Christian Non-Profit Fighting to Save Christianity from Self-Destruction

[ZombieHorde]

(The article contains a thesis statement after the title, I am including it because I think it summarizes the article extremely well. The thesis statement contains links, but I have not checked them out.)

Christianity is self-destructing. Christians are leaving the religion because of rampant hypocrisy, intolerance, judgmentalism, and homophobia. Changing the Face of Christianity Inc is working to save Christianity from itself through a bold awareness and education campaign.

(Here is where the article actually begins...)

Plano, TX (Vocus/PRWEB) December 28, 2010

Christianity is under attack from the inside. Christians are leaving the religion because of Christian hypocrisy, Christian intolerance, Christian judgmentalism, and Christian homophobia. Instead of living their Christian faith genuinely in the world, defectors see superficial name-tag-only Christians who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Non-Christians don't take them seriously, because they often don't follow their own teaching and preaching, which endangers the effectiveness of Christian evangelism efforts.

Outsiders see blatant hypocrisy between Christian beliefs and actions. Non-believers see prideful and self-righteous Christians who act "better" than others and judge others with an attitude of arrogance and intolerance. Homosexuals and people in the gay community feel rejected and condemned as outcasts by the Christian church and its followers.

Many in the Christian church today pay little more than lip-service to worship or living a Christian life. The phrase "love your neighbor as yourself" is quickly becoming a phrase no longer associated with the Christian religion. A non-profit organization called Changing the Face of Christianity is working to save the Christian religion from self-destruction, by helping Christians become more like Jesus Christ.

Changing the Face of Christianity has launched a bold awareness and education campaign aimed at existing Christians. Its strategy is to expose the perceptions of non-Christians to those within the Christian faith and encourage and assist them to take personal action to reverse the negative stereotypes. Founder and President R. Brad White says, "The Bible tells us that non-believers will always hate us, but not for the reasons they hate us now. Who could hate someone for truly loving their neighbor as themselves? The fact is we don't do a very good job at loving our neighbor."

~snip the rest~

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/12/prweb8036346.htm

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Aleric]

16. They still seem to believe that homosexuality is a sin

I checked their page and while they actively oppose homophobia as "hating the sin AND the sinner" they never speak to whether or not they believe that homosexuality is a sin. The implication is that they still think it is a sin.

[xchrom]

18. indeed. that part was confusing.

i'm not sure if the guy from the movie believes that or if it's what is being contributed by others.
however -- sin is what comes out. and that position is a bigoted position.

[Adsos Letter]

2. K&R

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. Excellent link - thank you SO much for finding this and posting it!

[Joanne98]

4. It's about time.

[patrice]

5. They gotta step up and be honest about how much they ENJOY War & depend upon it to pay

their mortgages.

[qb]

6. Best of luck to them. Those who proclaim their "Christianity" the loudest are unrepentant sociopaths

[TxVietVet]

7. I've said for years that Jesus Christ

wouldn't cross the threshold of what we see as "christian" churches today. They are racist, homophobic and misogynistic. They lie
and spread the hate message with the help of the conservanazi republiklan propaganda on Fox Noise and other reich wing media outlets.

I had one conservanazi stating to me that his church was way more liberal than he was. I told him that Christ himself wouldn't probably go there and that by saying that he may be saying that he was a hypocrite. I didn't question his faith, I just pointed out that he was a conservanazi hypocrite.

I also tell some of the reich wing conservanazi christians that why should they want everyone else to obey the ten commandments and they can't. Usually, those folks are "born again" which means they can be assholes 24-7, 365, go to church, proclaim to be "born again" in Christ, and they are saved.

A f*cking miracle. They don't see it as hypocrisy.

[RKP5637]

8. +1000 +++ n/t

[RKP5637]

9. I left the hatred years ago and never looked back. If one wants inner peace, TM works well. n/t

[TxVietVet]

10. I can really excite those reich wing conservanazi christians.

I tell them I believe in God. In doing so, I also believe that my body is a temple of worship for God and Christ. I can pray and meditate anytime I want to find inner peace and enlightenment. I don't need a cult to do that. Gets their panties all wadded up. :rofl:
Another thing like to tell them is that I would only go to a Christian church were there are many poor. 'Cause Christ himself ministered to the poor, destitute and the undesirables. So, if their congregation is more white than black, you won't catch me there. :rofl:

I don't like the phony "born agains".

[RKP5637]

11. Yep!!! n/t

[freshwest]

12. Good to see them speaking up.

[Angry Dragon]

13. And the pope sits on his throne in his dress, red shoes ,and

a golden crown and blames everyone else for the way the church is today.
Everyone is attacking him........

[DeSwiss]

27. And the dancers.

Don't forget the dancers.....

[dimbear]

14. Trying to get back to Jesus's original ideas is pretty much hopeless.

We have little or no idea what they may have been. Studying the New Testament, the very first thing you learn is that the more you study, the less you know.

[laconicsax]

15. The religion was never really about "Jesus' original ideas."

Christianity is, more or less, the religion of Paul.

[trotsky]

19. And who even knows what "Jesus' original ideas" even were?

The man himself, if he existed, never wrote down a single thing. Everything about him was written at least a generation after he was allegedly resurrected. The religion has ALWAYS been a battle over interpretation, and this whole organization reeks of No True Scotsman.

Love the dig at non-believers the pastor throws in too!

[laconicsax]

22. That's a whole other can of worms. n/t

[Manifestor_of_Light]

17. If they are to be believed,

a lot of Jesus' original ideas were stolen from older religions, and are quite hateful.
Those are the ones that are ignored in the Gospels.

Christianity is a syncretic religion with nothing original in it. We don't even know if jesus existed. He has the same characteristics as many other gods: Mithra, Apollo, Osiris, etc.

