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Why being a Christian is Grrrrreat

LenHazell53 9 Apr 7
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Boy, isn't that ever the truth, huh?

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Far truer for liberal Christians than for fundamentalists, and hyperbolically over-generalized in places. But still ... pretty insightful.

Some of it depends on definitions, too. Technically, every Christian has to "believe in" Christianity and understand what it is. But the vetting for such claims is pretty weak. In many churches you just mindlessly recite one of the historic creeds and if you're willing to parrot that, you're in. You've "confessed" your faith. In fact my wife and I attended an Episcopal service recently in which anyone can take communion so long as you claim that you were baptized by some means (even infant baptism) by some Christian church. By that definition I qualify; I was full-immersion baptized in my 20s, before my deconversion, and my wife, also an atheist and never a theist by personal conviction, was infant baptized by the Presbyterians. I suspect we could become full members of such a church, if somewhat dishonestly, despite not believing in god, much less in Christianity.

Evangelicals will grill you more closely but if, like me (a former evangelical) if you know the right answers and the lingo, you can still bullshit your way in.

The other good point here is that most Christians don't know their own faith or their own holy book, largely because there are no pop quizzes so to speak. If you've gone to church and maybe Sunday School your whole life and have a passing acquaintance with the high points and popular fairy tales, you're good to go.

Which is why I included the part about hating other forms of Christianity.
Yes there are fundamentalist out there but it has been my experience that even fundamentalists at a lay level will not have actually read or studied the bible, they will have read the parts (or had them read to them) that back up the practices of their own schism but will have been actively discouraged from reading the rest.
Many Catholics will still only attend a mass in Latin, because they still feel it is sinful to be able to understand the priest, and that too much knowledge is dangerous to faith, a view shared by the Mormons who stress that asking questions is good, so long as you only ask faith promoting questions and accept the official answers from Utah without question.
Only about one in fifty Christians know about or believe in the doctrine of Parousia and instead think the day of judgement is your entrance exam for heaven.
Anglicans and Catholics will know basically what the Creed is (Apostles or Nicene) most other denominations won't know it refers to a specific document but will have an idea it is a definition of generic Christianity.
Most Christian will know they were Christened but don't know Christening involves baptism and think it is just a naming ceremony. Baptism is generally seen as something other religions do at 8, 15 or when you join some of the more fringe sects.
In countries like Ireland or Scotland in the UK the major defining characteristic of being Christian is based on NOT being the "enemy" denomination.

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