Christianity VS. Catholic

Hello, I am not suer I can post this religious topic here. It is about my life - so why not. Also, if I put it on the General Discussion, I think I would start a big fight. So...just read and help me, please?


I am Christian. I was an Atheist for the majority of my life and became a Christian after I was helped by a generous Christian couple during my rocky year in college. The Christian couples never forced their religion on me but simply wanted to help me because I was young and a poor college kid. After few weeks, I got interested and went to church. Now, I call myself Christian without a doubt.

The problem is that I have been the church I go to nowadays. I graduated from college and moved back to my hometown. I am Korean and I wanted to meet with more Koreans (because I live in very rural place and only have American friends near my house), so I drive thirty minutes every Sunday to go to the church I am attending now. The thing is...this pastor at the church preaches really good things and I do learn a lot every day, then ones or twice a month, he speak some random racist and sexist things during the sermons.
I believe in equal rights in every race and I respect every religion. I think Homosexuality is not a sin. I think if a human being can love other human being, then it is great regardless of the genders. However, this pastor has the very different idea. He often says Homosexuality is sin and the world is corrupted because of the genericity we show to them. We must "help" homosexual people to be "right" again. I studied Biology and I read research papers that Homosexuality is more to do with genetic than environmental factors, so I just can't agree with that "homosexuality is sin" thing. Also, the pastor thinks every religion other than Christian is fake and not genuine. I mean...he said all the good things done by non-Christians are simply 'fake act' to look good, not from their heart. I couldn't help shake my head side to side when I hear those things.

I did talk about the uncomfortable feeling I have from the contents of sermons, but my church friends are all just nodded and says, "Christian is exclusive/close/not-open toward other religions. It is just way it is. I also think what he said is not all that bad." Then other said that I don't know the Christianity enough to make such an immature judgement toward the pastor - the pastor must have learned and studied Christianity and Bible more than me, therefore I must try to agree with what he says.

To be honest, I did try. I did try to think that I am the ignorant one and that I must follow the teachings of Bible and church because of the sake of Jesus. I was all about pro-LGBT movement and I did post congratulations picture for Supreme Court rule favoring Gay Marriage on my Instagram - however, I just took that down and tried to ignore LGBT movement I was supportive about because I tried to follow the teaching of Christ.

Then...I mean....it just gets worse. He started to call out names of certain religions during sermons...It became too strong and bitter for me to accept it, so I went to different church one day - another Korean Church - then they talked about similar things as well. It is less 'bitter' than my home church, but I didn't feel so happy with this new church either. Then my friends said I am not supposed to "shop around churches". Then it makes me feel really guilty and I returned to my old church.
Every sermon feels like a poison in my ears and it is slowly paralyzing my judgement and the view I had for the world. Then, the possibility aht I am just young and immature one who can't make a good judgment yet (I am 22 yrs old), therefore need some lesson as well. Also, I know not all lessons are going to be in my favor as well.

Then I read about Pope Francis and how he spoke for the illegal immigrants coming into Europe on the New York Times last Monday, and thought Catholic wouldn't be so bad either with Pope Francis as the head.
From Christian churches, I was taught that Catholics are a heathen religion because Catholics believe in angels, St. Mary, and other traditions, not solely on Jesus Christ.
Also - I don't want to shop around religion to fit my taste. I want to be devoted to one religion - I mean...I learned and met Jesus through the Christian couple from college, so I guess that makes my lineage in Christianity, but...the teachings......I don't know.
I heard that Catholics are also very exclusive and not favoring other religions. Also, it has more strict rules than Christians....Then I have this big doubts in Christianity as well...I don't know.

I am slowly losing faith in Christianity OR losing my senses of judgment. It feels like I can't have my total faith in Christianity and my sense of judgment.

So...I don't know..I just wanted to write about it and hopefully somebody would tell me about it.
I am the first Christian in my Atheist family, so none of my family knows or cares about this.. (I don't force my family to be Christian. I respect their decision of religion in their life.)

..yeah....I just feel like writing this. Just writing this makes me feel so much calm and stress-free. Thank you for whoever read this long post to the end. Thank you

 

Use the people who made Christianity seem like the right thing as your guide not the jerk in the pulpit.
There are thousands and thousands of ministers and voices leaders in the Christian religion of which Pope Francis is one and the jerk who has been turning you off is one.
I'd say the Pope and a whole lot of other seem to have a much better handle on the whole thing.
Me, I'm not a very good judge since I don't have a dog in the hunt but it sounds to me like you got something important out of your faith and it would be sad if one person was able to destroy that.

