r/OpenChristian • u/LuklaAdvocate • May 16 '26
Hello all,
We wanted to make a quick announcement regarding the use of AI-generated content in our community. Many of our users have reached out voicing concern over the increase in “AI slop” posts, so hopefully this clarifies how things will work moving forward.
We have updated Rule 7 (Spam and Proselytizing) to include AI content. Specifically, AI-generated images and videos. These are officially no longer allowed. Any post which consists entirely of an AI image or AI video will be removed, so please report them as you see them.
Please note that we are not implementing a blanket ban on AI. Some people use AI to organize their thoughts, proofread their posts/comments, and help explain their viewpoint. Our goal is to judge the content of a post, not prohibit any form of AI used to help create it.
Obviously, there is going to be some moderator discretion involved here. If you feel like a post is spreading AI slop, feel free to report. If a post is generating good discussion but looks like some AI was involved in creating it, please keep in mind that this does not break the rules.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to comment and the mods will answer as we are available. God bless!
r/OpenChristian • u/babe1981 • Mar 26 '26
Hello Open Christians,
We get a lot of questions about sin. Most of those questions are about sexual sins, so we want to take the time to write an official stance on the subject of sexual sin and ethics from the perspective of progressive Christianity.
The first thing to note is that sexual sins are never held up as greater than other sins in the Bible. The Bible has a concept throughout the scriptures that being guilty of one part of the law makes you guilty of the whole law. For this reason, Judaism doesn't have a tradition of personal confession. When you would bring sacrifices to the temple, you were atoning for the whole law, not for specific rules that you broke. If you bore false witness, you needed the same atonement as if you had committed adultery or murder or eaten shellfish. Paul speaks to this in Romans 1 and 2. The Jewish Christians in Rome were making claims about the Gentile Christians being unholy and unrighteous for participating in some of the social aspects of idolatry, specifically eating the Sunday meal after the meat had been sacrificed and cooked on the Roman altars. Paul responds by pointing out the sins that Jews commit and telling them that they have no room to talk since they are guilty of the law, too. No sin is greater than any other. And no sin is lesser. All sin equally takes us away from God.
So, what is sin? Since Romans is entirely about that question, we can find the answers very easily in there. Romans 3 talks about the law because the Gentile Christians in Rome were calling the law the source of all evil and sin. They said that the law brought sin because they didn't know they were sinning before they learned about the law. Paul refutes this by saying that Adam and Eve sinned before the law existed, so it can't be the source of sin. Instead, the law reveals sin by showing us how we missed the mark. By chapter 13, Paul has spoken enough and brought the two sides of this argument together, so he sums up the Christian way of life in verses 8-10.
"Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the person who loves has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore loves fulfills all of the law."
Here, we see Paul equate sin with harm. Things that hurt other people and ourselves are what take us away from God. Paul follows this up in chapter 14 by saying that godliness is not in the rules we follow. Some people worship on the Sabbath, but other people worship on any day. Some people drink wine, and some people abstain. And so on. He tells us to each be convinced in our own minds and to leave each other alone because judgment is a stumbling block that can cause our siblings in Christ to fall away from the faith. For Paul, sin was not found in breaking the rules of the law, rather it was found in the absence of love.
Jesus followed a very similar path in His ministry. The only people that He had harsh words for were the priests and scholars who used the law to oppress and control and extort the laity. Jesus never followed the letter of the law when it interfered with loving His neighbors. Jesus worked on the Sabbath. Jesus drank wine and went to parties. Jesus had a reputation as a drunkard. When He called the priests "a den of vipers", that was the equivalent of calling them "sons of bitches" in the modern world. Jesus once cussed a tree to death. Jesus was sinless.
The example of Jesus's life is that all things are secondary to loving your neighbor. Nothing that is done from a spirit of love is ever sinful. Not even premeditated violence against those who extort money from the faithful in the name of God is sinful because Jesus did that too. Jesus taught us that love is the foundation of the law and the prophets, so love can never be wrong or sinful.
John, in his first letter, tells us to test the spirits whether they are from God because there are many false prophets. This is 1John 4:1. He then spends a lot of ink to tell us all about how God is love, and no one who hates can have God because hate and God are incompatible. Similarly, fear and God are incompatible, so anyone who preaches hate and fear cannot be from God. John goes so far as to say that anyone who claims to love God but hates their neighbor is a liar.
