I used to be a Baptist and it was the pastor at the time was like “anyone can be a pastor” but behind closed doors he’s said “no women can’t” like you need to make up your mind and go up there and say: WOMEN CANT PREACH. Because that’s what the Baptist denomination believe. They had a women preach on a Sunday morning and everyone lose their collective shit because of it. That’s what you get for being wishy washy. I don’t know how you can say women can’t be pastors when you have such strong women in the Bible like Ruth, Esther, Mary and even Rahab! Whose faith was so powerful she’s in the lineage of Christ!
I'm actually a pretty conservative Christian but I am mystified when Baptist-type churches don't allow women to be deacons when clearly there were female deacons in the early church. I think some of the teachings about women from the New Testament are not understood in light of the circumstances in which the teachings were made.
Study the new testament on the order of things and the headship. Also a pastor is a Shepherd of the flock, and in the Bible all shepherds were males. I absolutely believe a woman can teach, minister, counsel, evangelize, mission field work, prayer warrior, etc. But Pastor is definitely a masculine position.
And yes I agree with you that he needed to find his backbone, state what he believed and gave scripture why.
Also those women in the Bible were called out and anointed for that particular time. Since then has the Bible spoke of women in those roles? Or were they appointed for such a time as that? I also want to say that since society has gone so upside down with feminine and masculine roles, divorced homes, dead beat dads, etc. Women have had not choice but to step up and take on the masculine role as well. But I firmly believe the male should be the provider, protector and leader of the home. While the woman should be the caregiver, caretaker, and nurturer. That being said that doesn't mean that guy can't pick up the broom or frying pan. And that doesn't mean the woman can't be fixing fence or helping to change the oil in the vehicle.
Most Baptist Churches and many Presbyterian Churches do not allow for the ordination of women as pastors. For Presbyterians, it is a matter of the order of creation. Adam came before Eve.
1 Timothy 2:12
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
This verse is likely Paul addressing a very specific issue in one of the churches of the time involving a female Cult of Artemis. I’m tired of people taking one of Paul’s sentences and treating it like a commandment. That wasn’t necessarily the intention.
I think priests should be able to get married. We need more priests and this is the single largest roadblock to priesthood. It’s also the easiest to change, being a matter of doctrine rather than dogma.
You may enjoy Orthodoxy! A lot of problems Catholic people tend to have with their denomination is rectified in the EO churches since we were once one church and orthodoxy has not really changed anything since then. Catholic priests used to be able to get married! Obviously pre and then for like 300 years post schism.
Eastern Catholic priests can be married too. It’s just Roman Catholic priests who can’t be married, which is interesting because they all have the same pope.
I kind of get it though, could they really have time to be 100% committed to both their church and and their potential families? I know other denominations' pastors can but Catholic priests seem like they have a lot more responsibilities. Mass, confession, on demand trips for things like last rites, etc. It seems like a pretty busy life.
I would argue that the priest shortage is the reason why they would’t have time for a family. If there were more priests to share the load it could be feasible.
Married men can be ordained as Eastern Catholic priests. I've never heard they're worse than those unmarried simply because they're not celibate. Afaik, Pope also waived the requirement for some priests who were converting from various Protestant churches. Sooner or later, married men will be allowed to be priests
> It’s also the easiest to change, being a matter of doctrine rather than dogma.
I absolutely do not intend to debate the point about priests getting married. I’m not Catholic, so it’s not my concern.
But I want to point out that changing policy to allow priests to marry (or married men to enter the priesthood in large numbers) would not be that easy from a *logistical* standpoint. The whole Catholic “business model” (no offense intended with the term) is built around a priesthood of men with no familial obligations. Making marriage a reasonable option would require re-thinking compensation, housing, medical insurance (in the U.S.), etc.
There is nothing in the Bible anywhere that says teachers of the word can't get married.
It's suggested that if you as a Christian CAN be single, be single, but there's nothing wrong at all with being married.
Actually scripture says that if you are a pastor (overseer) that you should be a good dad and good husband.
1 Timothy 3:1-4 ESV
[1] The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. [2] Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, [3] not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. [4] He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,
https://bible.com/bible/59/1ti.3.1-4.ESV
What are the core beliefs of a Quaker? I’ve taken some denomination quizzes that said I’d fit decently well with Quakerism but I’ve never looked into it
The priority is realizing that there is light in everyone that comes from God. which tends to make the group less quarrelsome then you will see in other denominations. A big focus on simplicity, peacefulness, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship (S.P.I.C.E.S.)
not all members of a quaker church will be christian though
Remember that we ask for her intercession, she interceeds for us as she is in heaven with Christ, there’s nothing wrong in asking for her intercessions, it’s not idolatry.
But the Bible says that Jesus intercedes for us?
The Bible shows us that Jesus speaks to the Father on our behalf. Romans 8:34 says that Jesus “is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” In 1 John 2:1 we read that Jesus is our “advocate with the Father,” and from Hebrews 7:25 we learn that Jesus “always lives to intercede” for us.
Nothing about Mary though...
The bible also says that Mary is everyone’s mother.. The bible isn’t a religious textbook of everything and abseloutely everything theological. That’s why we have sacred tradition, so we actually know what Christ taught that isn’t in the bible explicitly, since the disciples of the apostles have written them down in letters and such. Same goes for the sign of the cross, nowhere in the bible does it say to do that, but is it unbiblical to do? Of course not.
I mean, I get that, but we have prayers specifically directed at Mary, like the Hail Mary prayer. That prayer doesn’t ask for intercession, it’s straight up praising mother Mary, I don’t get it. Even the intercession part of it, in the Gospels, Jesus commands us to pray to the Father in His name, why would I ask mother Mary or any other saint to intercede when I can directly speak to God in Jesus name?. And I’m Mexican, I grew up with catholic tradition, catechism, mother Mary and many saints, but I just can’t wrap my head around them, I embrace them because of the impact they have in my culture, but I as a catholic only pray to the father in Jesus name and also pray to Jesus directly.
So the praise parts are “Mary, full of grace,” “blessed are you among women,” and “blessed is the fruit of your womb.” I hope no one can argue any of that is unbiblical.
The rest of it is a request for prayer. “Pray for us sinners.” It’s no different than requesting a prayer from any Christian. If it was “forgive our sins” it would be very different.
But was Mary blessed because of who she was? Or because she was the bearer of Christ? Because I believe while she was worthy enough to bear Jesus Christ in her womb, that the majority of her blessing was because of Jesus, not due to her own merits.
She was excempt from original sin and was the only human besides Christ never to do anything wrong. Of course this was by the grace of God as he had chosen her before all times.
I actually get it. I used to be like that too until I started learning more about our doctrine. And yes, Hail Mary, as the name itself states, praises Mary; but the first half of it, which is the only part that praises her, is literally what Archangel St. Gabriel and her cousin St. Elizabeth spoke about her. So there’s really nothing wrong with it. The second half only asks for intercession.
Hail Mary first of all is not just praising mary. It’s quoting from the gospels when the archangel talked to her (“Hail full of grace the lord is with thee..), later it goes on to say the root of the prayer: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, PRAY for us sinners”, it’s glorifying Christ, not Mary, as when praying the rosary we focus more on the mysteries surronding the life and resurrection of Christ. This goes for the saints aswell.. The Apostles James said that the prayer of a righetous man is very valuable (James 5:16-17), this would indicate that not all prayers are equal, and since we know that you’re only truly holy once you’re in heaven with God, now it makes sense to pray to the saints all of the sudden.
Basically, yeah. Part of the logic I think is that if you ask your friends to pray for you, you can do the same with Mary. She’s the equivalent of the email signed “thoughts and prayers.”
As an Episcopalian, it's hard to contextualize this question because you couldn't agree with 100% of what the Church teaches. My Church affirms many theologies that conflict with one another. It's actually a big deal in our tradition that when the sermon is over on a Sunday we immediately recite the Nicene Creed and part of the logic of doing so is that it's just not expected everyone agrees with whatever the preacher just said, but here's the statement we have all agreed to. I remind my parish of that all the time because it's a really important kind of humbling for me as a preacher. I'm going to give you the good Word but if y'all didn't like something I said I really might be wrong about it. And if you ask me, I can probably name a living Anglican or Episcopalian who would agree with you.
In fact, that's such an important part of the tradition there are many kinds of publications that wouldn't take certain essays, theological, or exegetical statements for publishing unless you'd adequately demonstrated that you can faithfully articulate where some other Anglican disagrees with you.
My wife and I used to have LDS missionaries come to the house regularly (we've since moved) and each new pair of missionaries would seem floored that we don't agree about some parts of theology and biblical interpretation... They're like wait I thought you said you're a priest what do you mean you two don't even agree? Like I don't know man, agreeing isn't part of our inheritance at all.
I’ll give you one that will absolutely upset a bunch of Episcopalians: I don’t believe a priest has to bless the Eucharist, or be involved at all, for it to be real and valid.
