Nothing is enforceable in today?s church, anyone can break away, claim to be Christian, and teach whatever they want (ex. Mormons) This cannot be allowed. Dogma and theology must be protected. We cannot allow people to break the teachings of Christ and miss use them as their own.
In order to protect the good name of Christ, I believe we need a police force that would identify and expose heresy, and discipline it as set forth by the decision of the church. (ex. rejection from the church, removal from teaching position). Call it what you will, I prefer Inquisition, because that?s what it was meant to do. Call it Fluffy Bunny Jesus Patrol for all I care, but still something must be done. We can?t take the sawdust out of our friend?s eye without first taking the plank out of our own. How can a generation be awoken without first making sure that heresy is not being taught?
59 comments
What is it with this guy? Does he really think a question mark is an apostrophe? It can't be just a typo. The apostrophe is lower case, the question mark upper case, and he does it over and over. What's supposed to be the point, to let everyone know he's a puddin'-head? Makes me think troll, especially when combined with a call for the inquisition to return. Of course, this is Battlecry.
Obviously freedom of religion and separation of church and state have no meaning to OberLordd.
I have a good idea. Let's convene a synod of Christian church leaders to decide which teachings are heresy and which ones are not. Once that synod has completed then, armed with the report from the synod, the Jesus Patrol can go forward to force heretical churches to stop using the name Christian.
I'll be long dead before even the membership of such a synod could be chosen. My grandchildren will be dead before the synod would produce a report.
Christians all agreeing on what is heresy and orthodoxy. It just won't happen!
Papabear - If the forum doesn't understand unicode characters, they sometimes show up as question marks. In this case, it looks like he perhaps composed the post in Word, which automatically uses curled apostrophes and quotation marks. When I last checked, those are unicode characters and they copy as such.
Um ... which church? If you're not an RC, then by your logic, you should be, and the hell with Luther.
Oh for...
Heresy is just "whatever interperatations of scripture run counter to my flavour of Christianity" at it's easiest level. Yes, some things that can be thought of as heresies are dangerous, but some sort of anti-heresy police force is even more dangerous. Besides, which denomination would get to decide who the heretics were? There's too big of a chance it would be a group that would end up being as big (if not bigger) bastards as the Catholic Church was when they were pulling that shit.
@Some idiotic theocrat
Call it Fluffy Bunny Jesus Patrol for all I care
Why not just call it by the name it already has: The Taliban
I'm a Christian, and I nominate myself to decide what "heresy" is. You, my friend, are a heretic. God sent Apollonius Christ to die for you, but you went off and worshipped his competitor, Jesus. If you call me a non-Christian heretic, I'll do the same. Let's have a holy war! I'll bring the d20 if you bring snacks. I should warn you, though; I've got a level 12 Cleric, a level 20 Pope and a level 42 Messiah who knows "Miracle," "Devine Intervention," and "Burn Heretic."
*shrug* Okay. Since the RCC is the largest sect of christians, and they have experience managing things like this, we'll let them be in charge, okay? Hope you're catholic, OverLordd...
You know, I'm liking this Inquisition idea, but I'm thinking it could stand to do with a few improvements.
First of all, the heretics wouldn't admit their heresy. Why would they? The Inquisition would have to...persuade them to confess. I can think of a number of ways to do this, that I won't go into here. Use your imagination.
And secondly, excommunication is by no means going far enough. These people are self-confessed heretics. That means they are doing Satan's work on Earth. That means they are consorting with the devil. That means they are witches. And we all know what we do with witches, don't we?
There we go, much better. It's not like you wouldn't have made those changes yourself eventually, anyway.
Funny thing, something like that already exists. It's called the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, in the Roman Catholic Church. It happens to be the successor to the Inquisition. The current Pope used to be its leader. Not so much a police force anymore, but they have been known to sanction priests, force resignations of priests, and they're the ones to tell you if your marriage is valid or not. Sounds like a great group huh?
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_pro_14071997_en.html
My, my, my, see what a google search finds you. Some of you people dont seem to understand what my argument points to. It points to a group within the church. I don't care what you do, but those that act in Gods name must be held accountable within the church. You wan't to do drugs? You want to commit crime? You want to say whatever and do whatever you want? Fine, thats your call.You don't claim to be a member of the body of christ, meaning you have no responsiblity. You seem to think I want to control you and what you do. Nothing is more distant from the truth. Do what you like, I don't care. All I want is purity in the church. So, follow my argument before you think I act like a member of the Religious Police.
