macrev (01/19/83)
Are you sure it was St. Amselm and Descartes who said that? Sounds more like Reagan's justification of his budget policies. Mike Lynch mhuxi!macrev
klick (01/27/83)
In a recent submission, a person without first-hand
experience gave this explanation of Christianity:
Christianity, with its focus on the first part
(belief in an overbeing) is based primarily on
faith. I don't know exactly how this works, but
although you are encouraged to be a good person,
you are forgiven even if you are a 'sinner', as
long as you have faith. The idea here is that
with *true* faith, you would not sin as much.
No, that's *not* quite how it works! Faith is the
first requirement, but there is another factor necessary
for forgiveness: true repentance. This encompasses the sinner's
belief that the act committed was wrong and a resolution
not to commit the act again, as well as sorrow for having
committed an affront against God. God's grace will give
you strength to fight the temptation to sin again.
It should be noted that in the Catholic Church, the only
Christian church with formalized confession (as far as I
know), the absolution given by the priest is conditional
upon the repentance of the sinner; going to confession
without true sorrow for the sins confessed is ineffective.
(It should be noted that committing the same sin again is
not regarded as an indication of an unrepentant sinner, only
of continued weakness in that area.) Being of the Christian faith
means that you are required to follow Christian morality;
however, it is accepted that human beings are imperfect, so there
is a means of being reconciled to God after sin.
This is necessarily an incomplete description, but it corrects
some misconceptions in the earlier submission.
Vickie Klick - Bell Labs, Naperville
ihuxu!klickhutch (01/30/83)
Vicki Klick says that the Catholic church is the only church with a formalized confession, as far as she knows. Well, ok.. Actually, the Catholics have mandatory personal confession to a priest. Other churches, especially the Episcopal (Anglican) have fromalized (formalized, that is) confession, but except in cases where the individual feels it to be necessary, the confession is said in a group prayer before Communion is served. The typical wording is "forgive me for that which I have done that I ought not to have done, and for that which I ough to have done but left undone" which pretty thoroughly covers it. In a lot of the churches which have gotten away from the more Biblically based Christianity and into the new, community-awareness new-left church (ala Rev. Sloane of Doonesbury) the confession is often left out, but then they also serve Communion to anyone regardless of whether or not they are Christians. Anyway, the more strict biblical-based practice is, confession of sins to a priest (or another, trustworthy believer) and a sincere repentance which included restitution if possible, was required before Communion could be taken. Since the Holy Communion is the means whereby the believer becomes "one with Christ" (you should pardon the wording) and the early church members had DAILY communion, it was possible to do such things. In the modern churches, Communion is only served at special times, unless the Priest is asked especially by a member of the congregation. So, they dropped the requirement for restitution before restoration of sanctity. Not afraid to tell you more than you care to know, Steve Hutchison (Tektronix)
iy47ab (02/01/83)
Would simply like to apologize for my errors about Christianity. I'm uninformed, and ignorant, which I tried to make clear last time but obviously failed. I'm sorry if I offended. Lady Arwen of U.C. San Diego