to be amazed at people going to church

[Hullygully]

I really didn't think anyone still did the whole church on Sunday thing (this is not meant rudely, am just genuinely amazed).

Why do you go?

Don't you go out dancing and drinking on Sat and have a terrible hangover?

Or don't you want to have a lie-in with the papers?

Do you have roast dinner after?

Where do you live?

To people saying the cross is negative or morbid, it isn't. It's the opposite. It is an empty cross because Jesus conquered death by dying for us. It reminds us of what he sacrificed and what he achieved because of it.

I go to church because the priest told me to, I am happy to be a raging hypocrite to get dd into the catholic school.

Pass rates for literacy are 70% vs 94% here.

I don't want to offend anyone further really by elaborating on my stance but there are certain beliefs of the Abrahamic religions that personally offend me greatly and it is for that reason that I could not be friends with someone who believed in them, however quiet or moderate they were because even if they are not a fundamentalist, they are still supporting a belief system which supports those (as I see them) undesirable tenets.

I enjoy it, it helps me to connect with the community,reflect on the past week and prepare for the coming week in a spiritual context, it also 'grounds me', and helps me to focus on what is really important in my life.(Also go to a midweek service when I can, which is about once a fortnight on my current shift pattern)

Hangover? sometimes, but I wake early after drinking anyway, so have generally recovered by the time our service starts (10.45am vair civilised time!)

I settle down with uk media online around 9pm - too busy during the day to read the papers

We usually go out for lunch - usually make it to the pub before the 2pm deadline, but we have a few places that serve all day within easy reach, so have plenty of choice and no need to rush. Long walk with the dog after lunch, to 'buy' some spare calories for tea and cake before going home.

North Yorkshire

(I love Sundays!!!)

....and I always get to interesting threads late!!

I've rather enjoyed this thread and I say that as a Muslim. It's nice to read about so many people finding joy in their faith.

Remarks like Lucie's are why I'm glad that I wear hijab, better that people know I'm Muslim up front then pull yucky faces when I tell them.

Answering the questions:
1-Because I'm Christian and believe it's right to meet and worship with other believers regularly. I find the Eucharist to be important (somewhere towards consubstantiation on it- in between Catholic and Protestant positions, which is really to be expected from a CofE traditionalist like me.) I have made some good friends there, supportive in the last few months while I've been headed back towards a depression I thought I had beat two or so years ago. :)

To exotic, krumbum & the others who don't support my conservative family values or suspect me of fundamentalism/homophobia etc

It's also nice to meet young(er) people who differ from the norm of our culture about moral issues, and believe that the answers to certain things are permanent- sex before marriage and abortion for example. Still, if we only respected and loved the sinless we'd be against everybody and that's not exactly Christian behaviour...

As an Anglican I know plenty (dozens- perhaps close to half) of people in our congregation do not agree with these views, and even if you listen to my chat with the young evangelically-oriented ones it's more likely to be about Dexter and new bars opening and how the BNP are fucking nutters bigots jumping on an anti-paedophile bandwagon than eternal torment in Hellfire, sodomites and rebels. Many of us are into social justice causes as well under "mission" but would still probably do this sort of thing without a faith in God. I could not abide going to some fundie place where everyone was trying to get me to be "accountable" to disclose that I'd successfully avoided masturbation for the week, hand out extremist leaflets in town centres or recognise how all those compromised liberals are spending eternity in a literal, red-hot lake of fire. I am not thus a fundie, a bigot, an extremist or a homophobe (though I know my views can be seen that way by some, even those who disagree with me within church and others who know me closely but differ on it all accept that I am not- let's not have a bunfight over that, with you there Exotic )

I have had the odd heated debate such as when the child protection officer for my parish, head of RE at a school in the quiet suburbs and an all-round good egg who I'd only ever enjoyed the company of until then, asked me what I found wrong with the education system... and I pointed to "teachers who pursue a collision course with parents" such as the two Salford ones I mentioned in my AIBU abortion thread, who supported the girl getting one without telling them. I gave a specific example and she defended the teacher! I got frustrated that someone with 25 years in the profession and two sons (18 and 16- both occasional servers in procession, both lovely boys and at least one far more conservative than Mum) would not be taking what I considered the right line on this, but I've made up with her now.

It's more satisfying to work from an overlapping consensus if possible than to bash each other for differences. When I'm in a better mood especially... which I hope can be more often.

2- no
3- I read papers mainly online in the evenings, or if I'm in a coffee shop in the afternoon
4-Not regularly since early childhood- but I've had my best ever roast meal (Christmas with the family excluded) at a midweek dinner with 5 people I met there...
5- In a fairly large city, affluent mainly professional congregation.

LucieMay I feel sorry for you, as there are an awful lot of followers of the Abrahamic faiths out there. Are you sure they believe what you think they do?
Bigotry, well I recently went to a farewell service and there was a wide range of people there, from the great and the good, to a group of Gay Christians, and a whole wealth of different denominations. I didn't spot any different faiths but we do often get Rabbis and Islamic Chaplains, as well as Bishops from the Catholic and Greek Orthodox.
In the past I went to a churches on the more fundamentalist wing, and no-one ever confessed to masturbation. Also there were always people who believe in evolution. I have friends who are pretty fundamentalist, they are great, loving people, we just don't bother to talk about the areas where we disagree.
I also have friends who are atheists, and one of the nicest funerals I've ever been to was a humanist one.

I think that you have a very closed mind LucieMay and are terrifically judgemental.
I think that if you were to show your vicar your posts on here,47, they would have something to say about Christian charity and loving your neighbour.
The pair of you seem to have a lot in common, apart from being on opposite sides of the divide - a great sense of 'right' , especially in judging others.