Peter wrote in 1Peter that love covers an uncountable number of sins.
Clearly, through the example of Jesus and the writings of the Apostles, we can see that love and sin are opposites. This holds up to logical analysis if we accept the claim that God is love. Sin takes us away from God. Love brings us to God. If love does no harm to a neighbor, then it follows that sin does harm to a neighbor.
How do we apply this to sexual ethics? That's actually very easy. Sex can be used to harm other people or to help them. Obviously, sexual assault, child molestation, and any other form of nonconsensual sex are harmful by their nature. However, sex itself is not harmful on its own. Sex can carry potential harm like the possibility of pregnancy for people who are not prepared emotionally or financially to have a child. Sex can be addicting which is harmful, but humans can become addicted to nearly any pleasurable behavior. None of those other things are sins on their own.
Driving a car can be used as a very apt metaphor for sex. Cars kill thousands of people every year. They have a very large potential to cause harm. However, if we spend the time to learn how to drive safely and always drive with the concern for our fellow drivers and the pedestrians that we share the road with, we can go our entire lives without harming anyone in our cars. There are very few people who would argue that motor vehicles are sinful to operate. If we approach sex with the same attitude, we will similarly be able to operate our bodies without sin.
Relating this to specific actions, we can talk about masturbation. This is an act that is simply not harmful at all. Unless you are doing it in front of someone who doesn't consent to seeing you pleasure yourself, which is a form of sexual assault, of course. Contrary to the concept of sin, masturbation is actually beneficial for people with prostates. It lowers the risk of cancer and helps maintain pelvic strength which important for bladder control as you get older. Something that helps a person without harming anyone else doesn't fit the definition of sin that we see in the New Testament.
Sex outside of marriage comes up a lot. First, marriage is a social contract that is recognized by the state. You can get married in a church, but it means nothing without a marriage license. This is not a primarily western idea, either. I live in Cambodia, and you can get arrested for having a marriage ceremony without government approval. Marriage is, and has always been, deeply intertwined with the social and political structures of society. The Bible demonstrates so many different kinds of marriage that we can't accurately define a "Biblical marriage." Also, there is evidence that the couple in Song of Solomon isn't married until chapter 6. Most telling to this theory is that they don't receive the blessing of their families until that chapter which would have been a large part of the wedding ceremony. They brag about how hot they are for each other and how much sex they have for five chapters prior to that blessing. This is the ur-example of a healthy, godly sexual relationship.
Porn is a big question as well. The porn industry can certainly be harmful. No one would argue that it isn't. However, it is not universally harmful. I dated a pornstar for a few months. She was decently popular in a specific fetish, and she made good money. She was self-produced and self-promoted. It wasn't harmful for her at all. Some of the biggest pornstars in the industry are similar. Many pornstars produce content with their spouses. It's actually not too hard to find ethically produced porn.
Again, porn can be addicting. If you are struggling with porn interfering with your daily life, you should absolutely seek help from a professional to learn how to control your urges. However, other than asexual humans, most people are addicted to sex in a very similar way to how we are addicted to oxygen and water and food. The biological imperative to propagate our species is one of our strongest innate desires. It only becomes a problem when we overindulge and let that desire dictate our lives. Too much water is fatal. Oxygen destroys DNA. Obesity leads to possibly fatal health conditions. But, eating, drinking, and breathing aren't sinful. Neither is a healthy sex life.
Foundational to this idea that sex isn't wrong on its own is the truth that God created sex. God could have made humans reproduce asexually. He didn't. God could have created sex to not feel as good. He didn't. God could have made us completely different from how He did, but He didn't. We feel sexual attraction because God wants us to feel it. Sex is fun because God made it fun. There was no devil who swooped in and changed God's design at the last second. There was no accident where God said, "Oops, I really screwed up that sex thing, oh well." No, God created humans and said that we were good. That included penises and vaginas and how they fit together with all manner of body parts. God commanded Adam and Eve to populate the Earth. He did that while realizing that there's only one way for humans to get that done. God created sex, thinks it's good, and commanded us to get busy. And Adam and Eve didn't have any kind of marriage ceremony either.
