Tag Archives: religious

Spiritual vrs Religious 2019-008

Posted in Religious, Spiritual by

Spiritual vrs Religious  2019-008

 

I believe Spirituality is the merging of the Self with the Holy Spirit, but the definition is at best sketchy and hard to agree on by many.

Being Spiritual, is the process of becoming closer to God overall, and entails many practices or actions. I wrote about this at one time and stated. “Being of the spiritual mind, involves being driven by the Holy Spirit or being animated by God.”

Being Religious, to me, involves those things that pertain to a particular religion of the Christian faith, though it could pertain to other faith beliefs. It also requires one, to be involved in various practices that the religion requires or dictates.

As to being Spiritual or Religious, I claim to be involved in both. My journey of getting closer to God is mine to own and travel and others have their own to be involved in life. My involvement with Religion is personal and fulfilling with supporting a church that is involved in many service projects and allows me to worship in this House of God.

There are many other factors on both and much more I could add to this

 

Peace,

 

Den Betts

bettsden@gmail.com       email

TheBettsDen.com              blog site    

Primitives 2018-72

Posted in Contemplation by

Primitives  2018-72

We Earthlings are a primitive lot!!!!!!!

I would imagine, in the Universe as a whole, there may be a species that would consider us the MOST primitive group that exists.

Some here, would disagree and make claims on how we as humans on Earth, have evolved to be the most advanced on Earth. The fact that our brains have become better formed and capable than other creatures which inhabit Earth does NOT make us able to say we are not primitive.

Nobody can say “There are no other intelligent creatures in the Universe”, and just like an atheist cannot say “There is not a God”, because they cannot prove their claims. As seen by those elsewhere in the Universe, that are made up of intelligent, civilized, advanced beings, our actions on earth could be called primitive in nature.  

We claim to be intelligent and again, advanced beyond other Earth species, but perhaps compared to others  elsewhere, we cannot claim to be even close to them.

We kill, we steal, we cheat, lie, deceive, and start wars, hoard, plot against others, form boundaries (sometimes with walls) are intolerant towards others, and prejudicial to so many people, and the list goes on and on and on. We have too many primitive ideas and actions to warrant making claims of NOT being primeval.

We can change our stature to being instead, more sophisticated and civilized, much more, than what we are now. This is easy to say, but hard to do. Individually, some can do this, but collectively, as a group, nation, country, etc. this is almost impossible.

Being primitive is something an Earthling does, it happens everywhere; not by “those people” or “over there”, but again, everywhere. Also, to claim being religious does not mean better, because many that make this claim are primitive thinking yet believe being religious excludes them.

So, until  more civilized creatures arrive to show us how primitive we as humans are, we can be self-deluded and think because we are more intelligent than a slug, we are not primitive.    HA!

Peace,

Den Betts     bettsden @ gmail.com                                                        thebettsden.com

Hypocrisy Rules at Times 2018-40

Posted in Religious by

Hypocrisy Rules at Times  2018-40

How many “religious people” have used their faith beliefs as a way to criticize the actions of others?

When you look at what is said by them and compare it with what their faith truly states as a guide, sometimes they conflict. IT comes across as a total different thing and makes that person or group sound very hypocritical.

To me, it makes me wonder if that faith or religious group, in general, is really something to follow or use as a belief system. People or groups that say or even believe one thing and do another, discredit their faith.  Or, they believe in what they say and the faith does too, which is different, but maybe just as bad.

Doing so, turns some people off from that group, rightly so.  It makes an opposite feeling of “how to win friends and influence people” and instead a negative feeling about them occurs.

Being a Centrist (or calling myself one) I try to take a middle ground on what I say at times, and even what I believe in certain subjects.  This is not a good thing to do though.

Hypocrites upset me! They make me think or rethink what I have as an opinion about them. How can a Christian, religious person be so judgmental and unloving towards their fellow man and claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ who touted love for all?

Using Scripture of the Bible and drawing certain phrases from the Bible as weapons in a discussion is an example of hypocrisy; sort of…

I look at the New Testament of the Bible as a guide to the teachings of Jesus, and the Old Testament as stories of the Hebrew people to learn from ln the process. I try not to use any one passage or story to use AGAINST people or their actions, but to use the statement of Jesus as an overall way to make a point in a discussion. I believe there is a difference.

People should NOT throw rocks who themselves live in glass houses, is a great rule to follow. Unless you are perfect in your ways (and nobody is) we should NOT try to come across as better than others and passing judgement on them.

Yet, it is TOO easy to cross the line and come across as a hypocrite.  Too Bad; SAD!!

Peace,

Den Betts                   bettsden@gmail.com    or follow at-  thebettsden.com   

Blogging Back 2018-05

Posted in Contemplation by

Blogging Back!!! 2018-05

I’m Back!, to begin Blogging again!!! Hiatus basically is over, not long gone, just a respite……
The reason for my doing so (blogging) is to get the thoughts out of my mind,
And by blogging, I feel that I will continue to accomplish my goal.
If you do NOT read my blogs, so be it; that is Ok with me!
If you do NOT like or appreciate my blogs, so be it; that is also, OK with me.
If there is an unknown positive outreach to my blogging for you, that would be great.
My blogs will have a message of some sorts, and if you get the message, GREAT; if not, too bad….
I will give thoughts on various religious things, poems from the past, quotes from famous people, etc.
Regardless, may you have a good life, and know I love you as a person regardless.

