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Is Christianity really not a religion?

 
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Post Is Christianity really not a religion? Link
Imagine a friend of yours sets up an appointment for a friend of his to go to your house and show you some knew technology and give you a free set of knives. You owe this friend a favor and know he/she won't leave you alone, so somehow you agree.

This individual comes over and introduces himself. You ask if he's a salesman. He says, "No, I am not going to try to sell you anything."

Thirty minutes later, he is trying to close a sale with you on his special high-tech vacuum cleaner. So you say, "You told me you weren't going to sell me anything! You liked to me!"

He responds, "I did not lie. 'Sell' means to try to get someone to buy something they don't need."

Now, imagine you invite the friend who set you up with the salesman to church and say, "There is a great concert tonight, but no one is going to talk about religion."

The preacher says, "We aren't going to talk about religion tonight. Religion is a bad thing. Tonight we are going to talk about a relationship with God."

Your friend tells you, "You lied to me. You said they weren't going to talk about religion."

I think the only difference here is that the salesman seems a little bit more of a liar since we are not familiar with a community of people insisting that 'sell' really means something different from what it means to the general populace, but evangelicals have preachers insisting that 'religion' does not really mean what it means to the general populace and what it meant for hundreds of years before evangelicals redefined it.

What good does redefining 'religion' do when it comes to evangelism? Doesn't it open Christians up to accusations of dishonesty, and doesn't needlessly redefining basic words hinder communication and understanding?
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11/7/19 6:48 pm


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Post Dean Steenburgh
Not really a direct response here to your post but just an observation.
Here in Modesto we have this group called, "Church in the Park" & they sometimes will average 200 or better especially in the dry months.
When they try to meet up inside a building their leadership say stuff like, "subject matter might have some religion to it but next week we'll come back here in the park."
Somehow the perception is that religious events happen indoors.

Now to make the point even funnier, 2 or 3 times a year we set up these large canopies & make an outdoor tabernacle on the edge of our parking lot.
Every time we do this our attendance peaks. We set it up on Saturday usually & we use a portable sound board with all the musicians outdoors & the people set on rented chairs that I get for $1.00 a chair.
Sometimes I'll ask our visitors what made them attend the outdoor event & they'll say stuff like, "I'm not a religious person but I did want to stop & check this out."

It's funny how people associate religion with the structures.
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11/7/19 7:10 pm


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Post UncleJD
you're right Link. Its like the Easter Sunday fliers the big church sends out to the city. All about winning an XBOX or big-screen and the word "church" or "Jesus" doesn't appear anywhere on the card. They think they can trick you into coming to Jesus. Ironically, the last time I got one of those, there was another one in the mail from the local Jehovah's Witness, it said simply something like "you have questions about God and your life? What happens when you or your family die?". Golf Cart Mafia Consigliere
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11/8/19 10:00 am


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Post Dave Dorsey
Another great post, Link. I couldn't agree more.

Shaun and I have talked at length about this and I would love to see him come share his perspective on this.
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11/8/19 10:10 am


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Post Cojak
I gotta say Link, very interesting how religion (the word) is looked at negatively and very different from my youth. It is like Religion has no connection with Christ.

Then to Dean. Oh yes it is amazing since the beginning of time (for me) tents were in my family. My daddy was a tent preacher. No matter the town or church dad pastored he had a 30x60 tent. Looking back I cannot remember where he stored it nor remember seeing it when we moved from church to church. At least once a year he set it up for a revival, I cannot remember a time it was not packed or 90% full. He started in 1920 and ended it in 1970.

He explained it in his Georgia logic. With the curtains up, there is no door keeping them in, and like the natural instinct of wild animals there are many ways to escape anytime they choose. LOL.

My dog tags read 'Church of God' in the USMC, USAF= 'Christian', in the USN = Protestant. All were answers to the question: What is your religion? Shocked
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11/8/19 10:44 am


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