Where does that leave us as progressive Christians? We evaluate the sinfulness of every action against love and whether it causes harm to our neighbors. We don't elevate sexual sins above other sins because all sin causes us to fall short of the glory of God. So we look at each sexual act under the same lens as lying, cheating, stealing, and so on. We don't believe that love is ever sinful, so gay sex between loving partners can't be a sin. We believe that love always seeks consent because love never harms. We believe that ethically-minded sexual behaviors are inline with the concepts of loving your neighbor as yourself. We believe that sex is a gift from God.
r/OpenChristian • u/noop279 • 3h ago
My church flies these flags and it means a lot to see. The sense of feeling welcome is immediate. I've been going here with my fiance and have always felt comfortable.
r/OpenChristian • u/SilverNEOTheYouTuber • 4h ago
Long ago, pretty much a Month Ago, I made a Post requesting others to Pray for Me because I described the Psychological Abuse that has happened in my Household, which was mainly driven by the belief that I \*must\* stop being a Trans Girl and become a Cis Boy. The Prayers were mainly to make sure my Plan to seek Help from LGBTQ+ Organizations would Succeed.
In the end, I didnt talk just to a LGBTQ+ Organizations, I also talked to a Helpline for Minors going through Abuse, which apparently is also capable of sending in my Country's Child Protection Services, which where I live are Simply called "Social Services".
Two Days ago, the Social Worker who interacts with our Family to help us with State Welfare called my Father to the Office, and yesterday he was told that this Social Worker's Colleagues would come visit our house. Besides coming out to my Childhood Friend who witnessed my Mother giving birth to me, (She also revealed to me that shes Bisexual) I talked to the Social Workers who came to our home and I can say that my Parents will officially stop all attempts at changing my Gender Identity.
This is because the Social Workers explicitly stated that if my Parents ever try to suppress my Gender Expression, force me to cut off Friends just because they Support me or are Queer, or perform a "Small Exorcism" against my Will with the Desired Outcome being Identity Change, they will get in SERIOUS Legal Trouble.
Whether I can begin the Psychological Percourse towards getting HRT (Which lasts from 6 to 12 Months) is yet unclear, but its said I will indeed begin a Psychological Percourse that does NOT involve someone whose best Advice for Gender Dysphoria is "Focus on your Hobbies and pretend the Dysphoria doesnt exist", and my Parents will also begin one with a Separate Professional.
I hope any other Fellow Trans Girl out there whos going through what I went through before Finding the Light manages to reach the same Victory as me, the Era of being free to exist as my Authentic Self has just begun.
r/OpenChristian • u/bleepinbunny • 18h ago
For background, I'm a heavily tattooed female bartender, who is also an unwed mother. I understand that from an outside perspective, I do not "look" like a typical Christian, and I didn't really start to pursue my relationship with Christ until I found the Episcopalian church. I always struggled with the idea that being gay is a sin, and a non-believer is a sinner. I just don't see God's love as so black and white, and it wasn't until I found my church that I encountered true, radical love.
Today at work, a group of men selling banana bread for their church specifically approached ME at my bar, asking if I believed in the word of God. I said yes, and that I go to service at my church as often as I can. They asked which church, and I answered. Cue a BARRAGE of very personal and targeted questions towards me regarding my sexuality, sexual experiences, what other sins I have committed and if I TRULY believed that that such a liberal Church was guiding me towards Christ. I was terrified and embarrassed, and being so soon into my Christian journey I didnt feel like I had the knowledge to defend myself, not to mention being at my literal job I couldn't just walk away like I would do on the street.
Is this normal? Am I a bad Christian for specifically searching for a church that aligned with my views? Is that specific search limiting my knowledge and relationship with God because I don't want to align with things I don't agree with? I don't really know how to navigate this. I have pretty liberal political views, and my belief system is also built on that. I just can't rationalize condemning people for things they can't control. Idk, some clarity would be nice if anyone can offer it.
r/OpenChristian • u/Practical_Sky_9196 • 2h ago
Religious ritual is not magic or superstition. All religions practice rituals, but religions interpret their rituals differently. Some offer “magical” interpretations of the ritual as a supernatural technology that produces material outcomes: “If we just pray hard enough, she’ll be healed.” Other religions interpret rituals as meaning-making activities, superimposed on life to create order from chaos. If life appears random, we can provide some order to it with periodic observances.
In our account, religious rituals are not magic, nor are they meaning-making activities. Instead, they are meaning-accessing activities. Religious rituals access a preexisting meaning woven into the universe. Because they access the sacred, they are sacraments: portals through which the grace that lies within the cosmos flows into our everyday lives.
