I'm having trouble reconciling Christian ideology and the acts of Christians  

The problem with us is that we compare the religion and the believers to be one and the same. Religion does not guarantee that the believer will follow its tenets or doctrines nor should we expect christians or other believers to act accordingly. religion does not guarantee that the believer acts like their god or their ideals. when philosophies are twisted by those who do not have the brain to do so, you create bigots, zealots and hypocrites. there are a lot of them here and the best thing to do is just report them if they are going below the belt. no reason can make them change their one-sided mind so arguing with them will get you nowhere. move to another discussion.

The problem is that many Christians have taken Christ out of the religion. They worship the Bible, but only their version and they reference the Old Testement. When that doesn't work, they go to the teachings of Paul and skip Jesus all together. Jesus walked among the people and turned no one away. He fought the church Hierarchy and raged against injustice. Another problem is that some of these "Christians" are...Hmmmm, I can't think of how to put this without sounding mean. I guess I'll just say that they don't know how to think for themselves. It's a fear and religion and the bible are crutches. They are hateful, absolutely. But they don't know it. Because the true haters in the sect, the Fallwells, the robertsons, etc. are men they trust. They trust these men because they need a human to follow and because they can't decipher the words of the book themselves. Jerry and Pat say it's so, so it must be so. And because they can't think for themselves they reject everything that contradicts what "Jerry and Pat" are telling them. "Jerry and Pat" are fear mongers. They use the threat of fire and brimstone to scare people to Christianity. And the mylotters and people in life who repeat this hate, are very, very afraid of asking questions.

My father is a Christian minister. Prior to converting to Christianity, he was studying to be a rabbi. He is fluent in Hebrew, Aramic, Greek and Latin. I grew up in a communal house and for the first 10 years of my life, we had no electricity. In the evenings our only sourse of entertainment was a short wave radio and books. One of my favorite books was the Bible. When my brothers and I didn't understand a passage, we would take it to my father. He would pull out another version and read the passage in Hebrew or Greek or Aramic. Then he would give us the literal translation. He would give us the long held interpretation. He would give us alternate interpretations. We would then re-read, in context and discuss what we thought it meant. Often we didn't agree. Sometimes, I still don't agree with my father. But he believes, as I do, that asking why or how is no sin.

Proverbs 14:15
The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.

1 Thessalonians 5:21
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good

From this, I believe we have a spiritual obligation to ask questions and seek understanding and enlightenment. But I am the minority in my faith. Sad really.

Sorry this was so longwinded. I probably created more questions than answers. Great discussion, though.

there is little difference in being a religious zealot and a religious fanatic.

There is a reason why Pride was placed as one of the greatest of the deadly sins.

You see, once you are placed on a high position in religion (either by you or by someone else) you begin to think that you alone know it all or you become intolerant of other ideas simply becuase you think you or your ideas alone are right.

And this I think is the reason many atrocities are committed in the name of religion. Not religion itself as being evil but people use religion as a tool in doing evil.

I have been curious lately about that too. And sometimes even upset by it. It isn't the Christianity my Nana, mom and sister ever practiced. Theirs was always about love, harmony and acceptance.

The trouble is, the people you are wondering about like to think of any disagreement or questions as "persecution." The more you persecute them the more guaranteed they are their heaven. But I am hoping this is not the majority of Christianity, I have so many Christians in my life who are not like this. The judgemental may just be more outspoken at myLot.

the problem you are having is trying to understand. that is not your job or responsibility. i know that doesn't sound right but it's true. all you can do is forgive those who you feel are doing things that are "wrong" and then let it go. as Jesus said on the cross "forgive them, they know not what they do" that is all you can do. when you are trying to understand what is not understandable, you are going to only come make yourself crazy. you don't have to know and understand everything. what you do need to do is forgive, and then let it go. when you carry these kinds of things around, they then become apart of how you live your life. now i know you don't want to live your life because of the madness of people before you, forgive and let go, that is the key and the only answer. i hope this helps

Very well said!!!! When a Christian approaches me with a less than loving message, I ask them what they want to be; Christian, or unloving, since the Lord who LOVES us did not teach such behaviour. Quite often that stops them dead in their tracks.

OK I have no views on God and the Devil and so forth I dont know what to think about the after life no one really knows if there is an after life you know there just may be death and thats it.. Thats why we need to life a fun joyfull life dont take things for granted.. and please no one jump my back for saying there may be nothing. we just dont know till its time!! There is this song by a singer named Voltaire he sums up everything dont take it serious it basicly say's god is all good and bad but pokes fun at it.. it is called god thinks...