 

Obviously I cannot speak with authority, since I'm not a Christian; but it sounds to me like it's not Christianity that you're losing faith in so much as your specific church or sect. Like @snowy said, Christianity is a vast religion, with thousands of sects and churches, hundreds of thousands of ministers, pastors, and priests.

Look around at different options. Study what different Christian writers have to say. If you are in a locality where your options for different churches are limited, you may have to pick the church whose community you like best, while making it clear to yourself that your beliefs are actually more something else.

 

Snowy said it much better than I did.

 

Speaking as an agnostic (former Roman Catholic) my advice to you is to change to a different church.

Ask yourself this: What are the primary tenets of Christianity? As near as I can tell, it's what Christians refer to as The Great Commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you, love your neighbor as you love yourself, and love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul."

Doesn't sound like this dude is echoing that.

One thing to be careful of is that a lot of these guys will tell you this all has a scriptural basis. Usually they'll cite passages from Paul's letter to Timothy. The problem is that Paul never wrote it and it's widely considered a later forgery. There are also a lot of later scribal additions to new testament books (Mark is a prime example). So if you really want to be committed, you should have a good understanding of the textual criticism of biblical texts.

 

You wrote that you are in a rural area in Korea with very few Christians churches near you. Since it sounds as though changing churches would be difficult, read the bible, and read other books, articles, etc. on Christianity. As SirLance mentioned, remember that the bible has been edited and altered over the years. You will need to reach your own conclusions regarding Christian beliefs and how they are presented by certain preachers.

Some people try to live good Christian lives the best that they can based on what they believe. Some are easily influenced by pastors. Some claim to be Christian, but twist their beliefs to justify behavior that many wouldn't consider that of a good Christian.

Read, think, and pray. Try to learn from people that you consider to be good Christians (but remember that people are humans, and even those who try to be good Christians have flaws). Live as you see being a good Christian.

 

I read the OP as in America, but somewhere where there a Koreans, not that they are in Korea.

On the OP, I agree with SirLance. Don't be so tied to the Korean churches that you lose sight of why and how you got there. My wife would say "It is through the grace of God you are saved, not by your works". This means do the right thing, not because of what you get out of it, but because it is the right thing.

You obviously aren't comfortable with the sermons, so go look elsewhere.

 

Yes. I misread the original post.

In that case, LadyDiana definitely shop around for a church where you are comfortable.

 

I have two friends who are UCC ministers, and they are awesome. The one to whom I am closer not only did brilliant scholarly work for her DD, she is incredibly political, fought hard to legalize gay marriage; fights hard for health care reform; regularly crusades for justice for farm workers, minimum wage earners, and the right to unionize; and so on.

Honestly, if I were a Christian, there's a very good chance I'd be UCC. (If I didn't get seduced by the beautiful ritual and liturgy of one of the Eastern Orthodox churches.)

 

And herein lies the issue for the OP. Ministers are human and have very real human issues. The only way you can know whether you like one is to attend their church and see for yourself. I don't think there is a universal "this denomination=good, therefore all of this denomination are good". It really is a suck it and see situation.

 

A lot of people have left Catholicism because of complaints about clergy abuse, doctrinal disputes about birth control and abortion, and so forth. In my view this is flawed thinking. These are the actions and statements of human beings, who are flawed and imperfect, and although the church would deny it, their doctrine is fluid and influenced by external events. If you understand history, a good example of how doctrine is influenced by external events is the council of Nicea and how Constantine I fundamentally shut down the Arians, who held that Jesus was not divine. This became known as the Arian heresy (so labeled by the winners), but at the time is was a doctrinal debate that was pretty ubiquitous. The question was argued everywhere.

So come to your own understanding of what your faith is, and worship with a community that is like minded. Even the Catholics say that if you believe in good conscience then you are not behaving sinfully, even if you are out of step with their doctrine. And remember that there are a lot of scribal additions in the scriptures that were added to support a specific viewpoint or agenda.

I didn't leave because of people. You'll encounter people you disagree with and don't like in any organization. I left because I simply don't believe the doctrine and dogma are true.

 

I don't think any religion is right. Good Luck.

 

Some preachers are bullies....intentionally. Others some on strong, but not because they want to push people around, more because they believe that they are God's messenger.

Some people seek out preachers and congregations that affirm their beliefs. If a preacher is rabidly anti-gay (for example) it makes sense that they will attract a like-minded congregation. Even if those folks are in the minority, they can set the 'tone' for the entire church.

As has been said repeatedly in this thread, think for yourself.