Latest news with #ChurchofChrist
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Former Church-Goers Are Sharing The Thing That Made Them Stop Attending, And Some Of These Are Pretty Sinful
1. Warning: This post discusses domestic violence and sexual abuse. It's been said that you should never discuss politics or religion in polite company. But that doesn't apply to the internet, where everyone is impolite. Recently, Reddit user lowly_shepherd asked, "People who have stopped going to church, what made you stop?" People had A LOT to say. The question received over 16,000 replies! Here are some of the best comments: 2."They said my mom's cancer was God testing my family." —InspectorMadDog "Religion has no way to square how an all-loving God can allow such an indiscriminate killer to run rampant amongst its creation, so they come up with all sorts of unhinged explanations." —snukebox_hero 3."When I was 14, I stopped attending when my pastor told me that dinosaurs never existed." —Not_Cartmans_Mom "My pastor said, 'Maybe there were dinosaurs on Noah's ark.' That was the moment I realized it's all made up." —improvised-disaster 4."I started to realize that I felt guilty for things that weren't truly wrong and didn't negatively impact others. I don't need my church's interpretation of good and evil; I just do my best to be a good person on my own terms." —thefastestfridge 5."The focus on appearances. It seemed like no one actually cared what went on behind closed doors, as long as they weren't forced to acknowledge it." —ThatsAmoreMyGuy 6."The many Evangelical churches I attended were purely social clubs. Everyone came to show off their clothes, babies, and 'holiness,' then go back to being horrible when they walked out the door." —nndscrptuser 7."Our holier than thou pastor was screwing his secretary for years while married." —hawken54321 8."Around 2003, we got these two sermons back-to-back weeks: First, we were told that being homosexual is an abomination against God, and it's a disgrace to the Lord that these heathens legalized same-sex marriage (in Massachusetts). The following week, they said that although priests were caught molesting children, we should forgive them, as Jesus forgave. That was the Catholic Church in a nutshell, and my entire family could not be part of this anymore. The hypocrisy was palpable." —WilmaTonguefit 9."They seemed to want money more than anything else." —GeekyBookWorm87 10."I have a theory that attending religious elementary school made my anxiety WAY worse than it would've been if I went to public school. All the 'God is watching and will know if you sin' messed up my already-not-great brain as a kid." —Karsa69420 11."I read the Bible and came to very different conclusions than what I was taught in church." —JT_Hemingway 12."I was raised in the Church of Christ, where women aren't supposed to speak in front of men. Instead, they're supposed to filter their voice through their husband or father. My raised-in-the-church husband beat me, cheated on me, lied, stole, and beat our kids." —Professional-Sink281 13."I stopped being forced to go." —Keypenpad "My dad said as long as I lived in his house, I had to go to mass. So I moved out." —MOXYDOSS 14."I went to a Baptist university that was building a new football stadium. One day, I was talking with a professor (who was also a preacher) about the new stadium. I'll never forget the look of disgust on his face when I said the money should go to helping the largely impoverished community around the university. He thought it should go to building more churches. I realized that I have fundamentally different morals and ethics than churchgoers." —niktrot 15."It just wasn't fulfilling anymore, and I came to the conclusion that most people use religion as a cover for their flaws." —Anonymous 16."I never really could connect with anyone in the church. They didn't seem capable of having conversations that didn't revolve around the church or the Bible, and I just couldn't talk about that 24/7." —TinaSparkles 17."I stopped going to church when the pastor told me I was not allowed to leave my domestic abuser husband unless he cheated on me. I left him anyway." —Illustrious-Tale683 18."As a kid, I was told not to believe everything on TV and to question things. At the same time, I was fed stories of a man who walked on water and fed hundreds of people with one fish and one bottle of wine. I was chastised when I questioned Bible stories, but the seed was planted." —StarPlantMoonPraetor 19."Early on in my time in Iraq, I was a gunner on a Humvee. Some kid threw a rock at the truck. I was pulling on the trigger before my brain realized a rock isn't dangerous. I didn't kill anyone, but it really messed with me. I was a devout Catholic at the time and went to confession to get help. The priest was more fixated on whether I rubbed one out than how close I got to killing someone. It spiraled for a few years before concluding that all churches were corrupt and morally bankrupt." —Tiredhistorynerd "The church has a disproportionate focus on sexual sins." —PeteSlubberdegullion 20."One of my four sons is gay. I love him without reservation. The church says he's a sinner because of who he is. I'm out." —Purpleappointment47 21."When you really get down to it, it's just people telling you they know what happens when we die. I'm not basing my life's ideology around something that's impossible to know." —Gooch_Rogers 22."The last time I went to my church was my mom's celebration of life service. It's been eight years, and I don't think I can set foot in the building without crying." —BusinessWarthog6 finally, on a lighter note: "Church is boring as hell." —No_Froyo_7980 H/T r/AskReddit Some replies have been edited for length and clarity. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
Buzz Feed
10-04-2025
- General
- Buzz Feed
