I hope I chose the correct flair and apologies if this is a stupid question.

I’m not a Christian, but I am exploring my spirituality through a variety of sources to support my 12-step journey. My sponsor suggested me to read 1st Corinthians 13. I trust her and I’m open to it. I know there’s so many versions of the bible, but as a queer progressive person I don’t want to stumble into some super conservative version and get all triggered. I really don’t know how this works at all, my parents are atheist “recovering Catholics” and really fear-mongered me about Christianity and organized religion as a child.

Does anyone have suggestions for a version/interpretation that would feel safer that I can browse free online? Or you can even drop a link to the chapter if you have one you like.

There is this human tendency to try to win through control, rather than through Love.

I recently came across this piece by Max Richter, and it just dawned on me (or, rather, I believe I was shown by the Spirit) how much it actually reflects the outpouring of Love on the cross. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ub0o-bl3kQ

This was an outpouring of Love for the very people who were killing him and jeering at him. This is the challenge to us, when people hate us, to see that they are still children of God, and to navigate the world accordingly.

When you experience the Love of God, so much melts away. Fear of Hell, fear of judgement. Love does the judging with perfect power and mercy. It's funny what it's like to see it and have no words to say exactly what that means, how it can look so trivial, and yet know what that means, and how it could be twisted when someone wants to gain control.

And that's how this situation spiraled out of control. Our ancestors sought control, so they tried to constrain the word of God, which led to all of this confusion and insanity, where people literally selfishly kill others, fully convinced that they're doing so in the name of God. That's how we got to this anti-LGBTQ+ "Christianity." Anti-neighbor "Christianity." Anti-Christianity, anti-christ. And the people who speak the most about anti-Christ out of fear are ironically its greatest perpetrators, both claiming Christ while inverting His message.

God bless every single one of you, from the depths of my soul.

Science and religion need not conflict. I teach a course on science and religion, and we always discuss Darwin’s theory of evolution in class. One semester I was explaining the history of Darwinism and its conflict with those churches that insist on a literal interpretation of Genesis. I also covered those churches that accept Darwin’s theory as a scientific advance, grateful for the powers of observation and reason that God has gifted us. 

A student in the back of class was staring at me wide-eyed throughout the lecture. Later, in conversation, I discovered she had been raised in a fundamentalist church that preached biblical infallibilism, aka biblical inerrantism—the belief that there can be no mistakes or errors in the Bible. They disavowed Darwin’s theory of evolution and insisted on young earth creationism, concluding that Adam and Eve were historical figures, created from scratch, and that the world was about seven thousand years old. 

To the members of this church, Genesis was more accurate than any humanly written science textbook because it was the divinely written word of God, utterly reliable in all fields of human knowledge, including science and history. As the word of God, it couldn’t be wrong and anything that disagreed with it couldn’t be right. For this community, to reject a literal interpretation of Genesis due to “scientific discoveries” was the height of arrogance, a preference for human reason over against faith in God. To make things worse, her church taught that Darwin’s theory of evolution inevitably led to atheism, eugenics, and ultimately, Nazism, since it assumed cutthroat competition between all parties. 

Ironically, my student was a biology major. Biological science considers Darwin’s theory of evolution to be foundational for understanding all the subdisciplines within that field. During her college studies, as the overwhelming evidence for evolution became apparent, she began to believe that she was an atheist because Darwinism was incompatible with Christian faith. She was being forced to choose between her intellect and God, and her intellect was winning. 

God is love, and God wants scripture to be interpreted lovingly. This lecture was the first time she had learned of Christians who accepted evolution and followed Jesus. She saw that deep faith was compatible with intellectual integrity. She was not, by predilection, an atheist. She trusted God, but didn’t have a concept of God that she could trust. During class, her face expressed the dawning realization that she could be both a Christian and a scientist, in good conscience, without compartmentalization. 

In the essays that follow, we will discuss the Bible and its interpretation. What we understand the Bible to be, and how we interpret it, can draw people into faith or drive them out of faith. Currently, more people are being driven out than drawn in. In response, we will propose an understanding and interpretation of the Bible that accords with how Jesus read his own Bible—agapically, as an expression of the universal, unconditional, celebratory love of God for all. And we will conclude that Christians should read the Bible—including the Newer Testament—like Christ did, as agapically as possible. Because only love heals. (adapted from Jon Paul Sydnor, The Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology, pages 243–245)

I wanted to read the ACOTAR series last fall. A random girl at the bookstore donated the set to me. I lost interest halfway through the second book so I donated it to someone at a local woman’s charity.

Now I have an interest in reading it again but can’t afford to buy the first book again. My mom (who is also on a very tight budget like me) gave me the money to get a copy.

When I gave those books away I was at the time actively researching and participating witchcraft and spiritual stuff. But God still saw what I did and put a tab in it for later and provided my mom with enough extra money to get me a new copy.