Religious ritual confirms the basic sacramentality of the cosmos, reminding us that everything is holy. Due to this universal holiness, awe is the most legitimate attitude toward life and gratitude its most natural fruit. To feel a sacrament is to feel awe and become grateful, because the sacrament celebrates what we overlook in our distractedness—the intrinsic beauty of life, the sacredness of matter, and the importance of each person.
Sacramental celebration brings existential healing to a despondent world. Life is stunningly beautiful and intensely difficult, with the ever-present possibility of intense suffering and great joy. We are material beings in a material universe through which courses Infinite Spirit. We are fully embodied and fully ensouled; our physicality entails risk, while our spirituality entails passion. Embracing the intensity of life, faith celebrates this unification of body and soul, a unification that heightens experience, deepens awareness, and unceasingly generates more.
We need grace to bear that more. Recognizing this need, sacraments use the constituents of the universe—space, time, energy, and matter—as channels of divine encouragement. Such material sacraments reveal material existence to be holy: matter manifests spirit, and spirit reveals matter to be more lively than common sense alone could explain.
Religious ritual is not harmful superstition, outdated magic, or pre-scientific technology. Religious ritual is a medium of the sacred with transformative power. Indeed, this power may be so transformative that it seems magical, working wonders in our interpretation of life.
Transformation bequeaths knowledge. We think differently, feel differently, and act differently after transformation. By way of consequence, religious ritual is a powerful way of acquiring sound knowledge about human existence in a sacred cosmos. It reminds us what we should never forget—that we are sacred, life is a gift, and more beauty of every sort is forever available to us.
Such knowledge cannot be proven or disproven. It can only be felt, and felt to enrich. The knowledge that ritual confers is not discursive: it cannot be translated into language, because it is first and finally embodied. The reduction of this embodied knowledge to language, even when necessary, will distort and attenuate it. (I am distorting and attenuating your ritual knowledge right now, for which I apologize.)
Ritual knowledge must remain what it is—directly experienced, distinctly embodied, and resolutely unlanguaged. Participating in religious ritual may lead thought from reason to rumination, and theologians may even translate ritual experience into doctrinal concepts, but all religious ritual resists intellectual mastery, because ritual exceeds cognition, just as reality exceeds system. Life is always more than we can think. If we reduce life to understanding, then we shall have impoverished ourselves. God grants more, and some of that more God grants through ritual. (adapted from Jon Paul Sydnor, The Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology, pages 233-234)
*****
For further reading, please see:
Driver, Tom F. “Transformation: The Magic of Ritual.” In Readings in Ritual Studies, edited by Ronald L. Grimes, 170–87. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.
Jennings, Theodore W. “On Ritual Knowledge.” In Readings in Ritual Studies, edited by Ronald L. Grimes, 324–34. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.
r/OpenChristian • u/Pretend-Pack-3890 • 17h ago
Ive been in the SBC for pretty much my entire childhood. Both Churches I had attended ALWAYS pushed the “you are a horrible person who deserves nothing but pain and suffering just for living cause you love wrong“ rhetoric. They‘ve also always pushed women being submissive to men and abortion = murder. My current church has a youth pastor who quite literally wears an “Abortion Abolitionist” t-shirt. My first church also used “babies go to hell since they can’t verbally profess Jesus as their savior“ as an argument against abortion. Anyways, thanks for listening to my rant and have a blessed week <3.
r/OpenChristian • u/Ok-Interaction-4081 • 16h ago
For those that dont know, Arthur is from a video game called Red Dead Redemption 2, hes a outlaw and lived a very bad life and struggles with morality but is absolutely capable of being a good when given opportunities.
He contracted tb after beating a sick man who was loaned money from Arthur's gang to death and towards the end of the game you watch cone to terms with his sickness and the consequences of his actions.
Here hes talking to a nun were he tells her he's afraid and she lovenly tells him, "Take a gamble that loves exists and do a lovenly act."
Which he does.
