WordWolf

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I'm not sure the usage of "churchianity" here was meant to refer to ALL organized churches, or just those that seem to be organized only for themselves or something along those lines. I've started a new thread to explore the subject.

The word "churchianity" is certainly not a popular word outside of twi circles. In fact, I just discovered that the Merriam-Webster English Dictionary is the only collegiate dictionary that includes it, among those of which I'm aware. (It's not in the American Heritage, nor the Cambridge.) In twi practice, it's used as a general insult to all forms of Christianity outside of twi, period. In ex-twi circles, it's frequently used in exactly the same way- as a general insult to all Christian groups other than twi and ex-twi, period. It's among the trite phrases thrown around like saying Trinitarians pray to an oil-can. Should we even use the word "churchianity"? If we should use it, what, exactly, should we mean by it?

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Churchianity Definition: "(derogatory) Any practices of Christianity that place a larger emphasis on the habits of church life or the institutional traditions of the church than on theology and spiritual teachings of Jesus; the quality of being too church-focused." Quotations: 1789, Samuel Parr, edited by John Johnstone, The works of Samuel Parr, ...: With memoirs of his life and writings, and a selection from his correspondence, volume 1, published 1828, page 341: In October, 1789 (says Dr. Parr in the Sequel, p.99), when I preached for the Charity Schools at Birmingham, I earnestly recommended to the audience two admirable sermons which Dr. Priestley had written, &c. &c. / This commendation gave great offence; the name of the arch-heritic was poison to the orthodox ears of many of the congregation. One of them in the vestry, immediately after the sermon, ventured even to expostulate with the preacher; and to represent to him that the sermon recommended might he admirable and good Christian doctrine, but that the author was an enemy to the Church, and therefore ought never to be named within its sacred precincts. Parr heard him out, and then calmly replied, "Sir, you are the best vindicator of Churchianity I ever knew." 1852, Edwin Paxton Hood, Lamps of the temple: shadows from the lights of the modern pulpit, page 329: Such religion is Churchianity; it is not Christianity. Christianity means the religion where Christ is all; Churchianity, the religion where the Church is all 1971, Paul Carter, The Spiritual Crisis of the Gilded Age, page 69: the sweet and ineffectual Jesus of American Protestant churchianity. 2002, Charles Jenkins, Keeping Sane in a Crazy World, page 84: The Priest and Levite represent Churchly Movements, They represented Churchianity that is powerless to lift suffering humanity. What is wrong with the world today is that we have too much Churchianity and too little Christianity

"Regardless of the degree to which the 30% of Americans figure is fair or accurate, LOTS of people are coming around to seeing the folly in churchianity. " On the other hand, I don't think organized religion, in and of itself, is necessarily a bad thing. If it's organized correctly, it can be both efficient and useful. In my old neighborhood, there's a Roman Catholic parish that has evening Bible studies and a number of programs specifically designed to help people (feed the hungry, etc.) Walking into their parish and calling their activities "the folly in churchianity" would ring awfully hollow. The neologism "churchianity" isn't a very common word. In fact, it's not in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, nor is it in the Cambridge English Dictionary, nor Dictionary.com's database. (I did find it in The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, with a note that its first usage was in 1837, but no mention of where it's found from that year.) "a usually excessive or narrowly sectarian attachment to the practices and interests of a particular church." Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Churchianity. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved October 18, 2023, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/churchianity It's definitely another pejorative term, and one whose use outside of ex-twi circles is probably not that great (otherwise the other big dictionaries would have heard of it.) No, I'm not saying organized religion itself is necessarily a good thing either- I'm certainly well clear of it by any definition I use. But I am trying to make an effort to keep from blanket labels all around, or blanket accusations. Those were comforting-and easy- in twi. They were also wrong. In life, I've found they can usually be found more commonly the more error-ridden something is. I'll do my own thinking, thank you.