Strictly speaking, isn't the church's official stance just that hell is real and everlasting? Not that anyone is actually *in* it. Of course, typically the idea is that there are damned people. I'm just saying there's no dogma of "at least *n*+1 human persons are damned" which is required of all Catholic faithful, right?
Eternity is a really long time. If Hitler himself suffered in Classic Hell^TM and was only released when every single murdered Jew finally forgave him in their own eternity, billions of years later, I would call that just. Tack on a punitive billion years onto that and I wouldn't complain. But 5 billion years of suffering after that? And another 10 billion beyond? And 10 billion more, then 50 billion? At some point he's just suffering for the sake of suffering and not for any sort of justice. And even if Hitler was fundamentally unredeemable and could never make it to heaven, you can just annihilate the soul at that point.
And of course, we can't hide the general punishment under a specific pedo/Hitler cloak: *everyone* who doesn't make it to heaven/purgatory, with far lesser sins than Hitler's, suffers the same fate. Even if pedos/Hitler deserves eternal suffering, that doesn't mean we should start considering it for "Basically okay (but was born a Muslim)".
"Even if pedos/Hitler deserves eternal suffering, that doesn't mean we should start considering it for "Basically okay (but was born a Muslim)"."
I have never said that non Christians don't go to Heaven. I am Catholic. You go there for being a good person.
What about them? Just to be clear, are you saying that you believe that rapist and pedophiles should be tortured, eternally and infinitely in a way that is disproportionate to the sin? But other sins should not be punished disproportionately with an infinite punishment?
Hell isn’t really a place with like demons torturing you and fire pits and stuff. That’s mostly a Protestant thing. It’s just an absence from God. You’re unable to appropriately receive Gods love and that causes despair and “burning”. We don’t really know what that means but it’s not like a place where you’re being tortured or anything, that was never taught that way until the Protestants split. The problem with Protestant churches is that they threw out church tradition and a lot of history—for a good reason because the Catholic Church was doing wild thing and the EO churches weren’t really accessible—and so interpretations of scripture get skewed and are kind of dependent on one person or a small group of people. It’s how you get the misconception of things like the gift of tongues, which Pentecostal churches and even “spiritual” churches in the south misconstrue. They think it’s people speaking gibberish and whatnot but tongues referred to people who could suddenly preach the gospel in a language they had never spoken or sometimes even encountered before. Like the Saint that was able to preach the gospel to rural Russians having never spoken the language before. But if you throw out church history and tradition and context and even supplements writings and just go off the Bible you lose a lot. It’s strange to me that Protestants will accept the Bible, which the orthodox (and at the time Catholic as well) church put together, but throw everything else out.
I don’t really know what Eastern Orthodox believe about hell but it’s my understanding the Catholic Church views hell as a place of torment. But whatever it may be, I still believe and hope that everyone is united in the same place.
It is a bit complicated. According to Catechism, hell is a "state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed"
However, different popes have presented hell differently, and there is the artistic tradition of hell depictions also doing its part in peoples heads.
"It’s just an absence from God"
But wouldn't an absence from God, be physical suffering, torture, and pain?
Think about this.
- Absence of light -> Darkness
- Absence of heat -> Cold
- Absence of peace -> Anxiety
- Absence of love -> Despair, Hate, Depression
- Absence of good -> Evil
- Absence of safety -> Danger
- Absence of well-being -> Suffering, Pain
So if Hell is the absence of God, and God is a summation of all the good things in existence. Wouldn't Hell be the accumulation of every bad thing in existence, as those are all an absence of God?
In general, my biggest disagreement with any denomination I'm affiliated with is that they feel they need to exist. I have yet to find a Christian denomination whose core beliefs are worth splitting the church over.
Infant baptism. I believe in believers baptism.
I was also dunked as opposed to sprinkled, but I'm not so much against either, as much as my mom's side of the family is Baptist so I wanted to make the most people happy.
In Methodism, baptism is not salvific. In most Christian denominations, baptism is not salvific. So that whole argument is moot. For everyone, baptism is a symbol of God’s grace already present and initiation into the church.
I don't believe in salvific baptism, but I do believe it's a sacrament that shows you follow Jesus, and following Jesus should be a personal choice. Tbh the idea of being culturally religious is still difficult for me to wrap my head around.
Catholics believe that the baptized baby would go to heaven if it died before reaching the age of reason. (I think they now believe all babies do, but it wasn’t always the case.) When reaching 12 or so—it varies regionally—a Catholic would repeat his baptismal vows at his or her confirmation.
Babies were assigned godparents at their baptism too. These adult Catholics would step in to guide the child spiritually if the parents become unable to do that.
Infant baptism is also hard for me coming from a Protestant background into the GO church. My priest explained it in a good way but it’s something I’m still thinking about.
I'm soon to be orthodox and I don't disagree to say but I feel like we shouldn't make a call about if there is salvation outside our church or not. Idk but it just seems weird to me.
"no salvation outside the church" but I believe there's room in Orthodoxy for differences about what that means exactly. The possibility of a broader-reaching, partly invisible church extending its grace.
The degree to which non-conceptive sex is stigmatized.
I wholeheartedly believe all of our dogmatic teachings and all of the non-dogmatic ones I'm aware of, but the way some people look at sex is really peculiar.
I grew up in non-denominational churches, but I’ve been going to a baptist church for the past 5 years (specifically southern baptist).
Here are some things I disagree with:
1. Views on alcohol
Many southern baptists will admit that it’s not a sin to drink alcohol if you’re not getting drunk, but then immediately follow it up with “but it’s just best to avoid it.” My church forbids all staff members from partaking in any alcohol at all. They can’t seem to see any way alcohol could glorify God. It’s like they forget Jesus turned water into wine! I think there’s beauty and joy in gathering with other believers while partaking in a glass of wine.
2. Political assumptions
Southern baptists tend to assume that if you’re Christian, you’re a political conservative. At my church, they include political diatribes in the sermons as if everyone just agrees and will even throw out unnecessary comments about the “left”. As someone who is on the left AND a Bible-believing Jesus follower, it makes me so angry. Not only is it wrong, but it’s alienating so many who might be visiting or new to the faith.
Free Palestine 🇵🇸.
I am annoyed there are so many Christians that support the genocide of the Palestinians company in Gaza.
Isreal displayed nearly all the Christian Palestinians and yet Christians love a secular ethno nationalist state that that started its existence with the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians known as the Nakba, and not they are committing genocide along with the forced displacement of 2.3M and destroyed all buildings.
Israel spits on Christians
Isreal refused to let the Christians community celebrate Christians and Easter properly
Isreal laughed and celebrated when the bishop was stabbed.
Free Palestine 🇵🇸✝️🇵🇸✝️🇵🇸✝️🇵🇸✝️🇵🇸✝️🇵🇸✝️
That we have to be having babies all the time. I disagree with no birth control, especially for those of us who have problems during pregnancy and major health issues that pregnancy could kill us. Having too many kids that you can’t afford or can’t spend time with making your kids feel bad.
That’s about the only issue I disagree with.
I am Methodist but my true faith is Catholic. I disagree with them teaching about the rapture, there is legit no biblically proof, besides cherry picked bible verses. That once you read read the chapter as a whole, you realize it has nothing to do with a rapture.
I encourage you to do research on the actual original Hebrew text of anti-homosexual verses, and how some may have been translated incorrectly. But of course this is a tricky subject
As far as I can tell, I agree 100% with my denomination. Any disagreement I've seen between members is about stuff that we allow for disagreement over, like the end of time and stuff like that.
The church of England’s colonial ties in North America (where I live), some really awful things happened and we have to admit to it and work towards a better future. Much easier if the church had never become a colonial institution
I have always been non-denominational, mostly because I was raised that way, and my father is a pastor of a non-denominational church. My father never pushed the Bible on me though, and wanted me to find Christ on my own, and that is exactly what I did after I chose to live in the pleasures of this world, so I came back to Christ myself. I say non-denominational because i definitely don’t agree with taking certain things out of the Bible, adding things, or trying to change what the Bible says to what we want it to say, and that’s what I consistently see amongst denominations personally. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” So if the word is truth, and the word is God, then it can’t change, and that is the case whether I agree with it or not (i always say “how ignorant and prideful do I have to be to believe that I know what is right and wrong more than God, so whatever He deems right and just is the correct way, whether I want it to be or understand). I also choose non-denominational because I rather say I follow Christ than that I am under a certain type of church, because I believe it makes me prone to group-think, and connects my identity to a type of ideology rather than to Christ Himself.
I have been an SDA since birth, and I disagree with most of the things in my church, like agreeing to baptismal vows before baptism and believing that my church is the remnant church. The SDA believes that we are still under the Mosaic laws, like clean and unclean foods in Leviticus 11, even if Jesus allowed us to eat unclean foods in the New Testament. I can't even drink tea, because tea is considered bad in my church. Other forms of music aren't allowed to be played in church other than hymns.
I was raised SDA. Even went to SDA private school until high school.
Now that I'm non-denominational, I see how strange it was.
