am i gonna be smited for hating church?

im a christian. always have been, always will, and its my choice to be one. i know alot of you out there arnt christians, and thats cool with me. but the thing is, i hate church. hate it with a passion. i feel like, you can have a personal relationship with god without going to church. every time i go i feel so stupid whenever they force everybody to stand up and sing a song. as if singing a song can really bring you closer to god? just my opinion. anyways, how do you guys feel on this topic? can you have a close relationship with god without regularly going to church? and if you think you can, is it right for people to have a bad opinion of you if you do?

 

Honestly,if Christianity is true, the Church has skewed it beyond the point of no return. The church is corrupt, power-hungry and greedy.

 

As long as you are a good guy, with a good heart and isn't doing something wrong or bad in your life, you are close to god.
Thats how I feel.

 

Unfortunately the Church teaches that you MUST follow Christ through the church in order for salvation, and following your conscience is NOT the way to go.


I honestly don't get how people believe this crock of shit.

 

This is more of a personal support issue...

But my personal opinion is that you don't have to go to church to have a relationship with God and it all depends on how you interpret the bible and Christianity really.

 

You could convert to a different branch of Christianity that hold believes similar to yours.

 

I am not of the Christian faith, but I believe that if I were a Christian, that I would have immense disdain towards the Church. The corruption is disgusting.

I'm a Catholic-raised Muslim, but I despise certain (a huge majority) of Muslim countries for their inability to regress from corruption.

 

I believe, if you personally believe you have a connection with god, who's some 'Christian' in some church to tell you otherwise? And to tell you too believe what HE believes, believe what you believe.

 

I feel the same way, man. I've been brought up as a strong Lutheran Christian, and whenever i go to church, i absolutely dread it. Half of the service has nothing to do with God at all, we're just singing. When i asked what the point of going to church was to my parents, and i told them i thought all of this, they told me that i should go and tell it to the youth leader and the pastor, but that's something i just couldn't do, i just felt like it was wrong.

 

Your opinions on Christianity are almost equivalent to the unfair malice people spew at Muslims because of the Taliban. Christians and those who preach it are not all wolves in sheepskin. Yes there are obviously hundreds, maybe thousands who take their teachings and religion much too far. Sure there are people to use religion to benefit financially, dictatorially, or sadistically but the "Church" does not teach any of the points you listed above. Plus, this kind of abuse in the name of a higher power is not solely a Christian-Extremist trait

No where does it say you MUST worship through a church. In fact, it's stated uncountable times that you can worship no matter where you are. Avid Christians go to church regularly because it makes them feel closer to God, and if they need that sort of morality in their life, who's to say it's the wrong way to find happiness?

No where does it say to ignore your conscience. It's actually taught that the Christian god IS your conscience; it is the "Holy Spirit" in you.

I shirked Christianity long ago, but I'm not so arrogantly close-minded to say that "ALL hoo beleev and preach dis junk r pwr hungry, greedy, n stoopid"

 

Shifted to personal support as I felt it more appropriate for this topic

 

I may be talking about Catholicism then, as that is what they told me at my Catholic high school.

 

Catholic and Christian is the same religion, just different ideals and different topics of emphasis. The most apparent examples I know of are: catholics emphasize prayer to the Virgin Mary as well as God, they believe in the use of statues and physical manifestations, and they have unified leader (the pope)

But they both worship by the word of the Bible, they both believe Jesus Christ IS God, and that you must accept their God into your life in order to gain entrance to their Heaven (albeit through baptism rather than verbal affirmation that christians favor)

 

Exactly, same flavour just a different aroma.

I'm catholic raised, although I basically stopped going to church a few years ago, and pretty much nearing atheist nowadays (science degree is awesome). I prefer to live my life as a respectful and caring person without the lingering duty of having to go to church to confess for sins I most likely haven't even done. Having to go to church 4 days a week and sing in the choir, confession box etc in primary school really turned me off it. I have always preferred to pray to god in my own time, and to be sincere with everything rather than having to physically show it by turning up to church and confessing my sins which is just garbage in my opinion.

Although some people have nothing else in their lives to give them comfort, and church can be a real community type ordeal for a lot of people who need something to lean on. I don't blame them, I just don't see myself ever doing that again.

And why should you be punished for disliking sitting in a boring ass church, listening to a preacher tell you how you're so bad and you should care more for other people etc. I love how in movies you see mafia killing some guy over money, but justifying their actions by putting emphasis on how important going to church is. It's like if you're going to worship and go to church, at least have some damn sincerity. People will use church and "repenting their sins" as an excuse to do anything.

Tl,dr: Live your own life, be kind and compassionate and sincere to everyone. Stop feeling sorry for everything you do. Learn to think for yourself, and be grateful this isn't the middle ages where you'd be burned alive for speaking out or not devoting yourself entirely.