Plenty of people go for non-organized religion. A number of beliefs are not codified so precisely. If you know someone who says they're a wiccan or a pagan, you don't know much about their specific beliefs or practices, just a few generalities (starting with the lack of an organizational structure, generally.) There's a LOT of room for variety there, with names of specific flavors that still don't tell you too much. In fact, I would venture to say that the absence of structure is a selling-point for a lot of people. BTW, there's a bias exposed by calling it "disorganized religion", as if the only option for a religion without a hierarchy and a structure is anarchy. It definitely has a pejorative connotation. Saying a religion isn't organized is NOT the same as saying it's "disorganized"- although there's a few people proclaiming literally disorganized religions also (mostly discordians.) Of course, in many cases, it's all in how you phrase the questions. I don't think I'd say I was "affiliated with organized religion" at this time, Neither am I spellbound by any of the people circulating ex-twi circles and claiming the chief seats there.

So I can say I asked, "The Longest Day"????

For MIller High Life, obviously. The song's coming back to me a bit, now, but I really only remember the chorus.

"Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice...." The voice-acting star is TED KNIGHT. He was one of the main actors in "TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT", and wore all the sweatshirts. His character was the newspaper cartoonist for "Cosmic Cow", and he occasionally brainstormed his ideas with a Cosmic Cow hand-puppet, which I think was a good idea for stimulating thought. The other male lead was Jm J. Bullock, who was probably the assaulted guy, but my memory may be playing tricks on me. "Monroe" wasn't exactly the alpha male of the series. Then again, it was more about the sisters than their dad and friend, IIRC.

Trick question, since there's nothing saying they will be considered either, or that there's only 2 options here. However, in case this question was asked sincerely, I will give a sincere answer with information. For those people, and people like them, I would consider Matthew 18:6-7. "6 but whoever * causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!" There's a considerable lack of detail and specifics there. However, the generalities are pretty clear that they should not look forward to rewards or approval- to put it very mildly. It sounds like they will be in a lot of trouble.

Never heard of the song, never heard of the artist.

Hugh Grant Love, Actually Bill Nighy

So, it's Human's turn.

We need a bit more.

We seem to need more clues.

The title has to either be the name of a unit or division of an armed force, or- more likely- a period of time, like "Ides of March" or something like that. If it actually turns out to be "Ides of March", I should run and buy a lottery ticket.

That last one should be "SOUTH PACIFIC."

Um, "The Graduate"????????

"Stand By Me"??????

I'll agree conditionally. Mainly, I'd like to add the caveat of actually DOING good works. Plenty of people can claim they do but don't do them. I'm well aware of at least one diehard agnostic who went out of his way to do the right thing, avoid doing the wrong thing, and helped people. In his case, at least, I'm confident this applies. He was rather vocal about doing the right thing because it was right. I would say that, if there is no God, then doing good works and making the world a better place would be laudable in themselves, and worthwhile tasks. I would also say that, if there is a God, then doing the same has the additional benefit of pleasing Him, and He has the ability to reward people for good works. It's also very easy to consider oneself a good person, and so on. Even a demonstrably evil person rarely calls himself such- he spins rationalizations that everyone else is just as evil as he is, and so on, or that there are no such things as real good deeds, and so on. By the time they're done, they've convinced themselves that the only proper thing to do is- whatever evil thing they'd set their heart to do in the first place. If one fills one's heart with lies, that's what one is going to believe and think. The heart knows right from wrong- providing that's what the person has put in their heart.

The section I was thinking of at the time was Matthew 25: 31-46. Let me know if you need me to "enable the help files" on that.

I noticed earlier in the thread, you mentioned growing up Roman Catholic, and that there was a lot of guilt and condemnation served up with everything else. That's a shame, but hardly universal among Christians, let alone Roman Catholics. I do think Catholicism has lost large numbers to other Christian groups without all the condemnation- from those who actually teach the condemnation. (There's other reasons too, but going to church AND feeling bad is a senseless combination.)

We're getting a bunch of part-names here. Maybe wikipedia would fill in some full names. Just so I asked, was "Father Frank" the man known as "FRANK SINATRA?"

Raf declared this "Free Post" to move it along...

I'll take 2 guesses to catch up a bit. The "Booker" I know was played by RICHARD GRIECO, so maybe this is him. If "Walker" isn't Chuck Norris, maybe he's the reboot "Walker", Jared Predeleski or something like that.