Den Betts                                    Email at bettsden@gmail.com                      Follow blog at thebettsden.com

I WELCOME any comments, good, bad or indifferent, that you may have. If you desire to do so, you can at Word Press or send an email to me at the above address. I would be interested in hearing from others and in doing so, may be enlightened, change my mind, or maintain my thoughts as they are now

Evangelical’s and Trump 2017-29

Posted in Current Events, Religious by

Evangelical’s and Trump 2017-29

I do NOT claim to be an Evangelical Christian; have heard of them, think I may know a few, do not hate or really love any for any reason, but think I should describe what I believe they are to me. In that way, I can compare myself and POTUS Trump to them.

 A check at Wikipedia states it is a worldwide trans denominational movement within Protestant Christianity that maintains the belief that the essence of the gospel consists of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ’s atonement.  Well, that sums it up well, but is hard to get my mind around this explanation. It further states that they believe in the centrality of the conversion or the “born again” experience in receiving salvation, and the authority of the Bible as God’s revelation to humanity and spreading the Christian message. Whew!

I understand, the Methodist Church, the Baptist communities of churches and perhaps some Anglicans are good representatives of this movement.  Evangelicals are among the most dynamic religious group movements in the contemporary world. Since I do NOT want to make this a religious critique, I will leave it at this and allow any to look up the word Evangelical at your leisure and learn more about it.

The main thing, in my mind, is this.   Evangelicals are religious. They are mainstream in many ways, sometimes fundamental in belief in many cases, and basically conservative in nature.  Those are not bad things at all, but does put them in a slot of identifying how they feel to a degree. They have a good bit of history about them and I think of The Reverend Billy Graham is a prime example of an evangelist, promoting this faith. As a total, they represent about 28 percent of the U.S. religious groups in the U.S. or about 91 million total.

POTUS Trump is identified as a Presbyterian, which is not actually listed as being an evangelical religion. In a book he wrote, “The Art of the Deal”, which he highly touts, there is no mention of religion and he stated, “I don’t like to analyze myself, because I might not like what I see” he told biographer D’Antonio. He has stated he does attend church occasionally, on Christmas, Easter and “special occasions” (weddings?), but is too busy on most Sundays. I used to do this myself, I admit, and many do so. 

OK, he does not sit in church waiting for the voice of God or sitting through a service or confessing his sins, or other religious doings and that is fine with me. I don’t care, that is his life, not mine!

But, it does bother me that the religious leaders or those in power at the Evangelical church feel he is Evangelical enough to promote him, endorse him and follow him as they do.  He, in my mind, does not follow the tenants of any Evangelical religion, any fundamentalist actions, or even Christian beliefs. I am not being judgmental about this, but more of stating factual thoughts of how he acts in life.

To say they are Evangelical, fundamental in religious thought, religious in general and promote him as being “one of their own” is Bullcrap to me.  It is hypocritical and not realistic. If they, The everyday practicing Evangelical’s, are part of Trump’s “BASE” that he loves so much and if they still support him, then they are lying to themselves in the process, and Trump loves this and them.

Den Betts

Spiritual But Not Religious 2015-16

Posted in Religious by

Spiritual But Not Religious    2015-16

I found out that the title is sometimes abbreviated with SBNR, so will use it here. There has been so much written about this subject that I do not feel the need to expound on it too much. I have stated before that I believe I am both religious and spiritual, and maintain that thought.

To those that feel that they are just spiritual and not religious, they would have to explain what they mean as it pertains to them personally. I have heard some of those that are religious in nature; say the spiritual only crowd is just too lazy to go to church. I do NOT feel that way, due to the fact that they, the religious ones, do not KNOW how the spiritual only people really feel.  In many cases, that is one of the problems with some of the religion oriented ones and how they think.

I am reading a book by the Barna Group about the unchurched that I will mention in the future, because it may address the SBNR topic. It is FULL of percentages and numbers that will boggle the mind, and I will not do that, but instead, use some to make a point only. The first chapter is interesting and I am getting much out of it, in the reading.  Back to SBNR!

Churchless!

In the book “Churchless” by the authors from Barna, an interesting bit of info, is the fact that many of the unchurched adults have considerable past experience with Christianity and Christian churches. Many of them, in fact, the majority, were raised with significant periods of church attendance and were engaged with churches sometime during their adult lives.

Most of the Spiritual only group that is comprised of the unchurched adults, say they pray to God during a typical week, in a one way conversation, and most think that God does not speak to them, with only 1/6 thinking He does.

I am not unchurched and go to church on a regular basis. I do so for many reasons and am comfortable with going.  Our church is welcoming to all, or at least I think that is the case. I say that because I was asked if this was so and was questioned with, “Are we welcoming to ALL”, and the conversation went from there as to what ALL meant.  I do recall a “bag lady” coming to our church and there was talk about her and I thought “So what” if she came; she might have had a need that we or the church could fulfill.

Hypocritical

I would think, that thought would lead into the word “Judgment” to a degree and what it means to some. It can also be thought that one of the biggest objections about church going people by the Spiritual or unchurched ones, is the fact that they think the church going ones are so danged full of hypocrisy. Church people say one thing and do another it is said or things like that. I remember hearing from someone that stated that, and I told that person, there are many hypocrites out there in the world including unchurched ones. It IS a difficult subject and has many parts to it to contemplate.

So, in my mind that is not a good defense of not going to church, and stating they are spiritual in nature and don’t go to church for only that reason. Hypocrites are everywhere including church and prejudiced people are also everywhere that have different thoughts.

Nuff for now. I could go on, but think I will save some thoughts for later under a different subject. Your comments are welcome at any time.

Den Betts