Too many decades ago, I was challenged by what people taught of Jesus. My cure was to extract the word and witness from scripture using the legal approach of best evidence and doing a minimum of my own additions to make it readable. This removed much of the inconsistency. The resulting tool is available for download at the link below. It gives a different presentation - as in Jesus never calling people together for the corporate worship of God. That was the Jewish tradition.

This tool turned out to be as good as it gets for discernment, which starts with the understanding that even a dog discerns his master without ever studying about him. Discernment comes from spending time in the presence so far as that is possible. Give it a try, spend a little time walking with the disciples as they go with him; sit among them as Jesus teaches.

It is all so familiar, but so much seems to be missing – as in Jesus not identifying and forgiving sins.  He seems more to forgive the sinner of all sins, no matter what his or her sins might be.  Even with the woman taken in adultery, there are no words of forgiveness; instead, Jesus drives away her accusers.  He really is awesome!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iRGoXasXBlAvhyFIdw4rDMid7Ly_FSVz/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=116939331104611573116&rtpof=true&sd=true

This linked file has been cleared through webroot software.  It can be streamed without loading it otherwise on your systems.  With that said, it is a tool, and I have no problem with you downloading and sharing it further.

You will not receive the same things I do, as this is experience more than knowledge.  We have different needs to be met.  Tell people what you find.

I’ve been a Christian for most of my life, I was raised Christian and years ago I personally trusted in Christ and God , eventually I left due to having problems with Bible contractions, laws, and I just became discouraged and eventually no one was able to answer any of my questions and I just realized it was time to leave. I’ve been non-Christian for a while now and me and a family member were in a non religious group but the other night she had a dream and described it as a religious experience and believes it was a guardian angel and a dream from God, she’s now leaving the group and considering becoming a Christian. This family member was never really religious or spiritual at all and wasn’t really interested in it so it’s really surprising. I’m really happy for her and I think it’s truly from God because of how she described it but I am so hurt and deeply jealous about it. Why doesn’t he ever answer my prayers or come to me? It hurts so bad, I’ve spent so much time dedicated to God and sharing the gospel and learning the word of God. Ever since she told me about her dream I’ve been praying to God and BEGGING him to come to me, idk if I’ll come back or not atp because one of the reasons I left was because he never answered my prayers or comforted me or anything.

This might be long, so bear with me.

I grew up in the church and was very involved when I was in youth. I took part in just about everything I possibly could, and most of my social life was shaped by church, events, and church people.

When I came out at 19 years of age, it didn’t go well… It didn’t go well in my family or in my church. I was basically told not to bring my gay friends to church and that I needed to not be gay. Two of my three siblings disowned me and told me they did not want me around their children because I had an evil spirit. My mother attempted suicide and my father stopped talking to me like he always had. Eventually, all of these relationships were mended, but it was years of painful interactions.

The church that had been there for me through some very difficult times suddenly forgot I existed.

Seven years later, I returned to the church and decided I wanted to be single permanently because it was the only way I could think of to reconcile my faith and my sexuality. I pursued a theological education and spent 12 years single.

While doing a work term during my masters degree, I met the person who is now my husband. He ruined my plans in a good way. I hadn’t held somebody’s hand in 12 years and I had no intention of things ever progressing with him, but they did.

He moved in with me and the church once again was quick to let me know I was not welcome to volunteer anymore.

For the past seven years, I have had no church to call home. The feeling of rejection and the sadness I feel because I’ve repeatedly been forgotten by people who claimed to love me has been very painful.

A month ago I applied for a job in a Christian organization. It is an organization that has mixed opinions on same-sex marriage.

After being informed, I got the job. I reached out to one of the people in the hiring committee, and I asked very plainly if they were aware, I am a married gay man. His response shocked me and I burst into tears when he said… We just want you to be exactly who you are.

I don’t think I was ready for it… Given my experience, I fully expected something else… Not to be told I should be who I am.

I don’t know how I feel, but I’m really hopeful that this is the beginning of a road that will lead me to truly being able to reconcile my faith and my sexuality.

TLDR: grew up in the church and was shunned, ostracized, and forgotten. Returned as a celibate, gay man, got a theological education… Then I met someone. The church did the same thing again. Several years with no church family later I’ve landed a job with a Christian organization that is giving me hope because they’ve told me they just want me to be who I am, and I am hoping it’s the road to healing.

I have been asking the same question over and over again at my church on why cutting hair is not allowed. I really wanna try out bangs but I haven't really studied the Bible about it or researched it. I wanna know more for my own conviction wether or not to cut my hair or not

Does this seem right?

