quote:
That was your problem. You don't need a church to forgive you. A church is made up of people and people are flawed. If you believe in God then that's who you need to be dealing with and asking for forgiveness, not people. I've yet to find a church that I feel comfortable going to and that mirrors my beliefs. Most of the ones I've been to have the typical problems. So don't base Christianity on what you see in church, most people in church expect the preacher to read the Bible for them. Read it yourself and come to your own conclusions.
Very well said and my feelings exactly!
It has always bothered me that so many people will listen to a preacher and accept his (her) interpretation of the bible as the be-all and end-all of what the bible means when the preacher is only human and his interpretation is only
his opinion of what it means.
We are all children of God and equally loved by God so when it comes to understanding God's word why not trust your own heart and mind?
No person should tell you your interpretation of the bible is not as valid as theirs.
I do look up to (most) preachers as intelligent people that can offer guidance and help kick-start your desire to know the bible, but as thinking intelligent humans, we ALL have the right to read, form our own opinions and get our own meaning from the bible. And, hopefully, the bottomline message that we all get is to be a good person..... love God and love one another.... "do unto others."