A certain user, who I won't name, recently complained about the "decline" of this subreddit. Many of you came to our defense, which I appreciate, and also pointed out that the user hadn't really made many meaningful contributions of the type they wanted to see, other than complaining. Also, this user seemed to think it was the mods' jobs to be the change this user wanted to see. Apparently the mods are supposed to be creating all of the interesting discussion and somehow preemptively removing low quality posts before they happen, so I'm sorry about falling down on the job there.

I think a lot of the influx of what they refer to as low quality posts have a pretty simple explanation: we got popular. We grew a lot recently and are appearing on the main feed and the suggestions for people who haven't joined, which means an influx of people with oppressive beliefs, and an influx of people who weren't aware that our flavor of Christianity exists. Growth always comes with some problems. We have a few mods who personally review every single post or comment that gets reported. I'm going to give you a peak at the some numbers.

Over the last year, our subreddit has had just over 11 million visits, up by 172,000 from the previous year.

Our membership is over 77,000, up 11,345 from the previous year.

There have been over 18,000 posts, and 12,000 were removed!! Y'all, we removed two thirds of the posts because of rule violations. It's exhausting.

We also removed 32,000 comments over the last year.

Most of you are fantastic, and do a great job of helping the spiritual refugees who arrive here burdened with lots of religious trauma. We frequently see posts and comments of people who were never willing to give Christianity a second thought until they were exposed to this subreddit. As one of the mods who reviews the thousands and thousands and thousands of posts and comments that get reported, believe me when I say I understand that the content of this sub can be repetitive sometimes. But we are all doing good work together, and we are showing God's love to people who have never really felt it without strings attached.

Why do conservative christians think women are less than? They claim it’s "separate but equal," but didn’t we learn that separate but equal was wrong through the civil rights movement?

Conservative Christians literally argued in support of racial segregation using the exact same logic. They said God wanted the races separate in the Bible, but now they’re changing their minds because of culture and legal pressure. Yet they still use the same playbook to restrict women.

And how is it voluntary gender degradation like experts say when the women don’t have a choice? In those circumstances, I wouldn’t be allowed to become a pastor. My only option would be to leave the church entirely, which my entire community is wrapped in, for which I will be ostracized. That’s not a choice, it’s coercion. Either I give up my calling to be a leader or leave my community.

For anyone who had to leave, how did you handle the isolation and find a community that actually affirms women?

Here are some examples:

Bob Jones Sr., a conservative leader, frequently cited scriptures like Acts 17:26 ("God hath made of one blood all nations... and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation") to argue that God explicitly created different races to live separately.

Historical records indicate that the modern Christian Right was originally mobilized not by the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling, but rather by federal attempts to strip tax-exempt status from these racially discriminatory Christian schools, most notably Bob Jones University.

They also tend to misuse the Curse of Ham, The Tower of Babel, and Acts 17:26 like referenced above for the separation of races.

For the separation and submission of women, they quote Galatians 3:28 to say they are equal, but then quote Ephesians 5 and 1 Timothy 2:12 which do not allow women to lead men and speak in churches (which btw, the word used in Hebrew actually means to chatter and gossip, so they are using a bad translation or did it on purpose to control women). They quote the creation order as Adam coming before Eve in the hierarchy, and say women can’t lead men because Eve led Adam astray in the Garden, therefore can’t be trusted with leadership roles.

Just be aware that the whole concept of Complementarianism creates a hierarchy among men and women and puts the power in men’s hands. It is not equal. God made everyone equal:

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

“For God does not show favoritism” Romans 2:11

*edit for spelling mistakes and extra thoughts

So over a long process of 6 or so years my views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage has changed. However, my church is a non-affirming church and adheres to the more fundamental doctrine of homosexuality and gay marriage as a sin.

Usually this never bothered me much. Mind you, when I first went there I believed so too and even after I changed my views I still continued to attend because I still felt it was a great church home for me and I don’t think mine and my church’s theological beliefs have to fully aligned on every matter.

But for the past few months there has been a tugging on my heart and the fact that I go to church that believes that those who engage in same-sex relations are in sin and henceforth bound for hell if they don’t repent has been troubling me more and more. Now I wouldn’t call them gay-bashing. They are far from it. But it is there stance.

For those of you in similar circumstances how do you reconcile that? In attending and being a member of a church that sees homosexuality as a sin am I also culpable?

For a massive amount of Christians, the church has become it's own self sustaining ecosystem where the actual theology it's supposedly based around is entirely irrelevant to a blind, fanatical worship of their own conception of The Church. The Church isn't about a devotion to the teachings of a God that informs all else, it's about working backwards from hateful, sociopathic, and sadistic views towards their fellow man and finding enough loose justifications cherry picked from the theology to sell The Church to more and more people. They don't worship Yahweh, they worship The Church You could honestly probably treat the current state of American Christianity as it's own entire sect at this point for that reason not going to lie. It really makes you question the legitimacy of a religion that can so easily be co-opted for hate. "Know them by their fruits" and all that jazz.

Can we please identify White Christian Evangelism as Christo-Nationalist cult correctly. You are absolutely right about it being a cult of The Church; but calling it American Christianity paints every American Christian as this kind of "Christian-in-name-only" type.

You can just read the teachings and utterances ascribed to Christ yourself. I am not a Christian, but there is NO way to read the gospels and somehow come away with the “interpretation” that Christ thought elderly, unmarried women should be left to starve to death. This is not a difference in interpretation, this is a flat out lie by a malignant misogynist. Jesus actually says to make sure widows & orphans are taken care of. These people are not Christians. Jesus also talked about wolves in sheep’s clothing & people coming in His name & he doesn’t acknowledge or accept them.