God thinks all blacks are obsolete farm equipment
God thinks the Jews killed his son and must be punished
God thinks the white man is Satan
God, they know what God thinks

God thinks we should all convert to Judaism
God thinks we must all be Christians and
God thinks we should all embrace Islam
God thinks the only true religion is Hinduism

And I
I know what God thinks
God thinks you're a waste of flesh
God prefers an Atheist

God God
God thinks all people like you are hateful
God thinks all people like you are an embarrassment to creation
self-righteous, judgmental, first to throw a stone
and using His name for your own protection

God thinks the sun revolves around the Earth
God thinks there was something very wrong with Copernicus
God thinks abortion is murder and
God thinks everything that science gave us is wrong
God thinks women deserve it
God thinks AIDS is a form of punishment

I hate people who blame the Devil for their own shortcomings and
I hate people who thank God when things go right

And I
I know what God thinks
God thinks you're an idiot
God prefers a heretic

God God
God thinks all people like you are hateful
God thinks all people like you are an embarrassment to creation
self-righteous, judgmental, first to throw the stone
and using His name for your own agenda

God is a liberal
God is a democrat
God wants you to vote republican
never trust a man who puts his words in the mouth of god
and says it's absolute truth
its lies and it smells like death
its all in a day's work taking money from the poor
Why do you think that God would need your dirty money
if he want to start a holy war?

self-righteous, judgmental, first to throw a stone
and using His name for your own protection

God thinks puppies need to die and
God thinks babies need to drown
'cause God is neither good nor bad
God is you and me
God is Everything

ha I agree with this song!!

I understand your problems because Christians have struggled with this for centuries. I too had my doubts and I am not going to spew any rhetoric about why it's right to hate or why you should follow the letter of the bible verbatim. I will tell you that when I question whether I am doing the right thing with my attitude towards others I think of the story of the woman that was going to be stoned to death by the people who found her guilty of adultery.
The leaders of the church at that time wanted to trick Jesus with his own words so they asked him if this was not the way it should be and Jesus answered....
Whosoever is blameless; free of sin may cast the first stone....and that is how I try to live my life.
I cannot cast a stone because I am not blameless...I am a human; therefore I sin. Sometimes every day. That is the nature of humans. God knows that just as he knows that these people condemning the gays are also sinning. I will not give my opinion on gays but I will say that I hope that everyone remembers that these people are someones brother,sister,daughter,son and that we should love them as we love God.

There's a saying that the bible is a double edge sword. I don't really know what it implies nor do I really wanted to find out. Maybe it simply means it can cut both ways the one who is preached upon and the one who preaches it. For me I don't look at history. History are made by man, by their vanity and by their mistakes rather I look at civilization, the present civilization. Yes, there are lot of past atrocities, some were made in the name of religion. But would I believe that is God's will? No it's purely man's. If God wanted to destroy us, I believe he'll do it with a snap of his finger. I can not say where we are now but I can say it would be much much worse if there is no religion that would guide humanity.

I apologize, but I am unable to help you sort this out. I have all of these thoughts as well, but I have decided to stop thinking about it and throw religion out of my life for good! The things that the church has done are unforgivable and I am done with religion for good. I hope you find some resolution to your concerns, but for me, I just dont give a damn anymore. Every time I ask a question like this, the only answers I get back are ones that either beat around the bush or contradict each other. I ever tried asking a minister one time some questions and he could not even give me a straight answer! I have a perfect example of a bunch of Christians stabbing someone in the back....about 15 years ago, my sisters and I (we were all quite young) were walking not far from our house when a speeding, out of control car came straight us, narrowly (and I mean narrowly) missed us and crashed into the ditch only feet away from where were. The first people on the scene were not cops or ambulances...it was the people who lived around there. We thought they were coming to help or figured that they at least would have dialed 911...they didn't....they recognized the car and the man driving was a well-know drunk in the area. THey dragged him out of the car, and he was fine except that he could not walk, he was so drunk and the empty bottles were in the car as proof. They threw the bottles in the ditch and helped the man. My parents were soon on the scene and of course wanted to phone the police to report a drunk driver who nearly killed her 3 kids. The nieghbors would not let her....they said "you can't do that, that would be unchristian, we should just let him go".....he nearly killed 3 small children and they wanted to let him go/....of course my mom flipped and called the cops anyway....those bystanders never spoke to anyone in my family again....we were black listed in the neighborhood....and all of those bystanders, every single one of them was a churchgoer who considered themselves Christains....I think they should rot in Hell when they die for what they tried to do!!