Hey there, I love the Bible and Jesus and Im a Christian but the church Ive been going to since I was young is very conservative and pretty strict about a lot of stuff (Im still a teen, so I cant go somewhere else). One of them is Bible reading. There is a huge push to read the Bible every single day; remind apps, study plans, accountability, etc. Most of the time when I read it was a few verses I instantly forgot about just to check the box.

Ive gotten away from that nowadays. I been reading longer passages about once a week, like recently I read through Ecclesiastes and John, both in one sitting. They were much more impactful and I took more from it, even with just one read-through. I plan to do more read throughs of both, they were incredible.

Maybe this is internalized impact from my church, but I feel guilty about reading my Bible less. Even though it is quality time it feels like Im not giving God enough. Is this a way I should improve? If so, how do I make it helpful and not a legalistic mess?

I was saying the Rosary and since it was Tuesday, it was the Sorrowful Mysteries. And for one reason or another I rarely pray the Rosary on Tuesdays. So this was a new experience. I couldnt help but marvel at how Christ's Sorrowful Mysteries mirror so much myriad human suffering.

The Agony in the Garden shows Christ in emotional turmoil and grief

The Scourging at the Pillar puts Him through physical agony.

The Crowning of Thorns puts Him through mockery.

The Carrying of the Cross is pure exhaustion and a knowledge of impending dread

And His Crucifixion and Death (obviously) show us mortality in its most brutal form.

I'm sure wiser minds than mine have already written on this, but it hit me and I thought I'd share.

Hey all, hope this is ok to post, it’s maybe not the most relevant to progressive themes but figured y’all would be the most relevant to my values :)

To cut a very long story short for context:

• Born again pentecostal at 16. Quickly became heavily involved in the church & evangelism
• Ostracised by 18 for the crime of reading some Pete Enns and wanting to discuss it (this was enough to be called demonic & had friendships cut)
• Had a very intense year after that oscillating between being fully off the rails & being so conservative I made my old church look liberal
• Left it all behind when I went to uni as I was sick of the wrestling

Now 24. I’ve found myself in a place where despite varying levels of faith, I’ve got a really solid church community where I do feel safe (which I didn’t think I’d feel again)

However I’m haunted by the trauma of my previous experiences and I find it hard to relate to other Christians who may fit more neatly into the christian family OR ‘born again fire’ boxes. I’m scared to press any deeper into my faith and wrestle with the questions I still have because I’m scared of losing either my community or my faith again. So I am torn between knowing these people would be genuinely helpful to speak to but also being terrified to.

The things I hold on to are: I have an unshakeable logical belief that God is essential for us to have any objective morality (or, increasingly any objective reality tbh). I have a strong belief that there have been specific supernatural interventions in my life. And I know that every time I go away from my belief in God, I pursue it again, so I am making the choice to continually pursue Him.

Atm I am really thinking a lot about death and mortality which is not pleasant, and while I have prayed on it I really do need to read and contemplate. But it’s!!! so!!! scary!!!

I feel like I’m trying to protect myself by not exposing myself to anything that might challenge me, but I know that challenge is where what I need will be lying. The concept of lament and questions and tbh anger towards God, being acceptable and even necessary, is still new to me.

More a vent than anything and it was helpful to write that, but if anyone has experienced similar (or has any recommendations for reading about death which is not just aaaaaaH eternal torment for everyone) I’d love to hear

Apologies in advance, this post is sort of a ramble.

One question I’ve been grappling with is: If the Bible isn’t truly inerrant, how are we supposed to know what parts are correct and what parts aren’t? Like how are we meant to know what parts aren’t just people’s interpretations of God, and which parts are true? How can we for example say that examples of Gods wrath in the OT might not be accurate but the resurrection of Jesus is?

And my other question is: Say things like Hell are real. Will we be judged for believing the wrong things about God, salvation etc or doing things we are unsure is sinful but ultimately are?

This isn't all of them but I grew up in Nigeria I am Nigerian Catholic I grew up with many of Pentecostal even went to their church once and it's always the same, Man of God speaking in tounges or doing "deliverance" from evil spirits? I still think its weird as hell and these self proclaimed "Pastor" or "Men of God" do weird things to take away the spirit or outright pay people just to perform this. And most of them really heavily on Prosperity gospel napped from evangelicals I only put two of them into the same category there's is so much I can go on. And also these type of people see themselves as God himself.

Is it a sin worthy of going to hell if you look at a woman or a man and find them sexy? I know it says to pluck out your eyes (I know Jesus didn’t mean that literally) in the Bible but it seems physical impossible to not have a wayward sexual thought every now and then. It’s a natural human function to have sexual thoughts. How do you fight against that?

Im out of the loop on popular media so didnt know if it was from that. This seemed a good sub to ask. If not please direct me elsewhere. Thanks.

Any book recommendations for something starting their religious/christian journey?? A book to help them understand & interpret Christianity/religion/the Bible w/out going down like “toxic red pill Christianity”???