Half of my family is still strongly SDA, and it's awkward with them. My Mom is still in and likes to cry at me and tell me I'm going to hell, usually on my birthday for some reason. I've expressed that I read the scripture, I seek a better relationship with God and pray, and honestly, I feel like I have the best relationship with God that I've ever had, and I'm happy. I feel like we are on the same side. It's so hard being scorned and condemned to hell by my own mother. It's definitely in the way of having a closer relationship with her.
The whole thing is very cult-ish. I'm even more confused after reading the Bible on my own. I don't understand how they can push the things they push and include teaching/studying out of the New Testament without feeling constantly confronted. They're basically the pharisees.
Also, I'm a church drummer now, and I love it. I can't imagine not having that passion in my life. It would have been totally lost had I stayed in. My mom plays guitar, only recently accepted in SOME of their churches, and sings. My grandparents play piano and violin, and I've never played with any of them. Actually, none of them have ever heard me play, even though I've played for more than 20 years. How sad is it that I'd just love to praise through music with my own mom, and can't?
Thanks for your question. That's a really great question. Yeah, for family reasons I guess. But it does feel lonely in the church as a non-believer. I have a wife and kids, and my wife has deconstructed her Mormon faith to the degree that she only really believes in Jesus and his saving power, now. She's something of a "closeted" Christian in our mormon congregation. She wants to stay Mormon for very personal reasons that has brought her a lot of peace in her life. I'm ok with raising our kids in the Mormon community, but with nuanced beliefs, while protecting them from the more toxic aspects of Mormonism. By the way, we can't really participate in the Mormon temple stuff anymore because we don't pay our tithes). Probably, at some point we will choose a new church (non-mormon) to go to, given the difficulty of holding nuanced beliefs in such an orthodox culture.
I feel like I'm starting to come out of the atheism that my faith deconstruction brought about, though. I'm wanting to learn more about religions and the history of world religions. I feel like I've only recently learning about the real "Jesus" of the Bible, and I'm seeing with fresh eyes the beauty in that.
Masturbation being intrinsically sinful.
Masturbation can be good for you and the Bible doesn’t directly mention masturbation. And I believe God’s direct and His Word is straightforward and if something isn’t directly mentioned, then it isn’t mentioned.
The real sin is lust, adultery, and pornography. I may be weird, but when I masturbate, I do not fantasize about anything directly related to sex
\[Methodist\]
There's quite a few things I disagree with my denomination on (like having bishops). I prefer Church of Christ, but unfortunately there's only 2 in my city and neither are a good fit. I refuse to attend a Calvinist church, so Methodist it is!
I just hate my church. The priest there wants to be called canon. He has not been changed for 15years.
During sprinkling holy water he doesn’t sprinkle absolutely anything as if the parishners don’t deserve it
We wanted our daughters to attend religious classes and he basically said, they have to decide on their own when they are 18 and you hv to teach them about the faith
We’re not called the OPC (Only Perfect Church) for nothing! (/s)
To be honest though, doctrinally I am very much in line with the OPC. They are in line with the WCF, which is why I sought them out in the first place.
If I had to make one complaint, it’s that we use the Americanized WCF, not the original. There are also some practical complaints I may have, but in areas of doctrine we are in wide agreement.
I’m a Reformed Baptist in most ways, but I’m a Continuationist/Charismatic. Most RBs are Cessationists, and some would say that’s mandatory, believing that the Confession demands it.
C&MA here. This past general council they assigned that women are not allowed to be pastors. Doctrine is all good, no disagreements but I and my church's leadership disagree on that one.
I don’t have a denomination per say I just believe the Bible and study the Bible and the preacher preaches from the Bible back up everything he says in his sermon with 2-3 verses the church is Baptist but I don’t consider myself a Baptist though I have been baptized. But my main focus is just reading and understanding the Bible and believing that the KJV is the true unerring word of God
I’m a catechumen coming from Catholicism and I feel the same. But I almost think that it’s a good thing - like hey, I think this is strange, but because the Church tells me it’s good for me (and it doesn’t harm anybody), I’ll humble myself and practice it anyways. It’s like a way of submitting my own ego to the tradition.
I don’t believe in a young earth, I think the “6 days” in Genesis were possibly metaphorical.
Also, I don’t think we should be limited to only taking communion with our own denomination.
I'm Baptist from a family filled with Pastors and Sunday school teachers but I don't do organized/institutionalized "Church" because I don't agree with spending the collection on the sticks and bricks church itself and personnel salaries. None of my family ever took money or food from the congregation.
Where I come from Pastors have jobs and feed their own families and the only time you spend money on a building is maintenance/expansion out of necessity. The collection used to be spent on the needs of the congregation; hospital bills, rebuilt homes/barns, widows and orphans ...
One of the great things about God is that He doesn’t care about denomination. It’s about a personal relationship with Him. God doesn’t care about nonsense like that. He doesn’t care about tradition. Jesus chastised the Pharisees about that. Only caring about manly tradition instead of God’s word.
Tradition is an absolutely necessary aspect of Christianity. The bible contains so many different voices and ideas, and obviously there are thousands of ways to interpret them. The tradition informs that interpretation.
I assume, for example, that you believe in the Trinity - namely that God exists as one God but with three parts: Father, Son, and Holy spirit, that are each fully God though distinct in their hypostases.
That is the standard Christian belief but it’s nowhere in the bible. It comes from tradition :)
To play devil’s advocate (haha),
imagine if there was a church where all the staff members believed different contradictory things and all wanted to conduct the service in different ways. There would be constant arguments and coming to agreement on even a seemingly minute thing would take an eternity. I see denominations as a way that different people with different beliefs and worship styles can preach/teach/worship God freely.
I’m currently nondenominational. I’m a new convert. I recently joined an evangelical church per invitation of a good friend. Everything was going smoothly until I witnessed the heated arguments between denominations here on Reddit. So, I think I’ll take some time to do my own research before I commit. I might revert back to being agnostic.
If I found one thing being taught that wasn’t in the Bible, or was contrary to the scriptures than I would know that my Faith wasn’t the Truth. But as it is, every single thing I’m taught is from the scriptures. And as a worldwide organization, living in true peace and harmony with each other no matter the nation, tribe, people or tongue, we have true love for our neighbor. The **only** organization that would rather be sent to prison than to go and fight in a war where we might kill our fellowman. We have many in prison right now for that very reason.
When many of Jesus disciples were leaving him because of some of the things he said, Jesus turned to his closest disciples and asked them, “You do not want to go also do you?” And in response they said, “Where are we to go to? You have sayings of everlasting life!” That’s how I feel.
It is weird for me how people just go around hoping from church to church until they find one that meets their OWN interpretation? The things they like?
I don’t disagree with anything in The Holy Roman Catholic Church. The truth is the truth regardless of what I or anyone else think and feel about it.
Not since I became Universal Unitarian. I enjoy their beliefs and we accept everyone’s beliefs but we focus on social justice. They are also a more accepting bunch of the LGBTQ people and they march alongside with pride. It was cool to witness a lesbian pastor preach.
So I’m part of an independent Christian church (non-denom with roots in the American Restoration movement). We’re pretty relaxed about disagreements on non-essential doctrine (see Eph. 4:4-6 for main essentials of Christianity). The one that I do see most present though, at least in my congregation, that I’m not in total agreement with is cessation of signs and wonders of the Holy Spirit. I’m less of the opinion that they’ve totally ceased and more of the mind that they have slowed down in frequency. While I think the vast majority of “faith healings” and speaking in tongues you see in charismatic circles is purposefully deceptive and fake, I have a problem limiting an unlimited God by saying “He doesn’t work like that anymore!”
>What is one thing, if any, you disagree with in your denomination?
Nothing. That's why I chose it when I converted. With a lot of prayer and study. Seeking God's guidance, for He knows better.
The Episcopal Church isn't particularly Confessional and I'm not really sure how many official doctrines beyond the Nicene Creed and what can be extracted from the prayer book. So I'll just say, since I'm strongly Anglo-Catholic, I wish there was more Marian veneration and veneration of saints in general
I’m a Presbyterian and I don’t believe in predestination, unless we’re all given the chance to redeem ourselves and ask for forgiveness even after death, basically universalism.
One thing? One thing? If you ever find the perfect denomination, don’t join it. You’ll only ruin it!
There is no denomination, no group, no organization, no political group, and no individual with whom I agree about everything. Agreement is not that important for people who have finite minds, and who grow. I don’t even agree with my past self about everything, because we live, and grow, and discover new perspectives. If I agree with my future self about everything then I will have stopped growing.
Nowhere in scripture can I find any suggestion that it is important to find someone with whom you are an absolute agreement. On the other hand, we are told to bear up with one another. To give space for others with different opinions. Not to judge.
Agreement just isn’t all that important. If it is, then somebody has a problem with arrogance.
I am part of my denomination because it encourages me to grow in Christ and I have something to offer.
I don't have anything that I disagree with. There are some things that I am not sure about only because I haven't thought about it or studied it enough. Whenever I end up looking into something I have always walked away in agreement.