Former Church-Goers Are Sharing The Thing That Made Them Stop Attending, And Some Of These Are Pretty Sinful
1. Warning: This post discusses domestic violence and sexual abuse. It's been said that you should never discuss politics or religion in polite company. But that doesn't apply to the internet, where everyone is impolite. Recently, Reddit user lowly_shepherd asked, "People who have stopped going to church, what made you stop?" People had A LOT to say. The question received over 16,000 replies! Here are some of the best comments: 2. "They said my mom's cancer was God testing my family." — InspectorMadDog "Religion has no way to square how an all-loving God can allow such an indiscriminate killer to run rampant amongst its creation, so they come up with all sorts of unhinged explanations." — snukebox_hero 3. "When I was 14, I stopped attending when my pastor told me that dinosaurs never existed." — Not_Cartmans_Mom "My pastor said, 'Maybe there were dinosaurs on Noah's ark.' That was the moment I realized it's all made up." — improvised-disaster 4. "I started to realize that I felt guilty for things that weren't truly wrong and didn't negatively impact others. I don't need my church's interpretation of good and evil; I just do my best to be a good person on my own terms." 5. "The focus on appearances. It seemed like no one actually cared what went on behind closed doors, as long as they weren't forced to acknowledge it." — ThatsAmoreMyGuy 6. "The many Evangelical churches I attended were purely social clubs. Everyone came to show off their clothes, babies, and 'holiness,' then go back to being horrible when they walked out the door." 8. "Around 2003, we got these two sermons back-to-back weeks: First, we were told that being homosexual is an abomination against God, and it's a disgrace to the Lord that these heathens legalized same-sex marriage (in Massachusetts). The following week, they said that although priests were caught molesting children, we should forgive them, as Jesus forgave. That was the Catholic Church in a nutshell, and my entire family could not be part of this anymore. The hypocrisy was palpable." 9. "They seemed to want money more than anything else." — GeekyBookWorm87 10. "I have a theory that attending religious elementary school made my anxiety WAY worse than it would've been if I went to public school. All the 'God is watching and will know if you sin' messed up my already-not-great brain as a kid." 11. "I read the Bible and came to very different conclusions than what I was taught in church." — JT_Hemingway 12. "I was raised in the Church of Christ, where women aren't supposed to speak in front of men. Instead, they're supposed to filter their voice through their husband or father. My raised-in-the-church husband beat me, cheated on me, lied, stole, and beat our kids." — Professional-Sink281 13. "I stopped being forced to go." — Keypenpad "My dad said as long as I lived in his house, I had to go to mass. So I moved out." — MOXYDOSS 14. "I went to a Baptist university that was building a new football stadium. One day, I was talking with a professor (who was also a preacher) about the new stadium. I'll never forget the look of disgust on his face when I said the money should go to helping the largely impoverished community around the university. He thought it should go to building more churches. I realized that I have fundamentally different morals and ethics than churchgoers." 16. "I never really could connect with anyone in the church. They didn't seem capable of having conversations that didn't revolve around the church or the Bible, and I just couldn't talk about that 24/7." — TinaSparkles 18. "As a kid, I was told not to believe everything on TV and to question things. At the same time, I was fed stories of a man who walked on water and fed hundreds of people with one fish and one bottle of wine. I was chastised when I questioned Bible stories, but the seed was planted." 19. "Early on in my time in Iraq, I was a gunner on a Humvee. Some kid threw a rock at the truck. I was pulling on the trigger before my brain realized a rock isn't dangerous. I didn't kill anyone, but it really messed with me. I was a devout Catholic at the time and went to confession to get help. The priest was more fixated on whether I rubbed one out than how close I got to killing someone. It spiraled for a few years before concluding that all churches were corrupt and morally bankrupt." — Tiredhistorynerd "The church has a disproportionate focus on sexual sins." — PeteSlubberdegullion 20. "One of my four sons is gay. I love him without reservation. The church says he's a sinner because of who he is. I'm out." 21. "When you really get down to it, it's just people telling you they know what happens when we die. I'm not basing my life's ideology around something that's impossible to know." — Gooch_Rogers 22. "The last time I went to my church was my mom's celebration of life service. It's been eight years, and I don't think I can set foot in the building without crying." If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
Chicago Tribune
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: First modern Olympic games held