Sorry - we seem to have got away from OP who was asking a question and not expecting squabbles. Everyone is free to have their own beliefs - as long as they don't hurt others. I don't expect LucieMay goes around vetting people first- it most probably never crops up, except on a thread like this.

To be utterly utterly candid and hope to not be rude, I really struggle to be really really close friends with someone with a faith because I do feel that they must be a bit nuts (for want of a better word) because it is so totally alien and incomprehensible to me.

. I really am struggling with that. One of the mums from DD's primary school is a Jehovahs Witness. She is lovely. I don't decide to blank her because of her religion. I like her because she is so nice. Religion doesn't come into it.

I love the ritual of it, the music, the language, the sense of genuine community, and however much my actual faith might fluctuate it always feels like a meaningful experience

That is why I go Minty. I am not 100% sure about my belief in God, but I like the togetherness and feel as if my soul has been soothed by the end of the service. DD has some potentially serious health issues at the moment and the knowledge that they are praying for her at church has been a great comfort to me.

People tell me my beliefs are nuts all the time but I'm not allowed to get offended because my views don't conform to a very specified and popular doctrine.

Would people be as disparaging about a muslim/hindu/buddhist?

My advice is that if you really want to learn about the Christian faith is to do an Alpha Course

Or an Emmaus course which IMO is better. It allows you to question belief in God (or in my case ask lots of stupid questions)

I think what they believe is utterly ridiculous

That is rather inflammatory. Why can't you understand that some people believe in a God or some kind of higher being? I take the view that as so many billions of people around the world have some kind of faith they can't all be ill educated, supersticious and brainwashed. For the record most of our congregation are well educated, capable of rational and logical thought and have or have had professional occupations.

I would say most of my friends are atheists, but so what, it doesn't mean they aren't good people. We don't talk about religion with each other. Not because it is dangerous ground, but because we have other more interesting things to discuss. Basically we just accept each other without prejudice.

An excellent post Bunbaker.

I am coming really late to this party...

Why do you go?
At first purely because my DD got sucked in by the Treasure Seekers club at school at lunchtimes, feels that she believes in God and wanted to go. She goes to the monthly family service and I go along because I couldn't really take her and leave her at the door (happier knowing what's said anyway). Her school as you have probably gathered is C of E but was undersubscribed at the time so no entrance requirements and it never occured to me to worry about it since I went to a C of E school and Church as a child and grew up a happy Athiest.

If DD decided she didn't want to go anymore I'd probably stop but I think I would miss it. It's been interesting and so far completely positive without wobbling my athiesm in the slightest.

Don't you go out dancing and drinking on Sat and have a terrible hangover?
I've drunk two units of booze since Christmas and can't dance for toffee.

Or don't you want to have a lie-in with the papers?
Church doesn't start till ten so 9 is a perfectly good lie in, plus it's once a month.

Do you have roast dinner after?
Usually have lunch late on a Sunday anyway so it's not a problem to get a medium chicken or small joint done in the time available. I might peel my spuds before I go to Church.

Where do you live?
East Anglia.

Hully, thank you so much for starting this thread, it's been wonderful to see how many church going people there are on MN and how many Christians.

As a Church leader it's intresting to see why people go to church other than the obvious. Coffee and biscuits seem high on the agenda.

Also that not everyone is a believer, I'd be interested in knowing more.

I think there are now many MNers praying for you Hully you seem to be looking at the God shaped hole you have :)

If you get hold of a Bible, a modern version such as The Message, the New International Version, the Good News Bible etc, start with one of the Gospels. Mark is the shortest.

Don't start at the beginning of the OT yet, I'm sure you will read it one day, but it's not the place to start.

Thank you exoticfruits

My church is my friend's living room: the congregation is me and her. We're not a break-way sect or anything, just that she is severely disabled and can't make an ordinary church and I like praying with her. No roast dinners afterwards but her husband makes me a cup of tea. And the lie-in doesn't apply because we worship on a Wednesday afternoon.

I go to church. because I love the sense of peace and calm it gives me in the middle of such a manic world,and the community spirit that is really alive and kicking in our parish.
Boozing and drinking on a sat night ended for us 30 years ago when dd1 was born.
I read the papers while cooking dinner/eating dinner.
Normally have sunday dinner early eve.
i live in seaside Kent.

Happycamel, I and others I assume, do know the religious reasons why people wear crosses but that's irrelevant. Just as an object though it is abbohrent. You can say its about that but when I and many others look at it we see a little model of a horrific piece of equipment used for murdering someone in a slow and painful way, sometimes with a model of a man slowly and painfully dying on it. Its your choice ofc but I find it upsetting and offensive that people wear them in public.

Also that not everyone is a believer, I'd be interested in knowing more.

I am a non believer, how can I help you?

I'm back

I'm so pleased this hasn't turned into a fight, you never get to really explore people's views and learn stuff if there is a big old fight...

Bunbaker - see, I know some Jehovah's Witnesses and what I struggle with is that they believe that they are saved and everyone else is damned. Not only are they damned, but i have been told I am going to hell to be poked with pitchforks by black devils! This was said sadly, btw, not threateningly.

I can't find common ground with someone with those views, unless we only talked about the weather...

cockwomble - I think she meant non-believers that go to church?

Is there a response thread? I'll go look.

Krumbum - I have always thought it odd to wear instruments of torutre and murder round the neck, why not a guillotine, or a noose?

I haven't heard before that the empty cross, not a crucifix is a symbol of conquering death (although obvs I struggle with that in itself). Interesting.

I did not know this.

On occasions where I have been to church (other's christenings, weddings etc) I enjoy the sense of community that you get, however the language and hymns make me uncomfortable - I don't join in with prayers etc just sit quietly. It's usually a nice atmosphere.