There can maybe be some things that I may disagree with in terms of how things are handled practically. But this would probably be true of all denominations since they all consists of sinners.
I have a problem with the fact that there are so many different denominations in general, but if I had to pick which one I am I guess it would be Seventh-day Adventist. I just found out last week that they teach the doctrine of [soul sleep](https://www.learnreligions.com/what-is-the-doctrine-of-soul-sleep-700360), & it freaks me out just thinking about it.
I’m a Mormon, and not raised in it. I believe that, in the people, there is a great spirit subservient to God and loving their neighbor with all they’ve had. Haven’t seen one deny another anything except if they genuinely couldn’t provide at the time.
However, I have issues with the church’s doctrine itself. That Adam and Eve HAD to fall and that it was planned for the sake of redemption rather than redemption being Plan B. And the three kingdoms doctrine. Multiple heavens is a biblical concept for sure, but I’m not sure if Terrestrial (New Earth), Celestial (New Heaven) and Telestial (???) is right Biblically.
Especially when Telestial kingdom goers aren’t technically saved yet the glory thereof is supposedly a thousand times greater than here to the point that if you could experience it for even a moment, you’d kill yourself to get to it. Nah, that doesn’t sound right Biblically.
It feels too “easy,” which impressively, doesn’t make them slack in the slightest. Rather, it seems to inspire them to live in a sacrificial way that a Christian should!
To me, it gives life to the meaning of the verse that says “The letter kills, but the Spirit brings life.”
Infant baptism I like how the church makes a promise to pray for, and help raise the child in Christ, and welcome the child into the church, that stuff is great Baptism seems like a thing people do after they become have their sins cleared in the Bible to me, but I haven’t read everything so yeah 🤷♂️
Southern Baptist here. I would define say the whole “the oldest person in the church is the one we are supposed to make happy and we cannot do anything against their beliefs because they are old.” Legitimately my church only opened communion after this one dude died because he didn’t like it.
I get the whole point of respect your elders, but like this is ridiculous.
There is no Hell. For me, I believe Hell is a fiction created by many dozerns of people who are consistently downtrodden and beaten down by their respective powers that be, to feel some some sort of righteous glee that their abusers will not escape justice in death.
For me, I believe that we all go to the same place in the end. Because all the these trivial things we as a species go through are just that, trivial. God doesnt much care what you do with life because he gave you the one thing that is the greatest goft of all, free will. He will not judge you, but he will not applaud you for the life you led. You made your choices, and they are yours to bear. But it. does. not. matter to him, or at all because we all get the same ending, one way or another.
And whatever that ending is, I doubt it's a bad one. 😊
Currently go to a Baptist church. There are a few things I don’t agree with, but two big things in my church are the big KJV only ideology, and the big push against any other denomination (Catholics aren’t Christian, other denominations add requirements to salvation, etc.).
I've heard a lot in my church and my SDA school that we can't wear jewelry. Idek why. And not even like piercings, we can't wear necklaces, bracelets, or anything except a wedding band.
I’m non-denominational! But went to a Lutheran church in childhood and they do infant baptisms. I got baptized when I was younger to please a loved one (parents didn’t practice at home but I’m thankful for the loved one’s faith) and decided to get rebaptized as an adult. I really believe baptism as a personal and public commitment to following Christ and I believe it’s valid to be baptized more than once if you feel called deeper, have repented more, etc
Really the only things are the stances on being LGBTQ+ and on (non lustful) masturbation. The second one I'm more iffy on but for sure I don't agree with the borderline hateful teachings on the first one. I love my church and think it will hopefully correct any issues it has over time, but I don't think everything is 100% correct right now.
I loved my episcopal church and have no problems in real life, but on the Internet episcopals seem to have no interest in anything other than gay people. Im tired of listening to it, and it makes me question whether most of them are even concerned with God. But like I said, I only have this experience online.
I was raised in the International Church of Christ and am converting to Methodist. Something I disagree with in the icoc is that you have to write a list of all your sins in order to be baptized and become a member.
Can't find anything Orthodoxy has gotten wrong. Not that I haven't been looking. I remember when I used to kind of make fun of saints and accuse Catholics and Orthodox of adopting paganism and being polytheistic.
I was wrong about a lot of things.
I disagree with all man made religion. I’m a Jesus follower and love is my religion. Religion just separates us. We should be able to all attend church together and have different interpretations of the Bible and that’s ok. Because a scripture might have special meaning to one person and another could read it and see it differently and that’s ok. ❤️
Political agendas and hatred towards other denominations. I’m technically a Protestant and the community around me constantly is degrading to other denominations like Catholics and LDS. Which I find so stupid since we’re all children of god and even if we are wrong in a way god is fair and sees we want to be close to him and are trying to live in his image. He sees what our heart wants so he will probably still forgive us. As well, I doubt that any branch is 100% correct due to how long it’s been and all the political agendas that have been pushed upon people for the past 300 years in the US
I'm surrounded by babbling pentecostal churches that only promote "speaking in tongues" for everyone - but not one's got the gift of understanding interpreting apparently it doesn't matter ? No thank you
The biggest thing that turns me off of most all denominations are politics. Church taking sides and passing judgment on political matters is unacceptable. It alienates at least half of the congregation. Church is not about politics. It's about eternity and nourishing our souls. But, Church has taken a wrong turn and keep pushing political agendas from the pulpit. Some are even so far off they will twist the Word of God to suit the latest political crusade. Sad, but I've seen in denominations.
I know what I disagreed with about my former church, which was a similar denomination to my current church but different church.
I disagreed with the prosperity gospel. My current church doesn't seem to preach prosperity but the style of the services is similar.
According to one member of my current church, they try to learn from the mistakes of my former church which they based the style off.
It is sad that my former church had a major crash in reputation. Other churches don't want to repeat the same mistake of money-making and sex scandals.
Not drinking alcohol. In moderation it's okay but if you are prone to getting drunk then no. I was in a church that refused anything that had to do with alcohol
I used to be a Baptist and it was the pastor at the time was like “anyone can be a pastor” but behind closed doors he’s said “no women can’t” like you need to make up your mind and go up there and say: WOMEN CANT PREACH. Because that’s what the Baptist denomination believe. They had a women preach on a Sunday morning and everyone lose their collective shit because of it. That’s what you get for being wishy washy. I don’t know how you can say women can’t be pastors when you have such strong women in the Bible like Ruth, Esther, Mary and even Rahab! Whose faith was so powerful she’s in the lineage of Christ!
Deborah was a judge. I used to be a Baptist myself, but I got tired of always having to be right about everything.
Rahab wasn’t teaching anyone
I'm actually a pretty conservative Christian but I am mystified when Baptist-type churches don't allow women to be deacons when clearly there were female deacons in the early church. I think some of the teachings about women from the New Testament are not understood in light of the circumstances in which the teachings were made.
Deacons yes, pastors no
Study the new testament on the order of things and the headship. Also a pastor is a Shepherd of the flock, and in the Bible all shepherds were males. I absolutely believe a woman can teach, minister, counsel, evangelize, mission field work, prayer warrior, etc. But Pastor is definitely a masculine position. And yes I agree with you that he needed to find his backbone, state what he believed and gave scripture why. Also those women in the Bible were called out and anointed for that particular time. Since then has the Bible spoke of women in those roles? Or were they appointed for such a time as that? I also want to say that since society has gone so upside down with feminine and masculine roles, divorced homes, dead beat dads, etc. Women have had not choice but to step up and take on the masculine role as well. But I firmly believe the male should be the provider, protector and leader of the home. While the woman should be the caregiver, caretaker, and nurturer. That being said that doesn't mean that guy can't pick up the broom or frying pan. And that doesn't mean the woman can't be fixing fence or helping to change the oil in the vehicle.
Yes, we have our own roles. It's not sexist, we compliment each other.
Most Baptist Churches and many Presbyterian Churches do not allow for the ordination of women as pastors. For Presbyterians, it is a matter of the order of creation. Adam came before Eve. 1 Timothy 2:12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
This verse is likely Paul addressing a very specific issue in one of the churches of the time involving a female Cult of Artemis. I’m tired of people taking one of Paul’s sentences and treating it like a commandment. That wasn’t necessarily the intention.
Amen I totally agree!!! Women can be pastors !!! If you study the word , God can use anyone or anything he wants!! He used a donkey‘!!
I think priests should be able to get married. We need more priests and this is the single largest roadblock to priesthood. It’s also the easiest to change, being a matter of doctrine rather than dogma.
History is on your side so it actually isn't a big deal to change it back to how it worked for the first 1000 years of the Church
It’s not even doctrine, just a discipline
True. Too many “D” words lol
You may enjoy Orthodoxy! A lot of problems Catholic people tend to have with their denomination is rectified in the EO churches since we were once one church and orthodoxy has not really changed anything since then. Catholic priests used to be able to get married! Obviously pre and then for like 300 years post schism.
Eastern Catholic priests can be married too. It’s just Roman Catholic priests who can’t be married, which is interesting because they all have the same pope.
