J
JediTeyla
Guest
controversial topics? In the world we live in today, everything is driven by the ideas of sex, doing anything that makes you feel good, and yet the church refuses to talk about these things with their youth.
The topics have been brought up in Christian groups before, sex, masturbation, anything that is considered 'controversial' today, and yet many Christians react by saying that talking about it is not only inappropriate but makes you not a true Christian. Why is this? From my understanding, the point of the church is to help us grow and strengthen one another, and yet how can we grow and be strengthened if our elders are not willing to talk with us about the things that make us weak and struggle?
I'm not referring to the Catholic church in this question, my apologies. I'm not very well aware of how the Catholics proceed with these things, though I do know that they generally are more open to discuss them. My question is in reference to the Christian denomination churches ie Pentecostal, Anglican, Baptist, etc.
FSM - Perhaps. Though, that would be insinuating that those in the Church are not interested in true knowledge, which I have to disagree with. I have known many pastors who were far more educated in scientific, historical, and other educational things than I could ever hope to be, yet still presented this fear of talking to the church about these topics. IT wasn`t that they were afraid of people gaining knowledge about them -- because that would mean the whole church was naive, but more that they felt it was inappropriate. Which, I disagree with.
ICTO - Sure I do, but I also know that when we had a pastor who was willing to address those things in youth group, I in fact felt more comfortable.
The problem is that when its not discussed with youth today, we (I`m not youth anymore, but since it was not long ago, I`m still sort of in that generation) feel like there is no real way to reconcile from it, like its wrong and there`s no way to move past that.
I see so many kids who turn away from the church not because they don`t believe anymore, but because the church doesn`t discuss with them the things they are struggling with, which causes them to believe they`re not `worthy` of being a Christian.
allan b - and when your mother told you it was wrong to sneak a cookie as a child, did you simply obey her, no questions asked?
Just because something is told to be wrong doesn't make it possible for everyone to be able to resist the temptation.
Being one of only two people in my church my age that have not given in to the temptation of sex, does that make me any stronger than all the rest who did? Not at all, because I can guarantee there are temptations I have given into in the past as well. Ones that at the time, didn't seem as wrong. If it were a perfect world, we would have no problem simply moving on and not doing those things. But its not a perfect world, and we're not perfect.
The topics have been brought up in Christian groups before, sex, masturbation, anything that is considered 'controversial' today, and yet many Christians react by saying that talking about it is not only inappropriate but makes you not a true Christian. Why is this? From my understanding, the point of the church is to help us grow and strengthen one another, and yet how can we grow and be strengthened if our elders are not willing to talk with us about the things that make us weak and struggle?
I'm not referring to the Catholic church in this question, my apologies. I'm not very well aware of how the Catholics proceed with these things, though I do know that they generally are more open to discuss them. My question is in reference to the Christian denomination churches ie Pentecostal, Anglican, Baptist, etc.
FSM - Perhaps. Though, that would be insinuating that those in the Church are not interested in true knowledge, which I have to disagree with. I have known many pastors who were far more educated in scientific, historical, and other educational things than I could ever hope to be, yet still presented this fear of talking to the church about these topics. IT wasn`t that they were afraid of people gaining knowledge about them -- because that would mean the whole church was naive, but more that they felt it was inappropriate. Which, I disagree with.
ICTO - Sure I do, but I also know that when we had a pastor who was willing to address those things in youth group, I in fact felt more comfortable.
The problem is that when its not discussed with youth today, we (I`m not youth anymore, but since it was not long ago, I`m still sort of in that generation) feel like there is no real way to reconcile from it, like its wrong and there`s no way to move past that.
I see so many kids who turn away from the church not because they don`t believe anymore, but because the church doesn`t discuss with them the things they are struggling with, which causes them to believe they`re not `worthy` of being a Christian.
allan b - and when your mother told you it was wrong to sneak a cookie as a child, did you simply obey her, no questions asked?
Just because something is told to be wrong doesn't make it possible for everyone to be able to resist the temptation.
Being one of only two people in my church my age that have not given in to the temptation of sex, does that make me any stronger than all the rest who did? Not at all, because I can guarantee there are temptations I have given into in the past as well. Ones that at the time, didn't seem as wrong. If it were a perfect world, we would have no problem simply moving on and not doing those things. But its not a perfect world, and we're not perfect.