[toddaa]

20. Too bad their website is filled with FAIL

On the front page I see creationism and homosexuality is a sin nonsense. Nice try but reality is still the biggest obstacle they face, when it comes to not being treated with ridicule and derision.

[trotsky]

21. Nice catch.

I didn't even waste a click on them. Good to know it's the same old shenanigans.

[ZombieHorde]

23. Sigh, you're right. They're rhetoric about homosexualaity is nicer than the RCC's,

but they are still calling it a sin.

How would Jesus treat a homosexual?

Similar to how he treated other “sinners” such as prostitutes. He would certainly not endorse or condone their behavior or lifestyle. But he would not condemn them. He would love them. And if they accepted Him as their savior, he would forgive them and tell them to go, and sin no more.

So, what more should we do than what Jesus would do himself? I say, let’s not endorse or condone their homosexual behavior, and let’s not condemn the person. Instead, let’s love the person and share how Christ’s love can save them, just as he can save “us” sinners.

http://www.changingthefaceofchristianity.com/homophobia/are-christians-homophobic-or-anti-homosexual/

I thought I found something cool for liberal Christians, but I only found something a little less crappy.

[toddaa]

24. Go look for the Higgs Boson

Much easier

[MikeH]

25. Some fundamentalist Christians think the problem is with PR and marketing, and not a bad product

This group is definitely a fundamentalist Christian group, as is seen from their http://www.changingthefaceofchristianity.com/about/statement-of-faith/">statement of faith.

We believe that the Bible is the absolute authority in matters of faith and practice, and that it is the inspired, error free, word of God.

We believe in one God; eternally existing in three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit); in the creation of all things, including man, as the direct act of God; in the fall of man who brought destruction on himself when he chose to sin against God through Satan’s temptation; in an eternally secure salvation by grace through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; and in His bodily resurrection; that Jesus Christ was both fully man and fully God; in the personal, bodily, imminent return and reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe in a literal Heaven and a literal Hell.

We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead.

We are not affiliated with any particular Christian denomination or church congregation, but support all Christian denominations which are rooted in biblical teaching and who view Jesus Christ as the only way to eternal life.

We have a Christ-centered, Biblical world view.

They hope to fix the problem of people being unhappy with and leaving the Christian faith by having better PR and better marketing, when they have a bad product (referring to fundamentalist Christianity in particular). Like putting lipstick on a pig.

It is really very laughable that fundamentalist Christians think a person being unhappy with the faith and leaving the faith must always be a matter of being turned off by "hypocrisy, intolerance, judgmentalism, or homophobia", or having some bad experience with a pastor or a Christian or group of Christians, and never a problem with anything in the faith itself or with the Bible.

I definitely have some problems with some things in their statement of faith. A person is "saved" only through "accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior", and a person can come to "accept Christ" only in this lifetime. That is what the Bible says, and the Bible is the "absolute authority in matters of faith and practice", and it is the "inspired, error free", so-called "word of God", and as such is not to be questioned.

So it looks like a person who misses his/her chance to "accept Christ" in this lifetime, for whatever reason, is out of luck, and is condemned to a "literal Hell" for all eternity. And the same for those who happen to guess wrong by adhering to any religion other than Christianity.

And apparently an "unsaved" murder victim is condemned to a "literal Hell" for all eternity, while if the murderer later "repents" and "accepts Christ", the murderer is let into God's "literal Heaven".

Even if for myself, and for purely selfish reasons, I might want to "accept Christ" so that I can avoid the "literal Hell" and be allowed into the "literal Heaven", I could never accept having the thought in the back of my mind that OTHERS are either "saved" or "unsaved", and are set to go to either Heaven or to Hell when they die. And I could never accept the duty and obligation to tell others about Christ with that thought in the back of my mind and motivated by that concern. I don't see how one can get any of the normal joy and enjoyment out of life if one really believes that and lives with having that thought in the back of one's mind.

I myself used to be a Christian, and was one for a period of 15 years when I was an adult. I had gone to several churches during that time, and had known a number of Christians and several pastors, and had been involved with several Christian groups. Many of these people (though not all) were very good people, and had at times been helpful, supportive, and encouraging to me.

My dissatisfaction with Christianity was not because of any of the Christians or groups of Christians that I had known. My dissatisfaction was with Christianity itself, and with the Bible.

I came to reject fundamentalist Christianity due to the problems I mentioned above. However I was still a Christian for a while longer after I rejected fundamentalism. I wanted to believe that my supposedly having a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ" might actually be of some help to me and make some difference in my life.

Eventually I came to the realization that my supposedly "having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" never did help me in any definite way in the real world, and never did help me in enabling me to better deal with any source of pain, frustration, or unhappiness or any difficult situation in my life. I eventually came to realize that I needed to part company with the Christian faith, and I am happy about having done so, and having absolved myself of any duties and obligations specifically imposed by the Christian faith (as opposed to those incumbent on any good or moral person). I am as certain as I am of anything that this was the right and healthy thing for me to do.

One of the big problems that Christianity did not help me with was my very difficult relationship with my very dominating, judgmental, and occasionally abusive (especially emotionally and psychologically) father (though he did sometimes do some very good things, and was far from being the worst father anybody ever had). I think the commandment to "honor your father and mother", which in the biblical text is unconditional and makes no exception if one's parents were or are abusive or otherwise not deserving of honor, is one of those things in the supposedly inspired and error free "Word of God" that is definitely wrong.

If anything there should be a commandment for parents to treat their children with dignity and respect, that they (the children) might come to treat themselves and others with dignity and respect.

[DeSwiss]

26. Well, well -- someone finally noticed, eh?

- I didn't think that was possible anymore. It's a Xmas Miracle I tells ya!!!!

[Iggo]

28. Good luck. (n/t)