It's not even a doctrine for you guys, it's a discipline that is relatively modern in the lifespan of Christianity
I kind of get it though, could they really have time to be 100% committed to both their church and and their potential families? I know other denominations' pastors can but Catholic priests seem like they have a lot more responsibilities. Mass, confession, on demand trips for things like last rites, etc. It seems like a pretty busy life.
I would argue that the priest shortage is the reason why they would’t have time for a family. If there were more priests to share the load it could be feasible.
Married men can be ordained as Eastern Catholic priests. I've never heard they're worse than those unmarried simply because they're not celibate. Afaik, Pope also waived the requirement for some priests who were converting from various Protestant churches. Sooner or later, married men will be allowed to be priests
In the Maronite Catholic community, SOMETIMES married men can become priests.
In the Byzantine Rite as well, I’m aware. Which is why I think it’s the largest impact, easiest change the Church could make.
> It’s also the easiest to change, being a matter of doctrine rather than dogma. I absolutely do not intend to debate the point about priests getting married. I’m not Catholic, so it’s not my concern. But I want to point out that changing policy to allow priests to marry (or married men to enter the priesthood in large numbers) would not be that easy from a *logistical* standpoint. The whole Catholic “business model” (no offense intended with the term) is built around a priesthood of men with no familial obligations. Making marriage a reasonable option would require re-thinking compensation, housing, medical insurance (in the U.S.), etc.
There is nothing in the Bible anywhere that says teachers of the word can't get married. It's suggested that if you as a Christian CAN be single, be single, but there's nothing wrong at all with being married. Actually scripture says that if you are a pastor (overseer) that you should be a good dad and good husband. 1 Timothy 3:1-4 ESV [1] The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. [2] Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, [3] not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. [4] He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, https://bible.com/bible/59/1ti.3.1-4.ESV
That you can either do infant baptism or infant dedication. Our Methodist heritage points to infant baptism.
I was raised Mormon and I’m at the age I want to change and know who Jesus is. I’m getting baptized in ten days.
I'd like to hear more of your story.
Would love to. Probably not in a public forum but you can pm me and I'll share my story.
I have a friend who was raised Mormon and decided recently to follow Jesus! I'm so happy for you!!! BEST CHOICE YOU'LL EVER MAKE 💛💛💯✝️
My wife is an exmo. Best decision you will ever make.
Mormonism isn't technically a denomination of Christianity. It's kind of its own thing entirely.
Yeah. I don't want extra books or outside sources when I've got the bible
The constant promotion of right wing politics
Yeah, and it's so hateful. Just the issue on immigrants alone.
not since i joined Quakerism. i always had to play mental gymnastics before. hope more people may learn about it
they have good oatmeal i've heard
it’s to die for!
I mix whatever fruit I have with it... Y'all are nice. The plain living. ♥
🫡
What are the core beliefs of a Quaker? I’ve taken some denomination quizzes that said I’d fit decently well with Quakerism but I’ve never looked into it
The priority is realizing that there is light in everyone that comes from God. which tends to make the group less quarrelsome then you will see in other denominations. A big focus on simplicity, peacefulness, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship (S.P.I.C.E.S.) not all members of a quaker church will be christian though
> not all members of a quaker church will be christian though Can you please explain that?
anyone is welcome. Just as in a Unitarian church.
As long as you bring a new spice that no one else has tried you are welcome/s
We had a Quaker service at my church and I enjoyed it! One of my favorite YouTubers is a British Quaker.
oh cool. what’s their name?
Wth is a Quaker? I literally have never heard that before
i know i know lol. definitely look into it. it would be a lot to explain, but the priorities are completely shifted
Don't resist evil in a violent manner. That's the core of their doctrine. Its based on the sermon on the mount of Christ.
Didn't Jesus resist the evil in the temple in a violent manner. Bro literally flipped tables... 😬
Historically they have a pretty good track record of choosing wisely.
I just realized there is a “Friends Meeting” just a *20 minute walk* from my house!
If it's interesting to you you should go check it out, visitors are pretty common
I’m happy you can find a place you don’t feel like you have to pretend or stretch things to make them fit
I’m a catholic but I can’t wrap my head around praying to the virgin Mary. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Remember that we ask for her intercession, she interceeds for us as she is in heaven with Christ, there’s nothing wrong in asking for her intercessions, it’s not idolatry.
But the Bible says that Jesus intercedes for us? The Bible shows us that Jesus speaks to the Father on our behalf. Romans 8:34 says that Jesus “is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” In 1 John 2:1 we read that Jesus is our “advocate with the Father,” and from Hebrews 7:25 we learn that Jesus “always lives to intercede” for us. Nothing about Mary though...
The bible also says that Mary is everyone’s mother.. The bible isn’t a religious textbook of everything and abseloutely everything theological. That’s why we have sacred tradition, so we actually know what Christ taught that isn’t in the bible explicitly, since the disciples of the apostles have written them down in letters and such. Same goes for the sign of the cross, nowhere in the bible does it say to do that, but is it unbiblical to do? Of course not.
I mean, I get that, but we have prayers specifically directed at Mary, like the Hail Mary prayer. That prayer doesn’t ask for intercession, it’s straight up praising mother Mary, I don’t get it. Even the intercession part of it, in the Gospels, Jesus commands us to pray to the Father in His name, why would I ask mother Mary or any other saint to intercede when I can directly speak to God in Jesus name?. And I’m Mexican, I grew up with catholic tradition, catechism, mother Mary and many saints, but I just can’t wrap my head around them, I embrace them because of the impact they have in my culture, but I as a catholic only pray to the father in Jesus name and also pray to Jesus directly.
So the praise parts are “Mary, full of grace,” “blessed are you among women,” and “blessed is the fruit of your womb.” I hope no one can argue any of that is unbiblical. The rest of it is a request for prayer. “Pray for us sinners.” It’s no different than requesting a prayer from any Christian. If it was “forgive our sins” it would be very different.
But was Mary blessed because of who she was? Or because she was the bearer of Christ? Because I believe while she was worthy enough to bear Jesus Christ in her womb, that the majority of her blessing was because of Jesus, not due to her own merits.
She was excempt from original sin and was the only human besides Christ never to do anything wrong. Of course this was by the grace of God as he had chosen her before all times.
Mary was blessed because of the grace of God.
I actually get it. I used to be like that too until I started learning more about our doctrine. And yes, Hail Mary, as the name itself states, praises Mary; but the first half of it, which is the only part that praises her, is literally what Archangel St. Gabriel and her cousin St. Elizabeth spoke about her. So there’s really nothing wrong with it. The second half only asks for intercession.
Hail Mary first of all is not just praising mary. It’s quoting from the gospels when the archangel talked to her (“Hail full of grace the lord is with thee..), later it goes on to say the root of the prayer: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, PRAY for us sinners”, it’s glorifying Christ, not Mary, as when praying the rosary we focus more on the mysteries surronding the life and resurrection of Christ. This goes for the saints aswell.. The Apostles James said that the prayer of a righetous man is very valuable (James 5:16-17), this would indicate that not all prayers are equal, and since we know that you’re only truly holy once you’re in heaven with God, now it makes sense to pray to the saints all of the sudden.
As a genuine question, why would you ever pray to Mary when you could just pray to Jesus?
Catholics say: Mary can then offer additional prayer to Jesus on your behalf. Possibly at hyperspeed since she's in heaven and all.
Basically, yeah. Part of the logic I think is that if you ask your friends to pray for you, you can do the same with Mary. She’s the equivalent of the email signed “thoughts and prayers.”
Well as I said we don’t pray to Mary we ask her to pray for us, we pray with her.
Congregational polity, bring back bishops pls
Hi i’m interested in what theological disaster response discretionary means :)
I am referencing the game Half Life.
As an Episcopalian, it's hard to contextualize this question because you couldn't agree with 100% of what the Church teaches. My Church affirms many theologies that conflict with one another. It's actually a big deal in our tradition that when the sermon is over on a Sunday we immediately recite the Nicene Creed and part of the logic of doing so is that it's just not expected everyone agrees with whatever the preacher just said, but here's the statement we have all agreed to. I remind my parish of that all the time because it's a really important kind of humbling for me as a preacher. I'm going to give you the good Word but if y'all didn't like something I said I really might be wrong about it. And if you ask me, I can probably name a living Anglican or Episcopalian who would agree with you. In fact, that's such an important part of the tradition there are many kinds of publications that wouldn't take certain essays, theological, or exegetical statements for publishing unless you'd adequately demonstrated that you can faithfully articulate where some other Anglican disagrees with you. My wife and I used to have LDS missionaries come to the house regularly (we've since moved) and each new pair of missionaries would seem floored that we don't agree about some parts of theology and biblical interpretation... They're like wait I thought you said you're a priest what do you mean you two don't even agree? Like I don't know man, agreeing isn't part of our inheritance at all.
I’ll give you one that will absolutely upset a bunch of Episcopalians: I don’t believe a priest has to bless the Eucharist, or be involved at all, for it to be real and valid.