What about you guys? Looking for to reading yalls responses.
r/OpenChristian • u/geographunk • 1d ago
These are the questions that really matter. What do you think?
r/OpenChristian • u/Alarmed_History_8566 • 23h ago
Hey all, i want to apologise if this doesnt make sense, I'm just writing my thoughts.I would like some advise and support about believing after my recent trip. So I went last week (11th - 19th) and don't get me wrong it was a nice experience,ish. I went with my church and I just feel like it just started wrong. We left really late in the evening, like 9pm and didn't get to Taiźe till 3pm sunday and we were all just so tired. It just felt like we had so much to do with getting a job and setting up etc. As time went by, i had some good experiences with God which was nice but the people around me with the church just felt..weird. It just felt like I was being babied by some people and like I had to do the majority of the work cause one of the people couldn't get over the wasps which at the time felt fine but idk. Then a storm happend. I've got anxiety and autism so I was petrified. I was in tears and trying not to have a panic attack on the phone to my mum and my paster who was on the trip said in the group chat not to use our phones (in a way that made my anxiety worse) and didnt even try comfort me or see where I was during it. I then got moaned at when I saw her and a thing I noticed was her eyes. (My nan has Bipolar and i can just tell with eyes when someone changes) it was kinda scary. I wasn't comforted once by anyone but 1 women. Anyway, then I went to the town over to get ice-cream and I left my charger in the church to charge my powerbank. I told her and she (my vicar) said not to worry and she'll look after it ect. When I came back and went to the service my phone was dying so I went up to her to get the charger ect and she denied even saying that and had no idea where it was. She was more concerned about her adapter then anything else and didn't even bother to help look for it. Then on the last day I got shouted at for just sitting down and looking over by the vicar and her daughter (her daughter shouted) and then she ignored me for hours until she kinda apologised saying she don't know why she shouted ect but she was still distant. During that time I also felt incredibly home sick, in pain with my joints and just masking everyday.
I've been feeling distant and I'm really struggling to believe in God ever since coming home because if he loved me then why would be let me go through that? Why would he let me struggle during the trip? If he knew what was gonna happen, why didn't he help or even stop the struggle? Any advice would be great!!
r/OpenChristian • u/FuzzyFurrBoy77 • 17h ago
First off I want to day that I think being in a poly relationship isn't a sin despite my personal feelings towards it, if you can make that work and everyone is happy then good for you.
But these groups I see are super weird about it, like saying if you were polygamous you wouldn't have to worry about jealousy or cheating and that men need more then one wife; I even saw someone asking if the women can take more then one husband and she was told that it'd be adultery like what?
They just use super weird arguments for it too, and I notice that almost always the people are Judiazers and always say that modern churches are going to hell?
r/OpenChristian • u/thecapefangirl • 1d ago
I struggled with myself and reconciling it with God at least once a year, especially since my Church's abysmal views on queer people. They did a talk and made it clear that if anyone "rallies" against their policies they will be asked to leave. And wr are not allowed to argue with them.
(Before I hear another "JuST GO tO AnOTHer ChURch", life is not so black and white. I do not have an affirming church in my area, and God is making it very clear He still needs me there).
My very Christian, very closeted queer friend (and an absolute light in the crap world I live in), is a part of the prophetic team.
Let me rewind a bit. I found out when God put on my heart to tell him that once he found who he is, he will be ready for a relationship. I honestly did not clock this wonderful autistic man, but God pushed me in that direction.
Anyway, he became more confident and sure of himself...the first reason that it was clear that God wanted him to grow in his identity.
So one day I asked him to have a prophetic session with his team. He made it clear that he did not share any information about me to the rest of the team so I knew it was from God.
They called me a power station: those who are Christian, but for reasons have drifted away find me and become revigorised in God. My friend earlier did describe me as someone who finds those who were struggling and shepard them back
While they dont know it (besides my friend) these homophobes unknowingly affirmed that struggle in my soul. I know it sounds braggy, but God had blessed me with a purpose to help those who feel torn between two identities and reconcile them.
If homophobes can affirm queer people through God literally telling them, then I think it is pretty clear on His stance.
r/OpenChristian • u/Bobslegenda1945 • 1d ago
Tw: LGBT phobia, self hate, religious trauma, I think
. I try to be as Christian as possible and love my neighbor, but damn it. I really hate when people do that.
I can't stand it when they say that. Especially because they are usually in the gender, roles and sexuality fits their religion. I remember when I heard the pastor saying about a lesbian teen that killed herself. According to him, it was not homophobia, but the demon, the devil and her fault and the path her chose.