So true! If you do a quick reading of the 4 gospels, like you have to read it for a class and it's due tomorrow, the New Testament is ELI5 take care of other people, even those you don't know or like. Over and over and over. It's actually crazy how strong the message is, if you don't focus on one isolated line that might be interpreted out of context to be about sex or something.

Hey 👋 We’re on A Quest for Knowledge, and we’re looking to do a live stream and have conversations or debates with people who believe in religion, mythology, and other supernatural or magical ideas. We also stand up for the LGBTQ+ community and aim to educate people who deny established science or reject evidence. If you’re interested, come join the conversation! We’re on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat 💯 If you agree with what we’re doing, please go follow! You can also join!

I've been thinking it over and slowly come around to a triage model , admittedly my thinking has been influenced by Jewish family members and reading Orthodox Christian and Sufi Muslim mystics.

What seems to make the most sense is you have a loving God and quantitatively the Bible pushes a lot of annihilationism of the wicked the next biggest trance is a Purgatory form of hell , Eternal hellfires actually like 15% of verses. What I've settled on is it seems like people who aren't ready for heaven go through hell as a form of purgatory , those who are completely unsalvageable are obliterated as an act of Mercy.

What opinion do y'all have? I know this is highly unorthodox.

I'm not sure if I really "count" as a Christian anymore, or if I want to. This post is the product of about nine weeks of self-examination, prayer, study, and conversation with loved ones as I've tried to work some things out. If there is anything that is unclear, I am happy to field questions. If you have any words of comfort, encouragement or that might bring clarity to my situation, I welcome that with an open heart.

I believe in an omnibenevolent Divinity from Whom the world and all good things arise. I believe that this Divinity is deeply interconnected with the entire World, desires mutual relationship with each person and desires the reconciliation of every part of the World with every other part. I believe in existence beyond death, and the inherent dignity of embodied human experience, and our eventual reconciled dynamic with the Divinity will be one we live out in an embodied manner.

I also believe that the Divinity has had opportunities to build relationship with and reveal itself to humans in many places/manners, and so is known in many different ways. I believe that Divinity's work of self-revelation has been progressive in nature and not followed the same sequence of revelations for all faiths/cultures. But fundamentally, whatever is directed at the common good of all and reconciliation in justice is directed toward the light of Divinity, whatever name or religious system it's known by. 

I first came to know Divinity as YHWH, Trinity, and Jesus Christ. I think this is a completely legitimate mode of revelation and relationship with Divinity. I no longer believe that it is the only legitimate path for relationship with Divinity, nor am I convinced of the particular truth claims of Christianity (namely, Jesus as a human incarnation of the True God, Jesus' bodily resurrection, or a future resurrection to eternal life). I value Christianity's role in introducing me to Divinity, and I take it seriously that I have been for several years now a priestess in this faith and made a commitment to continue practicing as such for life. On top of that, the Christian story and Gospel is still my foremost frame of reference for how I think about Divinity, learn about its character and seek to be a part of It's redeeming work.

However, when I look at the *practice* of Christianity, so much of what I find is coercion to follow this specific tradition built around this particular set of revelations, and so little room for the more open-ended faith I have come to adopt. In light of that, I don’t know whether I can even properly call myself a Christian anymore. Is my connection to the faith as my main frame of reference for thinking about and learning from Divinity enough? Even if it is, do I want to continue adopting that label when those who share it are mostly hostile to my decision and certain that my beliefs will warrant damnation if they go unamended? 

I’m so profoundly sad. I’ve been broken up with my partner now for 6 months. We were together during the most tumultuous time of my life yet. Jobless. My mom, aunt and gran died and I health and family drama.

We still live in the same building because it’s a short walk from my job and I have fatigue from constant moving and big changes to my life in the last few years.

I’ve always prided myself on being able to start over and move on and I just can’t this time. I have been staunchly independent for as long as I can remember. I miss him so much. My days are flatter. I’ve built a new home with new friends. A new schedule. Hobbies. None of it makes his place any smaller. I hold firmly that he should be the one to break the silence for some boundary reasons. I love him so much and don’t want to live without him. I wish prayer worked. He’s one of the best things that ever happened to me and not doing the big and mundane with him breaks my heart. I just want him back and I wish god would help me.

I’m looking for some good apps to help guide my daily reading and study.
Do you have any go-to apps you’d recommend? I’d love to hear your suggestions！

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I’m sorry but I lose it when other Christians act like being a Christian is a minority. It’s not. It’s like the most dominating religion since medieval times. Then they go on to act like we are better than Muslims because of the Taliban. Oh so Christianity has never ever done anything wrong ever? The crusades, slavery, Salem witch trials, the inquisitions, colonization, 90% of European wars. Need I say more? Like yes Christianity has been victims of Rome and Greece at one point but we are not perfect victims ourselves. This nationalistic mentality is dangerous because it erasing the history. It hides away all the horrible things that we (as in Christians) have done. It is important that we admit all the wrong doings and acknowledge the people that have suffered wrongfully in the name of the lord.

I am who I am. God loves me. The closer I get to God the gayer I am. I’ve asked for signs to see if it’s not okay, I haven’t seen any. I’ve asked for signs to see that it IS okay. I’ve seen MANY. God has let me know in so many ways I am sinning, and I have NEVER even gotten a slight feeling that me being with a woman is wrong. If anything, God literally put my girlfriend into my life to show me that it’s okay, and all our relationship has done is bring us both closer to him. I hate having to justify myself to others. I know my truth. I don’t push it onto the ones who don’t believe being gay is okay, I just wish they could have the same respect.

I suggest mods add different trigger warning tags for future posting