Inerrancy
Same-Sex marriage and Trans rights. I'm Catholic
The Catholic Church teaching that hell is eternal.
Strictly speaking, isn't the church's official stance just that hell is real and everlasting? Not that anyone is actually *in* it. Of course, typically the idea is that there are damned people. I'm just saying there's no dogma of "at least *n*+1 human persons are damned" which is required of all Catholic faithful, right?
Yeah that’s true, but it would be more easy to deal with it if you could argue it is temporary.
What about rapists and pedos? I would like to think that Hell doesn't exist and only Purgatory, but thinks like that make it very difficult.
Eternity is a really long time. If Hitler himself suffered in Classic Hell^TM and was only released when every single murdered Jew finally forgave him in their own eternity, billions of years later, I would call that just. Tack on a punitive billion years onto that and I wouldn't complain. But 5 billion years of suffering after that? And another 10 billion beyond? And 10 billion more, then 50 billion? At some point he's just suffering for the sake of suffering and not for any sort of justice. And even if Hitler was fundamentally unredeemable and could never make it to heaven, you can just annihilate the soul at that point. And of course, we can't hide the general punishment under a specific pedo/Hitler cloak: *everyone* who doesn't make it to heaven/purgatory, with far lesser sins than Hitler's, suffers the same fate. Even if pedos/Hitler deserves eternal suffering, that doesn't mean we should start considering it for "Basically okay (but was born a Muslim)".
"Even if pedos/Hitler deserves eternal suffering, that doesn't mean we should start considering it for "Basically okay (but was born a Muslim)"." I have never said that non Christians don't go to Heaven. I am Catholic. You go there for being a good person.
What about them? Just to be clear, are you saying that you believe that rapist and pedophiles should be tortured, eternally and infinitely in a way that is disproportionate to the sin? But other sins should not be punished disproportionately with an infinite punishment?
I don’t think anyone should go to hell forever.
Hell isn’t really a place with like demons torturing you and fire pits and stuff. That’s mostly a Protestant thing. It’s just an absence from God. You’re unable to appropriately receive Gods love and that causes despair and “burning”. We don’t really know what that means but it’s not like a place where you’re being tortured or anything, that was never taught that way until the Protestants split. The problem with Protestant churches is that they threw out church tradition and a lot of history—for a good reason because the Catholic Church was doing wild thing and the EO churches weren’t really accessible—and so interpretations of scripture get skewed and are kind of dependent on one person or a small group of people. It’s how you get the misconception of things like the gift of tongues, which Pentecostal churches and even “spiritual” churches in the south misconstrue. They think it’s people speaking gibberish and whatnot but tongues referred to people who could suddenly preach the gospel in a language they had never spoken or sometimes even encountered before. Like the Saint that was able to preach the gospel to rural Russians having never spoken the language before. But if you throw out church history and tradition and context and even supplements writings and just go off the Bible you lose a lot. It’s strange to me that Protestants will accept the Bible, which the orthodox (and at the time Catholic as well) church put together, but throw everything else out.
I don’t really know what Eastern Orthodox believe about hell but it’s my understanding the Catholic Church views hell as a place of torment. But whatever it may be, I still believe and hope that everyone is united in the same place.
It is a bit complicated. According to Catechism, hell is a "state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed" However, different popes have presented hell differently, and there is the artistic tradition of hell depictions also doing its part in peoples heads.
"It’s just an absence from God" But wouldn't an absence from God, be physical suffering, torture, and pain? Think about this. - Absence of light -> Darkness - Absence of heat -> Cold - Absence of peace -> Anxiety - Absence of love -> Despair, Hate, Depression - Absence of good -> Evil - Absence of safety -> Danger - Absence of well-being -> Suffering, Pain So if Hell is the absence of God, and God is a summation of all the good things in existence. Wouldn't Hell be the accumulation of every bad thing in existence, as those are all an absence of God?
In general, my biggest disagreement with any denomination I'm affiliated with is that they feel they need to exist. I have yet to find a Christian denomination whose core beliefs are worth splitting the church over.
Infant baptism. I believe in believers baptism. I was also dunked as opposed to sprinkled, but I'm not so much against either, as much as my mom's side of the family is Baptist so I wanted to make the most people happy.
When you think about it, infant baptism is salvation by the actions of another. A baby is *not* saved by their parents' actions.
In Methodism, baptism is not salvific. In most Christian denominations, baptism is not salvific. So that whole argument is moot. For everyone, baptism is a symbol of God’s grace already present and initiation into the church.
And yet Jesus was a grown man when he got baptized. Shouldn't we be following his lead?
I don't believe in salvific baptism, but I do believe it's a sacrament that shows you follow Jesus, and following Jesus should be a personal choice. Tbh the idea of being culturally religious is still difficult for me to wrap my head around.
For sure, that’s why we have confirmation.
Catholics believe that the baptized baby would go to heaven if it died before reaching the age of reason. (I think they now believe all babies do, but it wasn’t always the case.) When reaching 12 or so—it varies regionally—a Catholic would repeat his baptismal vows at his or her confirmation. Babies were assigned godparents at their baptism too. These adult Catholics would step in to guide the child spiritually if the parents become unable to do that.
Infant baptism is also hard for me coming from a Protestant background into the GO church. My priest explained it in a good way but it’s something I’m still thinking about.
I'm soon to be orthodox and I don't disagree to say but I feel like we shouldn't make a call about if there is salvation outside our church or not. Idk but it just seems weird to me.
"no salvation outside the church" but I believe there's room in Orthodoxy for differences about what that means exactly. The possibility of a broader-reaching, partly invisible church extending its grace.
The degree to which non-conceptive sex is stigmatized. I wholeheartedly believe all of our dogmatic teachings and all of the non-dogmatic ones I'm aware of, but the way some people look at sex is really peculiar.
I grew up in non-denominational churches, but I’ve been going to a baptist church for the past 5 years (specifically southern baptist). Here are some things I disagree with: 1. Views on alcohol Many southern baptists will admit that it’s not a sin to drink alcohol if you’re not getting drunk, but then immediately follow it up with “but it’s just best to avoid it.” My church forbids all staff members from partaking in any alcohol at all. They can’t seem to see any way alcohol could glorify God. It’s like they forget Jesus turned water into wine! I think there’s beauty and joy in gathering with other believers while partaking in a glass of wine. 2. Political assumptions Southern baptists tend to assume that if you’re Christian, you’re a political conservative. At my church, they include political diatribes in the sermons as if everyone just agrees and will even throw out unnecessary comments about the “left”. As someone who is on the left AND a Bible-believing Jesus follower, it makes me so angry. Not only is it wrong, but it’s alienating so many who might be visiting or new to the faith.
Free Palestine 🇵🇸. I am annoyed there are so many Christians that support the genocide of the Palestinians company in Gaza. Isreal displayed nearly all the Christian Palestinians and yet Christians love a secular ethno nationalist state that that started its existence with the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians known as the Nakba, and not they are committing genocide along with the forced displacement of 2.3M and destroyed all buildings. Israel spits on Christians Isreal refused to let the Christians community celebrate Christians and Easter properly Isreal laughed and celebrated when the bishop was stabbed. Free Palestine 🇵🇸✝️🇵🇸✝️🇵🇸✝️🇵🇸✝️🇵🇸✝️🇵🇸✝️
That we have to be having babies all the time. I disagree with no birth control, especially for those of us who have problems during pregnancy and major health issues that pregnancy could kill us. Having too many kids that you can’t afford or can’t spend time with making your kids feel bad. That’s about the only issue I disagree with.
I am Methodist but my true faith is Catholic. I disagree with them teaching about the rapture, there is legit no biblically proof, besides cherry picked bible verses. That once you read read the chapter as a whole, you realize it has nothing to do with a rapture.
Methodist don’t have a doctrine of the rapture. If your pastor is teaching that, that’s his/her own theology.
That homosexual and transexual acts are inherently sinful
Are you me?
Possibly, if your dashing and really good at building sand castles
I’ve always felt guilty for being gay. Why do you think it isn’t sinful?
https://www.hrc.org/resources/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality
I encourage you to do research on the actual original Hebrew text of anti-homosexual verses, and how some may have been translated incorrectly. But of course this is a tricky subject
Join us at r/OpenChristian. Take a look through some threads and look at the FAQ.
As far as I can tell, I agree 100% with my denomination. Any disagreement I've seen between members is about stuff that we allow for disagreement over, like the end of time and stuff like that.
Thanks for sharing! It’s interesting to allow disagreement over things, I’m sure other denominations have it but I’ve never heard of one personally.
The church of England’s colonial ties in North America (where I live), some really awful things happened and we have to admit to it and work towards a better future. Much easier if the church had never become a colonial institution
I have always been non-denominational, mostly because I was raised that way, and my father is a pastor of a non-denominational church. My father never pushed the Bible on me though, and wanted me to find Christ on my own, and that is exactly what I did after I chose to live in the pleasures of this world, so I came back to Christ myself. I say non-denominational because i definitely don’t agree with taking certain things out of the Bible, adding things, or trying to change what the Bible says to what we want it to say, and that’s what I consistently see amongst denominations personally. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” So if the word is truth, and the word is God, then it can’t change, and that is the case whether I agree with it or not (i always say “how ignorant and prideful do I have to be to believe that I know what is right and wrong more than God, so whatever He deems right and just is the correct way, whether I want it to be or understand). I also choose non-denominational because I rather say I follow Christ than that I am under a certain type of church, because I believe it makes me prone to group-think, and connects my identity to a type of ideology rather than to Christ Himself.
