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Posted to alt.home.repair
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Religion does more harm than good - poll
On 2020-08-07 15:55, Wade Garrett wrote:
On 8/7/20 6:48 PM, T wrote:
On 2020-08-07 15:25, Wade Garrett wrote:
On 8/7/20 10:24 AM, Muggles wrote:
On 8/6/2020 10:51 PM, T wrote:
On 2020-08-06 07:41, Muggles wrote:
Religion has nothing to do with a relationship and belief in a
living God.
There are religions besides Christianity.
They were also created by people who want to control other people.
When a Jewish temple was shot up by a hater in California,
the Christian Orthodox church across the street took them
all in whilst the authorities did their thing.
Had the tables been turned, the Jews would have done the
same thing.
Society benefits when religions complete with each
other in the arena of good works, especially
when they cooperate with each other.
That's why I'm non-denominational.
Most the friction comes from haters of religion.
Sure there are obnoxious members that evangelize
incorrectly, but they do not hold a candle to the
Hate coming from the Left.
True...
Most religions contend: We are right, everyone else is wrong, we are
better than you.
Hi Wade,
You must not have had much exposure to Christians.
Yes there are some obnoxious ones who are not
evangelizing correctly.* They are just learning.
They will get there eventually. Just ignore them
for now.
Here is what Christianity teaches:
**** Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what
**** judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with
**** the measure you use, it will be measured back to
**** you. And why do you look at the speck in your
**** brothers eye, but do not consider the plank in
**** your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother,
**** Let me remove the speck from your eye; and look,
**** a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove
**** the plank from your own eye, and then you will
**** see clearly to remove the speck from your brothers
**** eye.
****** --Matthew 7, 1-5* KJV
A Story about Judging Others
https://myocn.net/a-story-about-judging-others/
Summary:
***** Judging others is a great sin, my brothers and
***** sisters and we should never concern ourselves
***** with the failings and misdemeanors of other people.
***** Its none of our business. What we do is for
***** ourselves. For our own part, anything we see or
***** hear, we just have to forgive, love and try to
***** help people as much as we can.
The full version, which you should read.* It will
introduce you to Christianity.
**** The late Papa-Nikodimos, a spiritual father from the Skete
**** of Kavsokalyvia told me the following story, which is
**** recorded in Athonite Patristic manuscripts.
**** There was a devout Christian who went to his confessor
**** for fifteen years and told him his human weaknesses.
**** One day he went as usual to make his confession, but
**** when he opened the door he found the man fornicating
**** with a woman. He left immediately and, as he did so,
**** he said to himself: What on earths just ?. This is
**** terrible. Ive been confessing to him for years and
**** now what am I going to do? Will I go to hell? All
**** the sins Ive confessed to him, given hes such a
**** sinner, are they forgiven or not? All they all still
**** unforgiven? The man was stunned at the evil that had
**** befallen him and didnt know what to do.
**** After hed left, he became thirsty on the way back
**** home. He carried on for a little and came across a
**** small brook, in which pure water babbled. He bent
**** down and drank. He slaked his thirst and didnt feel
**** at all like leaving, because he wanted to drink
**** some more of that lovely water. Then a thought
**** crossed his mind: If the streams so good down
**** here, how much more so will it be near where it
**** starts? With this thought he set out to follow
**** the brook back to its source. But when he got
**** there, what did he see? He saw the water coming
**** out of the dead, dirty carcass of a dog. The
**** water was coming out of the dogs mouth! Then
**** he sighed deeply and said. What a thing to
**** happen to me, wretch that I am. Ive been
**** polluted by this filthy water. It seems Im a
**** great sinner and very impure if these things
**** are happening to me.
**** He was really troubled by this, but then an angel
**** of the Lord appeared to him and said: Why are
**** you troubled and saddened by whats happening
**** to you? When you drank the water from the brook,
**** didnt you enjoy it, because it was so pure?
**** You couldnt get enough of it, yet now, when
**** youve seen it coming out of the impure mouth
**** of a dog, you say youre polluted. My friend,
**** dont worry that the dogs dead and unclean,
**** because the water you and everybody else drank,
**** may, indeed, have come from the unclean mouth
**** of a dog, but it wasnt the dogs. The waters
**** from God; its a gift from Him.
**** In the same way, the man who heard your
**** confession, the forgiveness he gave you, it
**** wasnt his. That forgiveness is a gift from
**** God. He gives it. The All-Holy Spirit grants
**** it to those who purely and sincerely confess
**** their sins and weaknesses. The difference is
**** that what God gives and grants to people is
**** given and granted through canonically ordained
**** priests who have permission to hear confessions
**** and to remit sins. As the Lord said to the
**** Apostles: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you
**** remit peoples sins, they are remitted; and
**** if you retain them, they have been retained.
**** So the Holy Apostles gave this authority to
**** the bishops and their successors and they did
**** the same for those who are canonically ordained
**** and are confessors. For this reason and
**** because they perform Gods holy sacraments,
**** the priests are superior in office even to a
**** king and the supreme leader of a people. Priests
**** are superior to all others, in the sense that
**** they alone are able to forgive sins. There is no
**** other way. This is the Sacred Tradition of our
**** Holy Church.
**** The angel went on to say: Go and make a prostration
**** and ask forgiveness of your confessor, because you
**** saw him sinning. Ask him to forgive you for judging
**** him As regards the sin he committed, God will
**** examine him and He alone will judge the man. You
**** saw him sin, but you dont know if he repented,
**** or what form his repentance took. So you have the
**** sin of being condemnatory, but, if he repents
**** hell reap the fruits of his repentance and his
**** mended ways. We arent in a position to judge
**** anybody else.
**** After the angel had said this to this faithful
**** Christian, he disappeared from sight. As the angel
**** had told him to do, the man went back to his
**** confessor, to whom he told what hed seen and
**** what the angel of the Lord had said to him. He
**** made a prostration to him and told him in full
**** what had passed between him and the angel. The
**** priest repented, with tears in his eyes, wept
**** bitterly and asked forgiveness of Our All-Merciful,
**** All-Loving and All-Good God. He mended his
**** wicked ways, for the glory of God and the salvation
**** of his soul.
**** When my spiritual father, Papa-Nikodimos, continued,
**** he said to me with love: This is why, my dear
**** Haralambos (this happened back in 1934, when I wasnt
**** yet a monk, so he called me by my lay name), we have
**** no right to judge the behavior of others. As Saint
**** Paul says: Who are you to judge the servant of
**** another? (this is in the Epistle to the Romans).
**** How much more this is true about condemning the
**** clergy, priests, confessors and monastics in general,
**** who God tests very thoroughly and against whom
**** the devil wages the most subtle warfare. God Himself
**** tells us Do not judge, so that you might not be
**** judged and You will be judged as you have judged,
**** and will be measured by the same measure as you
**** have used. We must forgive the sins of others and
**** repent. We should judge and condemn only ourselves.
**** If we want to be saved, we have to forgive other
**** people. The Gospel commands: If you forgive
**** people their transgressions, God will forgive you
**** yours. As you forgive, you will be forgiven.
**** Judging others is a great sin, my brothers and
**** sisters and we should never concern ourselves
**** with the failings and misdemeanors of other
**** people. Its none of our business. What we do
**** is for ourselves. For our own part, anything
**** we see or hear, we just have to forgive, love
**** and try to help people as much as we can.
Yours in Christ ,
-T
Thanks for affirming my comments. I rest my case;-)
You did not read it did you.
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