And instead of thinking, 'We're wrong. We have to change something. It was just a child.'They never talk about the subject again, they ignore it, they give basic support to the family (which is more like blaming the victim and saying that their kid went to hell, God's will, she chose it). They will probably repeat the same mistake that led to this disaster, and may even be the main cause.
Sometimes I feel like they treat LGBT people with more disgust, revulsion, and hatred than abusers and pedophiles. Nah, they definitely do.
Nothing will make me stop believing that many, if they could, would be in favor of creating concentration camps to go after those who don't fit in. People of other religions, political views, LGBT people, racial and cultural minorities. Honestly, they are anti abortion, but if they could discover if the fetuses are going to be lgbt or some other thing, they wouldn't think twice!
"You choose it", "bare your cross", ""Renounce and deny yourself", "it is a sin", "you are going to hell", "trans people are sick", "they can't see what God made and accept God is identity", "you are destroying God is work".
I just hate that shit so much . I am so fucking tired. I hate all of this and the one thing telling that trans and gay people are all z\\\*\\\*, p\\\*do, demons, possessed.
I am a trans man pre transition, so it probably will be more turned to the trans experience and ass of God, but I do believe that lgb people may understand and feel the same.
I never asked to be trans, I never asked to have dysphoria, I never asked to be born with a body that doesn't fit.
"Huhhh huh you have to pray more and fight against it". BY THE LOVE OF GOD. I WAS PRAYING TO GOD MAKE ME NORMAL AT 7. I WAS SCREAMING AND BEGGING TO GOD FIX ME AT 15 UNTIL TODAY. IDK EVEN HOW I ARRIVED TO MY 20TH B'DAY. HOW THE FUCKING HELL COULD I CHOOSE THAT? HOW THE FUCKING HELL IT WAS A DEMON SINCE MY CHILDHOOD?! FOR WHAT? TO SUFFER BECAUSE I FEEL THAT GOD HATES ME? CRY BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE A FUCKING DICK? BECAUSE I WILL GO TO HELL? BECAUSE I WANT TO BE CONVICTED FOR LOVING SOMEONE? TO SUFFER BECAUSE MY PARENTS DOESN'T ACCEPT ME AND I HATE SEEING THEM SUFFER BECAUSE OF ME?!
They are all like "don't do that. Life is short. Eternity is forever", "you need to deny it". And they say all this shit because they are not the ones who need to deny their gender or sexuality. They can dress as they want, they have the characteristics that fit them, They're going to get married and have sex without guilt; they're allowed to have their teens crushes. If a cis woman has PCOS, they will give the medication to her, if a cis man has hypogonadism they will give T to him without fault. And they will address that it is wrong let a person without the hormones that do good for them, because their body and mind need it.
But if it is a trans or gay person they deny it all to them.
I hate that all. For the love of the saint! I never asked to be born trans or to even be born. I want to live a happy and long live, but they make me feel like I am a horrible and dirty thing. I feel like I am a fucking abomination. Why I have to go to hell for something I didn't choose?! Why I have to go to hell for searching the means to have a healthy life and mental health?!
They always say "life is too short. Eternity is forever. Fight against it!" because the same that tells you to search the heavens in eternity are the same who are living the heavens on Earth.
Why the fuck can't we have the right to feel What are the minimum rights that everyone should have? Why don't we have the right to love and be loved? The right to feel good in our own bodies and to have a family?
The same people who tell us to suppress and endure are the same ones who wouldn't last a week if they went through the same thing.
They tell that we are destroying our bodies, the work of God and are going to hell, but if they are so, are they going to hell for doing all the things that Jesus not told them to do?
Are the rich pastors going to hell? The millionaire? Are a lot of Christians going to hell for supporting the destruction of nature because of the capitalism? The ones that hate the next by gender, sexuality, race, country, religion?!
Jesus was born more than 2.000 years ago, but still they can't learn? They can't pin in their heart the "first, love God the most and the second is important the same, love the next as yourself"?