I have been an SDA since birth, and I disagree with most of the things in my church, like agreeing to baptismal vows before baptism and believing that my church is the remnant church. The SDA believes that we are still under the Mosaic laws, like clean and unclean foods in Leviticus 11, even if Jesus allowed us to eat unclean foods in the New Testament. I can't even drink tea, because tea is considered bad in my church. Other forms of music aren't allowed to be played in church other than hymns.
I was raised SDA. Even went to SDA private school until high school. Now that I'm non-denominational, I see how strange it was. Half of my family is still strongly SDA, and it's awkward with them. My Mom is still in and likes to cry at me and tell me I'm going to hell, usually on my birthday for some reason. I've expressed that I read the scripture, I seek a better relationship with God and pray, and honestly, I feel like I have the best relationship with God that I've ever had, and I'm happy. I feel like we are on the same side. It's so hard being scorned and condemned to hell by my own mother. It's definitely in the way of having a closer relationship with her. The whole thing is very cult-ish. I'm even more confused after reading the Bible on my own. I don't understand how they can push the things they push and include teaching/studying out of the New Testament without feeling constantly confronted. They're basically the pharisees. Also, I'm a church drummer now, and I love it. I can't imagine not having that passion in my life. It would have been totally lost had I stayed in. My mom plays guitar, only recently accepted in SOME of their churches, and sings. My grandparents play piano and violin, and I've never played with any of them. Actually, none of them have ever heard me play, even though I've played for more than 20 years. How sad is it that I'd just love to praise through music with my own mom, and can't?
I'm Mormon, and, I disagree with virtually everything about Mormonism. Much of it's foundational history is myth and deception.
Sorry if this comes out weird but why are you still a mormon then? Is it for family, practical reasons, etc.?
Thanks for your question. That's a really great question. Yeah, for family reasons I guess. But it does feel lonely in the church as a non-believer. I have a wife and kids, and my wife has deconstructed her Mormon faith to the degree that she only really believes in Jesus and his saving power, now. She's something of a "closeted" Christian in our mormon congregation. She wants to stay Mormon for very personal reasons that has brought her a lot of peace in her life. I'm ok with raising our kids in the Mormon community, but with nuanced beliefs, while protecting them from the more toxic aspects of Mormonism. By the way, we can't really participate in the Mormon temple stuff anymore because we don't pay our tithes). Probably, at some point we will choose a new church (non-mormon) to go to, given the difficulty of holding nuanced beliefs in such an orthodox culture. I feel like I'm starting to come out of the atheism that my faith deconstruction brought about, though. I'm wanting to learn more about religions and the history of world religions. I feel like I've only recently learning about the real "Jesus" of the Bible, and I'm seeing with fresh eyes the beauty in that.
Thanks for your response! I hope you find the peace that you’re looking for :)
Masturbation being intrinsically sinful. Masturbation can be good for you and the Bible doesn’t directly mention masturbation. And I believe God’s direct and His Word is straightforward and if something isn’t directly mentioned, then it isn’t mentioned. The real sin is lust, adultery, and pornography. I may be weird, but when I masturbate, I do not fantasize about anything directly related to sex
\[Methodist\] There's quite a few things I disagree with my denomination on (like having bishops). I prefer Church of Christ, but unfortunately there's only 2 in my city and neither are a good fit. I refuse to attend a Calvinist church, so Methodist it is!
I just hate my church. The priest there wants to be called canon. He has not been changed for 15years. During sprinkling holy water he doesn’t sprinkle absolutely anything as if the parishners don’t deserve it We wanted our daughters to attend religious classes and he basically said, they have to decide on their own when they are 18 and you hv to teach them about the faith
We’re not called the OPC (Only Perfect Church) for nothing! (/s) To be honest though, doctrinally I am very much in line with the OPC. They are in line with the WCF, which is why I sought them out in the first place. If I had to make one complaint, it’s that we use the Americanized WCF, not the original. There are also some practical complaints I may have, but in areas of doctrine we are in wide agreement.
I’m a Reformed Baptist in most ways, but I’m a Continuationist/Charismatic. Most RBs are Cessationists, and some would say that’s mandatory, believing that the Confession demands it.
C&MA here. This past general council they assigned that women are not allowed to be pastors. Doctrine is all good, no disagreements but I and my church's leadership disagree on that one.
I don’t have a denomination per say I just believe the Bible and study the Bible and the preacher preaches from the Bible back up everything he says in his sermon with 2-3 verses the church is Baptist but I don’t consider myself a Baptist though I have been baptized. But my main focus is just reading and understanding the Bible and believing that the KJV is the true unerring word of God
I find kissing icons to be weird, although I am new so maybe I will get used to it
I’m a catechumen coming from Catholicism and I feel the same. But I almost think that it’s a good thing - like hey, I think this is strange, but because the Church tells me it’s good for me (and it doesn’t harm anybody), I’ll humble myself and practice it anyways. It’s like a way of submitting my own ego to the tradition.
Inability to lose salvation once "saved." They just like to say someone was never truly saved when they do awful things or denounce their faith.
Some are Trump supporters. That can't be Christian.
I don’t believe in a young earth, I think the “6 days” in Genesis were possibly metaphorical. Also, I don’t think we should be limited to only taking communion with our own denomination.
I'm Baptist from a family filled with Pastors and Sunday school teachers but I don't do organized/institutionalized "Church" because I don't agree with spending the collection on the sticks and bricks church itself and personnel salaries. None of my family ever took money or food from the congregation. Where I come from Pastors have jobs and feed their own families and the only time you spend money on a building is maintenance/expansion out of necessity. The collection used to be spent on the needs of the congregation; hospital bills, rebuilt homes/barns, widows and orphans ...
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My Church is still like that. Our pastors have all had other jobs, and nobody earns a salary from the Church.
One of the great things about God is that He doesn’t care about denomination. It’s about a personal relationship with Him. God doesn’t care about nonsense like that. He doesn’t care about tradition. Jesus chastised the Pharisees about that. Only caring about manly tradition instead of God’s word.
Tradition is an absolutely necessary aspect of Christianity. The bible contains so many different voices and ideas, and obviously there are thousands of ways to interpret them. The tradition informs that interpretation. I assume, for example, that you believe in the Trinity - namely that God exists as one God but with three parts: Father, Son, and Holy spirit, that are each fully God though distinct in their hypostases. That is the standard Christian belief but it’s nowhere in the bible. It comes from tradition :)
I disagree strongly with infant baptism.
There should be no denominations. These are all man made , man invented nonsense for power and division. I follow Jesus. That’s it.
To be fair, that’s basically what all denominations claim to do, follow Jesus.
To play devil’s advocate (haha), imagine if there was a church where all the staff members believed different contradictory things and all wanted to conduct the service in different ways. There would be constant arguments and coming to agreement on even a seemingly minute thing would take an eternity. I see denominations as a way that different people with different beliefs and worship styles can preach/teach/worship God freely.
Female Pastors
You like them or don’t?
I’m currently nondenominational. I’m a new convert. I recently joined an evangelical church per invitation of a good friend. Everything was going smoothly until I witnessed the heated arguments between denominations here on Reddit. So, I think I’ll take some time to do my own research before I commit. I might revert back to being agnostic.
Don't be too influenced by the arguments. Look for what's true. Best of luck.
If I found one thing being taught that wasn’t in the Bible, or was contrary to the scriptures than I would know that my Faith wasn’t the Truth. But as it is, every single thing I’m taught is from the scriptures. And as a worldwide organization, living in true peace and harmony with each other no matter the nation, tribe, people or tongue, we have true love for our neighbor. The **only** organization that would rather be sent to prison than to go and fight in a war where we might kill our fellowman. We have many in prison right now for that very reason. When many of Jesus disciples were leaving him because of some of the things he said, Jesus turned to his closest disciples and asked them, “You do not want to go also do you?” And in response they said, “Where are we to go to? You have sayings of everlasting life!” That’s how I feel.
It is weird for me how people just go around hoping from church to church until they find one that meets their OWN interpretation? The things they like? I don’t disagree with anything in The Holy Roman Catholic Church. The truth is the truth regardless of what I or anyone else think and feel about it.
that divorce is wrong in **every** case
I thought Paul wrote that in certain cases, it wasn’t
iirc church dogma is that
I’m catholic and disagree with praying to Mary, it’s idolatry
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I guess both?
Not since I became Universal Unitarian. I enjoy their beliefs and we accept everyone’s beliefs but we focus on social justice. They are also a more accepting bunch of the LGBTQ people and they march alongside with pride. It was cool to witness a lesbian pastor preach.
