this

[quote name='HisChildForever' post='1631384' date='Aug 19 2008, 12:32 AM']This just reminds me of that insane woman on [i]Wife Swap[/i].

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE [directed at the camera people], IN JESUS' NAME I PRAY. But if you love Jesus, you can stay."[/quote]

or this one made by you

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1631388' date='Aug 19 2008, 12:34 AM']I was thinking of Dog the Bounty Hunter (who I love in spite of everything! )
Whenever they go out on the hunt, they say a prayer first. They always end with "In Jesus' name, Amen (amen has a long A, of course)" Then the one guy that they almost never show does the sign of the cross. That part cracks me up. [b]I think they secretly shun him.[/b][/quote]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1631395' date='Aug 19 2008, 12:47 AM']That woman is insane.

...but she proved my point "All you dark-sided people, get out of my house! If you believe *in Jesus* you can stay."

That's what I mean.[/quote]

[quote name='Kitty' post='1631421' date='Aug 19 2008, 02:20 AM'][img]http://bp2.blogger.com/_Sw4XAl1XV0g/RnHY_2dsMEI/AAAAAAAAAF0/VXtCsJcbx5s/s400/78748.jpg[/img]

DORKSIDED![/quote]

One of the terms of service on this message board is not to offend people, and how many people just did that by playing into their negative attitudes towards non-catholics?

All caused because you had to put up this stupid post? What did you hope to accomplish by putting this post up? Give your head a shake!

[HisChildForever]

That was the first thing that popped into my head. I was just teasing, bro.

[Selah]

hey, that lady brought it on herself. As Mo'Nique would say, when you act a fool on tv, they have the power to cut it, edit it, etc....so be careful how you portray yourself. it might come back to bite ya in the butt.

Edited August 21, 2008 by Selah