Sunday, June 29, 2014

Hypocrites and Pharisees

I spoke with my sister over the phone, earlier today.  She was bitter and angry about the small splinter denomination church our family has been attending.  She's declared that she won't be going back. 

She isn't welcome.  Nor is my mother (though she is too stubborn to permit that to drive her away, assuming she can see it in the first place) nor my mother's youngest sister.  I'm not sure why, unless it's the fact that all of them are on disability,* but the fact remains. 

Case in point: one of the "ministers" shuts them up or corrects them any time they try to participate in the Sunday school classes.  Only them.  No one else.  It's obvious enough that everyone can see it, but there's only one person that cares, sorta, and she won't say anything for fear of being similarly ostracized.

They also pray, loudly and in public, for God to open the eyes of all the sinners surrounding them, and to pour His blessings down upon them, the only ones who aren't sinners (although, if I recall correctly, excess pride is a sin, as is gossip--i.e., bearing false witness and spreading rumors). 

Y'know....Pharisees. 

Somehow, these idiots see what they're doing as perfectly okay.  They're either incapable of seeing the parallels, or they don't think it counts for them. 

If I recall my bible correctly (and with a near-eidetic memory for anything I read, I'm pretty sure I do), Christ disapproved of that crowd.  Disapproved immensely, and compared them unfavorably to the working-class man who asked God's mercy on himself, a sinner. 

Why is it that church-going Sunday Christians are unable to apply the lessons they study to their own behavior?  And why is it that so many of them use religion as a club with which to beat up those they wish to ostracize?

*The ironic thing is that one of the other ministers and his wife make their living off of his disability check, and they're seen as living in godly poverty.

11 comments:

  1. I have a sister-in-law that wanders between churches. Why she goes is beyond me. She's not there for the peace and solitude, nor to seek answers to why she's so miserable.

    Personally, I think she thrives on discord and relishes adversity.

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    1. My sister goes because she feels the Bible tells her to. The rest of my family simply loves being victims.

      Still doesn't make me happy, and I purely hate the types they go to church with.

      Delete
  2. I just don't do organized religion. Period. I've met some very nice people who go to one of the local churches, and yet my experience tells me that for every one of them I meet I'll run into three that follow their faith for exactly 50 minutes a week (or what ever the length of the sermon is, - you know that part where the person in front tells everyone what's right and wrong) once he stops talking - they're done.

    I can't stand hypocrites and of all the hypocrites the two I like the least are religious hypocrites and politicians ( hypocrite and politician being semantically equivalent).

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    1. I purely detest do as I say, not as I do types anywhere, but they're worst in church.

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  3. Some people forget that the Church is a hospital for sinners, not a country club for saints.

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  4. Hypocrites come in all sizes and shades... And Pharisees are a pretty good description of those folks... I left one church for similar behaviour and attitudes toward ANYONE that didn't attend both Sunday morning and evening, and Wednesday evening services...

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    Replies
    1. There's probably a bit of that...but gas is expensive, and that church is forty minutes away from my family.

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    2. Yep, reality DOES have to intrude sometimes...

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  5. I don't do religion. I have problems enough as it is......... My sister in law tells me I am going to hell every time she sees me. At least I know I will get away from her eventually.

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    1. I count myself a Christian, but not of any particular denomination. They're all run by humans, and people suck (emphasizing their own prejudices over what we are told is what we should do and should strive to be).

      Delete

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