OverLordd- first of all, don't assume that none of the posters here are Christian. Quite a few of us are.
Second, sorry- but what is "purity in the church" to you is heresy or misunderstanding to another. I admit this as a Christian myself. There are so many ways to interpret the Bible (never mind the validity of which Bible books were chosen and why) that there is- there CAN BE- no such thing as a "pure" Christian church, especially in this day in age.
There can only be one you personally agree with.
Even if two different people read the exact same translation of the Bible and take the words at *exact face value*, they will still not come away with the same meaning, idea, and impressions! Unless Jesus comes back and tells us exactly which way is the right way, there is only personal interpretation.
As a matter of fact, I am willing to bet that a lot of the things you personally put stock in as "pure" Christianity are either extra-Biblical, or the result of corrupt translation.
If we really did ever make a centralised church based on a TRUE translation of the Bible (in particular, the New Testament), it would not be the fundie haven that you are expecting. Be careful what you wish for my friend.
Of course we can agree on a pure christian church. Getting rid of child molesters, getting rid of corruption, getting rid of the politicos in the church that say they act for god, but only act for their own power. Smaller, finer points of theology is just a side point I have, but every one in the church can agree we don't want people like that inside the church. My argument for a inqusition would only cover inside the church, not outside, and it would more cover large general ideas than any fine points like if Jesus liked pepsi or coke.
I'm not a fundi, some of you should understand this. I like dancing, I dont care if people drink (thats their business) I dont care if people dont give a full tithe, I dont care what people outside the church do, I only care about the fact that people inside the church, who say they act for God, actually behave in a morrally correct manor.
That was a horrible run on sentance I know, but I dont really care.
Arguing translations and finer points of theology is for another time.
Of course we can agree on a pure christian church. Getting rid of child molesters, getting rid of corruption, getting rid of the politicos in the church that say they act for god, but only act for their own power. Smaller, finer points of theology is just a side point I have, but every one in the church can agree we don't want people like that inside the church. My argument for a inqusition would only cover inside the church, not outside, and it would more cover large general ideas than any fine points like if Jesus liked pepsi or coke.
This ain't too bad. Any way we can have this quote removed? Or put a notation or something on it?
OverLordd, I better see what you are saying now. I do agree that such things don't belong in a Christian church.
I'm still puzzled about one part though- your original statement (the quote that is showcased above) seems to partially disagree with what you're now saying here. Mainly, this part:
"...teach whatever they want (ex. Mormons) This cannot be allowed. Dogma and theology must be protected."
and this part:
"How can a generation be awoken without first making sure that heresy is not being taught?"
Those comments make it seem like you're *quite* concerned with the theology in place, and not just with getting immoral people out of the church. It doesn't sound like a small side issue at all. I'm not calling you a liar or anything, I'm just not real clear here.
Could you explain further please?
Oh, I see. In which case, OverLordd, you ARE a fundie, and your quote means exactly what we all thought it meant in the first place. You don't want a compromise; you're just putting off your ultimate goal.
"Let's start with the corrupt and move on to everyone who doesn't believe what we've decided is correct!"
How disappointing.
What do you think a compromise is? Its putting off your goals, for getting something agreeable now, honestly thats the way it works in congress and everywhere else. Its not like thats fundy or anything. Thats common practice. Every one does it, from the dems to the republicans.
What in the world are you talking about Brian? Trademarks for Jesus? Thats pretty insane.
That religious police idea would work really well in America, they're certainly popular is Saudi Arabia.
Can't think of a faster way to bring about a secular state than a minority trying to impose a theocracy on the majority.
I, Ranger Joe, do hereby solemnly swear/affirm to defend the Constitution and the citizens of the United States of America from all enemies, both foriegn and -domestic- *pause*
The oath to that point means that I will kill the ever living shit out of you if you even start to form your crazy little bunch of jackasses. You may have your faith to protect you but nothing can prepare you for the monster I become when that fucking paint goes on. Anyone who forms a secret police can expect to have their last memory be my eyes...I don't give a flying fuck if I've been honorably discharged. I took fucking bullets (plural) fighting religious extremists in the middle east and I won't have a single problem showing you why we were called Ghosts.
Rangers Lead the Way. All the Way.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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