Today is Sunday, April 6, the 96th day of 2025. There are 269 days left in the year. Today in history: On April 6, 1896, the first modern Olympic games formally opened in Athens, Greece. Also on this date: In 1830, Joseph Smith and others met in Fayette, New York, to form the Church of Christ — now known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1862, the Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee as Confederate forces launched a surprise attack against Union troops, who beat back the Confederates the following day. In 1917, the United States entered World War I as the House joined the Senate in approving a declaration of war against Germany that was then signed by President Woodrow Wilson. In 1954, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., responding to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow's broadside against him on 'See It Now,' claimed in remarks filmed for the program that Murrow had, in the past, 'engaged in propaganda for Communist causes.' In 1968, 41 people were killed by a pair of explosions spurred by a natural gas leak at a sporting goods store in downtown Richmond, Indiana. In 1994, Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed when the jet they were riding in was shot down by surface-to-air missiles as it attempted to land in Kigali, Rwanda. In 2012, five Black people were shot, three fatally, in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Jake England and Alvin Watts, who admitted to targeting the victims because of their race, pleaded guilty to murder and were sentenced to life in prison without parole. Today's Birthdays: Scientist James D. Watson is 97. Actor Billy Dee Williams is 88. Film director Barry Levinson is 83. Actor John Ratzenberger is 78. Baseball Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven is 74. Actor Marilu Henner is 73. Actor Michael Rooker is 70. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is 61. Football Hall of Famer Sterling Sharpe is 60. Actor Paul Rudd is 56. Actor Zach Braff is 50. Actor Candace Cameron Bure is 49. Musician Robert Glasper is 47.
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
On This Day, April 6: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints founded
April 6 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, originally known as the Church of Christ, was founded between three groups of followers in Fayette, Manchester and Colesville, N.Y. In 1851, Portland, Ore., was founded. In 1896, the first modern Olympics formally opened in Athens, Greece. The Olympics had last been staged 1,500 years earlier. In 1909, explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reached the North Pole. It would be November of the same year before the National Geographic Society confirmed the accomplishment. In 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, propelling America into World War I. In 1938, DuPont researchers Roy Plunkett and Jack Rebok stumbled upon the chemical compound that was later marketed as Teflon. In 1947, the first Tony Awards, honoring distinguished work in the theater, were presented in New York City. In 1968, federal troops and National Guardsmen were deployed in Chicago, Washington and Detroit as rioting continued over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1973, American League baseball teams used a designated hitter for the first time. It hasn't always been a popular rule. In 1994, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were among those killed when their plane was hit by rockets as it was landing in Kigali, Rwanda. The attack triggered fighting between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups that left hundreds of thousands of people dead in what became known as the Rwandan Genocide. In 2004, the University of Connecticut became the first school to win both the NCAA Division I men's and women's college basketball championships the same year. The UConn teams did it again in 2014. In 2005, Prince Rainier III of Monaco, one of Europe's longest-reigning monarchs, died from multiple organ failure at the age of 81. He was succeeded by Prince Albert, one of three children of Rainier and his wife, movie star Grace Kelly, who died in a car crash in 1982. In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck central Italy's Abruzzo region, killing 307 people and causing damage throughout the city of L'Aquila. In 2019, for the first time, a tremor was detected on the surface of Mars by the InSight lander's SEIS seismometer. NASA described the phenomenon as a marsquake. In 2020, the British Open was canceled for the first time since World War II, becoming the first major golf championship to be eliminated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Forbes' annual World's Billionaires list grew by 660 people, adding $5 trillion in worth despite the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon CEO Jeff Beoz topped the list for the fourth year in a row.
Associated Press
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Today in History: April 6, United States enters World War I
Today in history: On April 6, 1917, the United States entered World War I as the House joined the Senate in approving a declaration of war against Germany that was then signed by President Woodrow Wilson. Also on this date: In 1830, Joseph Smith and others met in Fayette, New York to form the Church of Christ—now known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In 1862, the Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee as Confederate forces launched a surprise attack against Union troops, who beat back the Confederates the following day. In 1896, the first modern Olympic games formally opened in Athens, Greece. In 1954, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., responding to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow's broadside against him on 'See It Now,' claimed in remarks filmed for the program that Murrow had, in the past, 'engaged in propaganda for Communist causes.' In 1968, 41 people were killed a pair of explosions spurred by a natural gas leak at a sporting goods store in downtown Richmond, Indiana. In 1994, Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed when the jet they rode in was shot down by surface-to-air missiles as it attempted to land in Kigali, Rwanda. In 2012, five Black people were shot, three fatally, in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Jake England and Alvin Watts, who admitted targeting the victims because of race, pleaded guilty to murder, and were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
