07-21-2006, 01:28 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> But for Christians like me, thats the reason for the "huge missionary apparatus" one of you talked about. To let people know about Jesus Christ, and how following him made a difference in our lives, and can for everyone. What they do with that knowledge is their business. I will never support any kind of force to "convert" people. Thats despicable.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Stop the BS. The enormous apparatus of missionaries, both Catholic and of various Protestant/Evangelical denominations, just <b>to let people know about Christ</b>? We know about him just fine. It is to persuade, if not socially coerce, specific minorities among economically vulnerable communities to seek salvation in "Christ".
If it was just to let people "know about Christ", that objective has already been achieved in most places. People already know about him.
The missionary apparatus, for all its sound-and-light effects, is a corporate organization, just like Hindustan Lever. It sells a brand of religion - an exclusivist monotheism at that - with the important advantage that it has enormous sums of money and a well-motivated cadre for its mission. It has deadlines, it has an advertising budget, it has competition, and it has to meet numbers, to give its financial backers (the richer set among the laity) a sense of achievement, and a sense of vindication that they or their ancestors made the right choice.
Notice how carefully the Church seeks to define its product as different from that of rival faiths? Notice how carefully the Church seeks to devalue the concept of works alone as a way to salvation and the concept of reaching God directly as a means of salvation, and instead lays emphasis on "faith" in this "Son of God"? Read here for the faith vs works debate. These are the systemic characteristics of a corporate organization, and attempt by the "Church" to justify its existence to the laity and the rest of the world.
+++ I reject the concept that salvation is possible only through faith in one individual(man or "son of God" whatever that is supposed to mean).
+++ I reject the concept that faith, <i>not works</i>, is the only way to reach God.
+++ I reject the concept that those who do not believe in this one individual cannot achieve salvation, not matter how good they are personally. <b>This is what the Church teaches</b>, by the way, that to achieve salvation, it is necessary not just to believe in God, but to believe in this new "Son of God" nonsense.
Stop the BS. The enormous apparatus of missionaries, both Catholic and of various Protestant/Evangelical denominations, just <b>to let people know about Christ</b>? We know about him just fine. It is to persuade, if not socially coerce, specific minorities among economically vulnerable communities to seek salvation in "Christ".
If it was just to let people "know about Christ", that objective has already been achieved in most places. People already know about him.
The missionary apparatus, for all its sound-and-light effects, is a corporate organization, just like Hindustan Lever. It sells a brand of religion - an exclusivist monotheism at that - with the important advantage that it has enormous sums of money and a well-motivated cadre for its mission. It has deadlines, it has an advertising budget, it has competition, and it has to meet numbers, to give its financial backers (the richer set among the laity) a sense of achievement, and a sense of vindication that they or their ancestors made the right choice.
Notice how carefully the Church seeks to define its product as different from that of rival faiths? Notice how carefully the Church seeks to devalue the concept of works alone as a way to salvation and the concept of reaching God directly as a means of salvation, and instead lays emphasis on "faith" in this "Son of God"? Read here for the faith vs works debate. These are the systemic characteristics of a corporate organization, and attempt by the "Church" to justify its existence to the laity and the rest of the world.
+++ I reject the concept that salvation is possible only through faith in one individual(man or "son of God" whatever that is supposed to mean).
+++ I reject the concept that faith, <i>not works</i>, is the only way to reach God.
+++ I reject the concept that those who do not believe in this one individual cannot achieve salvation, not matter how good they are personally. <b>This is what the Church teaches</b>, by the way, that to achieve salvation, it is necessary not just to believe in God, but to believe in this new "Son of God" nonsense.