So, if I’m to take their message as intended, in addition to avoiding sports and education, I ought to avoid religion too? Are there more pages to this saying something along the lines of “… Except my favourite religion?” Otherwise, I mean, I’m confused what they want me to do here?
This is a specific reference to the kind of church that emphasizes a personal relation with Jesus as the escape from sin etc. It’s like the second reformation. It’s not good enough to not be catholic. It’s not good enough to go to a Protestant church that doesn’t use icons and Latin chants and confessional. Church itself can be a distraction to some non denominational fundamentalists. You should go to church but it’s a bare bones place. The emphasis is on you reading your Bible. Etc.
In my hyper religious, Southern Baptist upbringing, I often heard Christians say that Christianity is not a religion. The mental gymnastics employed to explain this position were varied. Most often it was “Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship [with God]”, or something along the lines of “Christianity isn’t a religion because it’s true”.
“Religion” in general was thus deemed a bad thing, because it was a term used to encapsulate all the other (and thus false) faith-belief-philosophy systems that were used by Satan to lead the world away from God. It bears noting that Catholicism and other major denominations always all fell under that umbrella of “other”.
So, if I’m to take their message as intended, in addition to avoiding sports and education, I ought to avoid religion too? Are there more pages to this saying something along the lines of “… Except my favourite religion?” Otherwise, I mean, I’m confused what they want me to do here?
I grew up in this kind of environment. Every religion and denomination except your specific subset of Christianity is bad, you’re taught.
This is a specific reference to the kind of church that emphasizes a personal relation with Jesus as the escape from sin etc. It’s like the second reformation. It’s not good enough to not be catholic. It’s not good enough to go to a Protestant church that doesn’t use icons and Latin chants and confessional. Church itself can be a distraction to some non denominational fundamentalists. You should go to church but it’s a bare bones place. The emphasis is on you reading your Bible. Etc.
In my hyper religious, Southern Baptist upbringing, I often heard Christians say that Christianity is not a religion. The mental gymnastics employed to explain this position were varied. Most often it was “Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship [with God]”, or something along the lines of “Christianity isn’t a religion because it’s true”.
“Religion” in general was thus deemed a bad thing, because it was a term used to encapsulate all the other (and thus false) faith-belief-philosophy systems that were used by Satan to lead the world away from God. It bears noting that Catholicism and other major denominations always all fell under that umbrella of “other”.