My God. If I ain't wrong there are more than 2 billion of Christians in the world. You know how much change 2 billion of people could do? If people took that seriously, we would have fought all the bias better. There would not have Ice, maybe a lot of wars, genocide, slavery, misoginy, homophobia wouldn't have happened or ended soon, etc. Yeah, prob we would have people that sucks, but the difference would be so drastic. We wouldn't have a lot of people supporting the destruction of the biosphere. We would have more people being more human and Fighting the maximum they can against all the kind of violence and supporting human rights and nature. But still they can't do that?!! They just keep fighting against the "woke". Omg, Jesus must be so proud!/s
I hate how I am seem as someone ungrateful by my parents, or at least I feel it. I hate that. "You should complain more. Or are you just irritated for no reason? Damn, if they had a hormonal disorder that was masculinizing or feminizing them and they couldn't get treatment, they'd be crazy. I am Not wanting an allowance, or complaining about how we don't travel by plane and saying it's their fault. I try to be positive; I've already said that when I get a job I'll help at home and give gifts to them, I feel bad for them suffering for me being trans, I try to comfort them. I never smoked, stole, had sex, I not even curse at home or next to them (unless of damn).
They keep me treating like if I am 12 yo, when I am 20. I want all the good for them. I try to be a good son, I try to be better everyday, I love them. I feel bad when they have take me to a doctor or when I see how expensive the food is now.
My God. It is obvious that I am being a horrible ungrateful. I can't feel fine in my own body. They are denying to accept it, to accept me, to may help me with hrt. I'm not being spiteful because they didn't buy an expensive iPhone. Damn, I try to pull myself together sometimes to help when they're crying. I feel awful for getting annoyed afterward when they give me gifts and things that make me happy. I feel like an ungrateful, selfish person. What a hell. I just want to be accepted, supported, start transitioning, etc.
I tell them that church makes me feel dirty and suicidal. That I don't want to go or watch. That I want to be at home and I will find a church that doesn't makes me feel like I should been aborted, and they can't even try to do that.
I'm just so annoyed. I don't think they're going to kick me out of the house, and fuck it. I'm going to try to start the T in secret, change the documents, sell commissions and all that.
r/OpenChristian • u/Artistic_Delivery455 • 1d ago
Too often, bisexual experiences are overlooked. That’s why we’re asking for your help. Your voice could help improve mental health supports. Participation is open to all adults (18+) with a marginalized sexual identity (e.g. bisexual, lesbian, gay, queer, pansexual, omnisexual, sexually fluid etc…) and we particularly need more bisexual women.
Survey: https://csufobjbs.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6sCeGsZJld6774W
By completing our anonymous 10–15 min survey, you’ll be contributing to research that aims to better understand the risk and protective factors for mental health, among adults with a marginalized sexual identity.
We are Psychology Honours Students from Charles Sturt University in Australia. This ethics-approved study (H26115) includes questions about sexuality, self-kindness, belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community, sleep, suicidality, and depressive symptoms.
Ethics approval letter: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:AP:23e6db21-4592-4881-8472-c98ab36e4b5c
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r/OpenChristian • u/VaultMan34 • 1d ago
In this scenario, the dna is created custom, with handmade protons, nucleus and electrons, created with computers and stuff. (Sci fi or something) and then it’s grown in a lab, a synthetic womb, but the it’s let out into the world to live a normal life. It doesn’t know it’s synthetic and it has a consciousness, thoughts, emotions, feelings. Does this being have a soul? Or because it is fully made by humans would it not. This is theoretically possible.
r/OpenChristian • u/SpesRationalis • 2d ago
Most of these crossposts are very low-effort, essentially off-topic and contribute nothing to this community specifically, if they're even grammatically coherent which a lot of them aren't.. People just type in "Christian" and then go down the list and blast their post to every Christian sub. It seems nearly every other post in this sub is a cross-post from rChristianity or AskaChristian or rTrueChristian, etc.
Plus, I think a lot of the regulars in this sub would like to get away from the excessive scrupulosity that a lot of these posts represent ("Is it a sin to..."). I see we already have rule 7, but do we think that should be interpreted a little bit more strictly? Not just general Christian stuff, but some relevance to progressive Christianity specifically? I'm curious to know what the consensus of this community is.
I'm not saying ban all cross-posts, but just the ones that don't have specific relevance to this community. What do we think about this?
r/OpenChristian • u/JoeStank8192 • 1d ago
I know the NRSVue is the most recommended translation here, but it isn’t a favorite of mine. Personally, I like Bible translations that are more literal, or ‘word for word.’ I also know that the ESV, NASB, and NIV have conservative biases, but as long as I know that and don’t let it misconstrue my judgment, am I fine to read them without guilt?
r/OpenChristian • u/auntanties • 1d ago
Last time I talked about how Ephesians 5:22 needs to be read in the context of the verse above—it's not just wives that need to submit to their husbands, but husbands also need to submit to wives! But people asked about the next verse, 5:23, that claims that just as Christ is the head of the church, husbands are the head of their wives.