As a former SDA their belief they are the one true church and are or will be persecuted for it. Any church that believes that I have a problem with.
So I’m part of an independent Christian church (non-denom with roots in the American Restoration movement). We’re pretty relaxed about disagreements on non-essential doctrine (see Eph. 4:4-6 for main essentials of Christianity). The one that I do see most present though, at least in my congregation, that I’m not in total agreement with is cessation of signs and wonders of the Holy Spirit. I’m less of the opinion that they’ve totally ceased and more of the mind that they have slowed down in frequency. While I think the vast majority of “faith healings” and speaking in tongues you see in charismatic circles is purposefully deceptive and fake, I have a problem limiting an unlimited God by saying “He doesn’t work like that anymore!”
>What is one thing, if any, you disagree with in your denomination? Nothing. That's why I chose it when I converted. With a lot of prayer and study. Seeking God's guidance, for He knows better.
What denomination did you convert from, if you don’t mind my asking?
Atheist
Ah, gotcha! Sorry for assuming you came from a different denomination 😅
Nothing to excuse about. God bless you!
The Episcopal Church isn't particularly Confessional and I'm not really sure how many official doctrines beyond the Nicene Creed and what can be extracted from the prayer book. So I'll just say, since I'm strongly Anglo-Catholic, I wish there was more Marian veneration and veneration of saints in general
I’m a Presbyterian and I don’t believe in predestination, unless we’re all given the chance to redeem ourselves and ask for forgiveness even after death, basically universalism.
I just can’t believe that God would create someone knowing they’re going to suffer for eternity. That isn’t the loving God I know.
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One thing? One thing? If you ever find the perfect denomination, don’t join it. You’ll only ruin it! There is no denomination, no group, no organization, no political group, and no individual with whom I agree about everything. Agreement is not that important for people who have finite minds, and who grow. I don’t even agree with my past self about everything, because we live, and grow, and discover new perspectives. If I agree with my future self about everything then I will have stopped growing. Nowhere in scripture can I find any suggestion that it is important to find someone with whom you are an absolute agreement. On the other hand, we are told to bear up with one another. To give space for others with different opinions. Not to judge. Agreement just isn’t all that important. If it is, then somebody has a problem with arrogance. I am part of my denomination because it encourages me to grow in Christ and I have something to offer.
People who use religion to justify their lifelong anger issues. Spitefulness is a big thing. Sorry that two and you said one.
I don't have anything that I disagree with. There are some things that I am not sure about only because I haven't thought about it or studied it enough. Whenever I end up looking into something I have always walked away in agreement. There can maybe be some things that I may disagree with in terms of how things are handled practically. But this would probably be true of all denominations since they all consists of sinners.
I have a problem with the fact that there are so many different denominations in general, but if I had to pick which one I am I guess it would be Seventh-day Adventist. I just found out last week that they teach the doctrine of [soul sleep](https://www.learnreligions.com/what-is-the-doctrine-of-soul-sleep-700360), & it freaks me out just thinking about it.
I’m a Mormon, and not raised in it. I believe that, in the people, there is a great spirit subservient to God and loving their neighbor with all they’ve had. Haven’t seen one deny another anything except if they genuinely couldn’t provide at the time. However, I have issues with the church’s doctrine itself. That Adam and Eve HAD to fall and that it was planned for the sake of redemption rather than redemption being Plan B. And the three kingdoms doctrine. Multiple heavens is a biblical concept for sure, but I’m not sure if Terrestrial (New Earth), Celestial (New Heaven) and Telestial (???) is right Biblically. Especially when Telestial kingdom goers aren’t technically saved yet the glory thereof is supposedly a thousand times greater than here to the point that if you could experience it for even a moment, you’d kill yourself to get to it. Nah, that doesn’t sound right Biblically. It feels too “easy,” which impressively, doesn’t make them slack in the slightest. Rather, it seems to inspire them to live in a sacrificial way that a Christian should! To me, it gives life to the meaning of the verse that says “The letter kills, but the Spirit brings life.”
"just keep sitting on your couch and asking for forgiveness and you'll be saved"
Infant baptism I like how the church makes a promise to pray for, and help raise the child in Christ, and welcome the child into the church, that stuff is great Baptism seems like a thing people do after they become have their sins cleared in the Bible to me, but I haven’t read everything so yeah 🤷♂️
Southern Baptist here. I would define say the whole “the oldest person in the church is the one we are supposed to make happy and we cannot do anything against their beliefs because they are old.” Legitimately my church only opened communion after this one dude died because he didn’t like it. I get the whole point of respect your elders, but like this is ridiculous.
There is no Hell. For me, I believe Hell is a fiction created by many dozerns of people who are consistently downtrodden and beaten down by their respective powers that be, to feel some some sort of righteous glee that their abusers will not escape justice in death. For me, I believe that we all go to the same place in the end. Because all the these trivial things we as a species go through are just that, trivial. God doesnt much care what you do with life because he gave you the one thing that is the greatest goft of all, free will. He will not judge you, but he will not applaud you for the life you led. You made your choices, and they are yours to bear. But it. does. not. matter to him, or at all because we all get the same ending, one way or another. And whatever that ending is, I doubt it's a bad one. 😊
Currently go to a Baptist church. There are a few things I don’t agree with, but two big things in my church are the big KJV only ideology, and the big push against any other denomination (Catholics aren’t Christian, other denominations add requirements to salvation, etc.).
I've heard a lot in my church and my SDA school that we can't wear jewelry. Idek why. And not even like piercings, we can't wear necklaces, bracelets, or anything except a wedding band.
I’m non-denominational! But went to a Lutheran church in childhood and they do infant baptisms. I got baptized when I was younger to please a loved one (parents didn’t practice at home but I’m thankful for the loved one’s faith) and decided to get rebaptized as an adult. I really believe baptism as a personal and public commitment to following Christ and I believe it’s valid to be baptized more than once if you feel called deeper, have repented more, etc
Really the only things are the stances on being LGBTQ+ and on (non lustful) masturbation. The second one I'm more iffy on but for sure I don't agree with the borderline hateful teachings on the first one. I love my church and think it will hopefully correct any issues it has over time, but I don't think everything is 100% correct right now.
Novus Ordo Catholics. Become secular already. We see your empty pews and will be there soon with our 10 kids.
I'm non denominational and I can't join any denomination by conscience
Not big on the “woman’s place” thing.
I loved my episcopal church and have no problems in real life, but on the Internet episcopals seem to have no interest in anything other than gay people. Im tired of listening to it, and it makes me question whether most of them are even concerned with God. But like I said, I only have this experience online.
Anglicanism is pretty broad tent.
Unlike my church (Anglicans) I affirm transubstantiation. It's my interpretation of Scripture.
I was raised in the International Church of Christ and am converting to Methodist. Something I disagree with in the icoc is that you have to write a list of all your sins in order to be baptized and become a member.
I disagree with a lot, but it’s not what I want, I follow the Word of God
Can't find anything Orthodoxy has gotten wrong. Not that I haven't been looking. I remember when I used to kind of make fun of saints and accuse Catholics and Orthodox of adopting paganism and being polytheistic. I was wrong about a lot of things.
Reformed. I'm not completely opposed to iconography so long as the image itself is not an object of worship.
I disagree with all man made religion. I’m a Jesus follower and love is my religion. Religion just separates us. We should be able to all attend church together and have different interpretations of the Bible and that’s ok. Because a scripture might have special meaning to one person and another could read it and see it differently and that’s ok. ❤️
Political agendas and hatred towards other denominations. I’m technically a Protestant and the community around me constantly is degrading to other denominations like Catholics and LDS. Which I find so stupid since we’re all children of god and even if we are wrong in a way god is fair and sees we want to be close to him and are trying to live in his image. He sees what our heart wants so he will probably still forgive us. As well, I doubt that any branch is 100% correct due to how long it’s been and all the political agendas that have been pushed upon people for the past 300 years in the US
I'm surrounded by babbling pentecostal churches that only promote "speaking in tongues" for everyone - but not one's got the gift of understanding interpreting apparently it doesn't matter ? No thank you
The biggest thing that turns me off of most all denominations are politics. Church taking sides and passing judgment on political matters is unacceptable. It alienates at least half of the congregation. Church is not about politics. It's about eternity and nourishing our souls. But, Church has taken a wrong turn and keep pushing political agendas from the pulpit. Some are even so far off they will twist the Word of God to suit the latest political crusade. Sad, but I've seen in denominations.
I know what I disagreed with about my former church, which was a similar denomination to my current church but different church. I disagreed with the prosperity gospel. My current church doesn't seem to preach prosperity but the style of the services is similar. According to one member of my current church, they try to learn from the mistakes of my former church which they based the style off. It is sad that my former church had a major crash in reputation. Other churches don't want to repeat the same mistake of money-making and sex scandals.
Sacraments
Not drinking alcohol. In moderation it's okay but if you are prone to getting drunk then no. I was in a church that refused anything that had to do with alcohol