does church folks scare anyone else?

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Smug sanctimony always creeps me out and I feel that way about most church people but surprisingly not always. I think I feel it most from a socioeconomic perspective. There's a woman in my mother's church who's daughter is a classmate of my son's. She's cordial enough when my mother is around but if she sees me at a school function she acts like she thinks my poverty might be contagious.

Another generalization and inaccurate stereotype.

How so? What else is religion but a way and a means to judge others as not worthy of the religionist's respect?

Religion is also a lifestyle people choose to live by as for me I am a christian but I will only talk about my religion with other christians the

same way my muslim and jewish friends are its a lifestyle a way of life their is more to religion then the belief in God their is a lot more to

it then that I of course have many agnostic and atheist friends that I get along with really well im not a in your face hellfire and brimstone

fundamentalist bible thumper nor am I those people who stand on the side of the road telling people that their going to hell if they dont

except my religion people like that are extremists an often are bigots they belive the opposite of their own religion which is a oxymoron

I become anxious around highly religious people. Mostly because I don't understand their reasoning and their manner in which they relate to people. How they can just walk up to someone they've never met thinking they know whats best for them. They also smile a lot for no apparent reason and that makes me nervous too. I start to feel like I should smile to be polite when its the last thing I feel like doing. I just don't like being around them.. but i'm not afraid of them.

I don't think all people who go to church are evil. I do, however, feel very uncomfortable around the fundamentalists because I can feel something terribly wrong. I am especially uncomfortable when they talk about gay people like me being evil. I also am afraid that I'll meet a church person in my city who knows my fundamentalist grandparents and will tell them about how I'm gay and pagan. I don't want my grandparents to know because I love them and I'm afraid they'll disown me. The danger is that I live in the town that they used to live in and they went to a huge church.

They don't scare me as much as they used to. But I do worry what people will think of me regarding certain issues.

It's tough being a Lutheran in a state that's half Catholic, half Southern Baptist.

I like going to church to socialize - for a married man my age who doesn't drink or like sports, it's about the only social scene I have outside of work or family.

What concerns me, however, is when a fundie will present his or her interpretation of the Bible, and then say that anyone who thinks otherwise is committing heresy (false belief) and/or apostasy (abandonment of faith), and is going to Hell for it.

First of all, most of these interpretations are presented in such a haphazard way - presenting cherry-picked verses out of order, for instance - that it sounds more like a sales pitch from the Shopping Channel than a doctrinal exegesis.

Second, I've developed a standard for determining when people are trying to put one over on me - if I can not make sense of their "interpretations", then they are likely trying to scam me. Seeing as how I spent two years at Seminary, and likely know as much or more about the Bible than most people who merely own one (I've actually read mine, by the way) this is a pretty good indication that someone is trying to confuse me into making a declaration of faith ... their faith, not mine..

Third, my faith is in God alone. Some of us have seen signs that say "In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash". This is a very simple declaration of both faith and skepticism, which implies that unless you are God Himself, don't try to tell me that your credit is good. Taken further, without a sign from God, one person's interpretation of Biblical principles is as invalid as any other.

My point is that every fundie seems to have his or her own favorite interpretation of the Bible, that each interpretation is based on the individual fundie's own prejudices and hidden agenda; and that confusion, fear, and ignorance are the main elements of the fundie conversionary tactics.

That was the book version of "A Christmas Story".

I just do not care for zealots in the christian community

I still have my copy from ~1970. The stage version was "Do Black Patent-Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" All good.

My dad was once "invited" to leave a church after he started playing boogie-woogie music on the pipe organ.