So, a couple of things to get out of the way. First, the Bible never says, "Men are the head of the household." It is just not a verse that appears in Scripture in any English translation. The closest we come to the Bible saying anything close to that is 1 Timothy 5:14, which says that women should manage or lead their homes.
The second thing we need to understand is that, just like in English, the word for head in Greek—kephale—can be used in three main ways.
One, it can be used for your cabesa, the home of your brain and your beautiful, beautiful faces.
Two, head can be used as a reference to leadership, such as the sentence, "Noted orphan Charles Entertainment Cheese is the head of the Chuck E. Cheese Corporation."
And three—and this is where we should pay attention—head can refer to the source or origin of a thing. This is less common in English, but we still use it when we refer to, say, the head or headwaters of the Mississippi River.
That third meaning—head as source or origin—is what is happening in Ephesians 5, and in general, whenever Paul refers to headship.
How do we know? Because in no place where Paul refers to headship (either of Christ or men) does Paul equate that to leadership, decision-making, or hierarchy. Rather, for Paul, headship is the call to self-sacrifice and the giving of oneself for the sake of someone else's well-being.
Now, you may be thinking, in what way is a husband the "origin" or the "source" of a wife? Okay, hang with me here. Behind the Greek words for "husband" and "wife" are words that more generally mean "man" and "woman."
In the Jewish imagination, shaped by the creation narrative of Genesis 2 specifically, there is one single human being, the a'dam. God takes flesh from the side of the a'dam and shapes a second human corresponding to—but different from—the a'dam. That person is the issha. The woman. The flesh from the side of the a'dam was the origin or source material for the issha.
Man being the source of woman, however, is not an argument for hierarchy. Rather, Paul is making a rhetorical argument to challenge the common perceptions of his day. Paul and everyone else in both his Jewish and Greco-Roman world were swimming in patriarchy. Paul, however, sees man as the head/source/origin of woman not as an excuse to continue the patriarchy, but to undermine it.
Again, notice the actual language Paul uses when talking about what it means for husbands to be the heads of wives. "Husbands, love your wives"—or, more generically—"Men, love your women." How? Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." That phrase, "gave himself up for her," is the Greek word paradidomi. It means to hand something over into someone else's keeping. It's used in the Gospels for the giving over of money, being given over into prison, and for the action of Jesus being given over to be crucified.
So, do you hear it? Paul says, yes, men, you are the head, the source, the origin of women, according to Genesis 2. Therefore, you must be the same sort of head that Jesus is as head of the church. And the way that Jesus was the head, the origin, the source of growth for the church, was not by executive leadership functions. It was not by decision-making authority and power. Jesus was head by the fact that he handed himself over for the church's sake, for the church's health, and well-being.
In the same way, then, men, you too should be heads of wives, willing to offer up your bodies for the sake of the well-being of women.
This is Paul's giant middle-finger to sexism and patriarchy. Men who use their bodies to abuse, harm, harass, or endanger women are not acting like Jesus. Men who use their power and authority to keep women out of leadership, out of teaching, out of decision-making—they are acting entirely opposed to this passage.
Rather, in any society or culture where women are pushed to the margins, kept out of the room where it happens, or made to feel inferior or less than in any way, the best way for a man to be Christ-like and to lean into the calling as "head" is to do everything in their power—including putting their own resources and bodies on the line—to lift women up. That's what headship means.
r/OpenChristian • u/CarpingAllThoseDiems • 18h ago
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r/OpenChristian • u/IEatPorcelainDolls • 1d ago
It might be blasphemous to even imply that God would be torturing me just cause but
My anxiety is so bad that it genuinely feels like torture, I feel like I’m in a marine boot camp just by being alive
I don’t know what to do. I have BARELY any faith nowadays and I feel guilty for it but with all the horrible things happening and all the soul crushing and dreadful anxiety it feels like I actually am just being punished
I probably do things that He wouldn’t want from me 24/7 but idk. Would he actually punish me like this? Or is it just the possible religious OCD talking
