The walk of shame

[Shrubbery]

I don't see any example in the Bible of a non-believer worshiping with the believers.

Similarly, I find no example of preachers routinely preaching the gospel message to those who already believe.

If Christians want to do it by the book, rather than sitting in a pew 3 sessions a week with the same people hearing the same message, they should start preaching to atheists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists - everyone who hasn’t accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Exactly, they didn't even appear to have "located preachers". The preachers in the NT were preaching to non-believers, then helping the new churches get started and telling them what they needed to know before moving on to another area. Paul preached to believers in Acts 20:7, but this was early Christianity where they didn't know all the details yet, and they didn't have a written NT yet.

When the coc says they look exactly like the first century church, I just have to shake my head. They look nothing like it.

[SolaDude]

When the coc says they look exactly like the first century church, I just have to shake my head. They look nothing like it.

It's like which of all those NT churches do they want to look like... Galatia?... Corinth?.. They were all fraught with many more issues than just trying to decide how many songs before the prayer pleases God....

[Letmethink]

When the coc says they look exactly like the first century church, I just have to shake my head. They look nothing like it.

It's like which of all those NT churches do they want to look like... Galatia?... Corinth?.. They were all fraught with many more issues than just trying to decide how many songs before the prayer pleases God....

A lot of them are pretty successful looking like the first century NT Pharisees.

[Opie]

When the coc says they look exactly like the first century church, I just have to shake my head. They look nothing like it.

It's like which of all those NT churches do they want to look like... Galatia?... Corinth?.. They were all fraught with many more issues than just trying to decide how many songs before the prayer pleases God....

A lot of them are pretty successful looking like the first century NT Pharisees.

Almost all of the NT churches that we know about were pretty dysfunctional messes, so at least most CoC congregations seem to have been successful in that area of trying to look like NT churches.

[SolaDude]

[Tsathoggua]

"I had lustful thoughts while looking at a classmate". --- Really, a true "walk on the mild side"!

After a better part of a year, they were each past this phase. Thankfully......

I'm pretty sure that's called "puberty".

Yeah, you're quite correct!

[KLP]

Private confession like to a priest came about in the 6th century. Prior to that the practice was a public confession/penance to the congregation or in prayer to God. Notice their connection to sins committed "after" baptism...curious why they would think that as some line in the sand.

“Over the centuries the concrete form in which the Church has exercised this power received from the Lord has varied considerably. During the first centuries the reconciliation of Christians who had committed particularly grave sins after their Baptism (for example, idolatry, murder, or adultery) was tied to a very rigorous discipline, according to which penitents had to do public penance for their sins, often for years, before receiving reconciliation. To this ‘order of penitents’ (which concerned only certain grave sins), one was only rarely admitted and in certain regions only once in a lifetime. During the seventh century Irish missionaries, inspired by the Eastern monastic tradition, took to continental Europe the ‘private’ practice of penance, which does not require public and prolonged completion of penitential works before reconciliation with the Church. From that time on, the sacrament has been performed in secret between penitent and priest. This new practice envisioned the possibility of repetition and so opened the way to a regular frequenting of this sacrament. It allowed the forgiveness of grave sins and venial sins to be integrated into one sacramental celebration. In its main lines this is the form of penance that the Church has practiced down to our day” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1447).

[SolaDude]

When I was in Junior High, way back in the early and mid 1970s, I had a couple of acquaintances (a boy and a girl, unrelated) who would "go forward" every few weeks, with copious waterworks on display. Later on, they would talk about the horrendous acts that led them to the dreaded "walk of shame" up to the goldang'd pulpit. I never pressed them for this info, but would receive it regardless of my lack of interest. It was always the most trivial things imaginable, at least if you ask me. -- "I glanced through a book that no Christian has any business reading." "I watched a few minutes of a science fiction or horror movie." "I had lustful thoughts while looking at a classmate". --- Really, a true "walk on the mild side"!

After a better part of a year, they were each past this phase. Thankfully......

Yeah...this reminds me of a friend of mine in our CofC who was a year or two younger than I....when he was a kid (late grade school/early junior high), he would go forward "asking for prayers" quite frequently....it seemed everyone in the congregation started looking at it as "there he goes again"....sort of like there's something wrong with him....he was from a very poor family who had a very tough time but nonetheless were absolutely loving to everyone....anyway, I befriended him as he grew up and could not believe how that paid off....in my young adulthood in the 70's, he called me and asked me to be the best man at his wedding....and for the rest of my life seemed to think I walked on water....I didn't really do anything but talk to him, take an interest in him, go out with him to places, tease the heck out of him and "trash-talk" with him...he laughed and laughed....I attended his funeral last year....

[Tsathoggua]

When I was in Junior High, way back in the early and mid 1970s, I had a couple of acquaintances (a boy and a girl, unrelated) who would "go forward" every few weeks, with copious waterworks on display. Later on, they would talk about the horrendous acts that led them to the dreaded "walk of shame" up to the goldang'd pulpit. I never pressed them for this info, but would receive it regardless of my lack of interest. It was always the most trivial things imaginable, at least if you ask me. -- "I glanced through a book that no Christian has any business reading." "I watched a few minutes of a science fiction or horror movie." "I had lustful thoughts while looking at a classmate". --- Really, a true "walk on the mild side"!

After a better part of a year, they were each past this phase. Thankfully......

Yeah...this reminds me of a friend of mine in our CofC who was a year or two younger than I....when he was a kid (late grade school/early junior high), he would go forward "asking for prayers" quite frequently....it seemed everyone in the congregation started looking at it as "there he goes again"....sort of like there's something wrong with him....he was from a very poor family who had a very tough time but nonetheless were absolutely loving to everyone....anyway, I befriended him as he grew up and could not believe how that paid off....in my young adulthood in the 70's, he called me and asked me to be the best man at his wedding....and for the rest of my life seemed to think I walked on water....I didn't really do anything but talk to him, take an interest in him, go out with him to places, tease the heck out of him and "trash-talk" with him...he laughed and laughed....I attended his funeral last year....

Wow! Neat story. I guess that he was just a "sensitive soul", and a very nice guy.

[Cootie Brown]

"I had lustful thoughts while looking at a classmate". --- Really, a true "walk on the mild side"!

After a better part of a year, they were each past this phase. Thankfully......

I'm pretty sure that's called "puberty".

Yeah, you're quite correct!

Masturbation is normal for both genders & this is never "outgrown". It is a perfectly normal part of human sexuality. Marriage doesn't stop the urge or need to masturbate either. Sexual fantasies are also a normal part of human sexuality for both genders.

Now when a normal sexual need & practice is labeled as sin that is guaranteed to produce conflict, stress, guilt, and fear of punishment. When it comes to sex males are visually stimulated. Men savor the female body, and that is how they are attracted to a female. And women are very much aware of this too and dress accordingly.

Young boys and men desire to look at naked women, that is why porn is a multimillion dollar business. Sex in some form is the driving force to obtain an audience for TV and movies. Religion labels pretty much everything associated with sex and nudity as sin. And that causes lots of problems for everyone including married couples.

The result of all of this is that sex education either isn't taught or it's so censored that it is virtually meaningless. And the culprit for this nonsense is sin. Believers are put on a guilt trip because they possess a normal sex drive & curiosity. Thankfully, that is changing in the general population, but not so much in the religious realm.

So, when you see young boys, and men, going forward on a regular basis it's likely they have guilt issues that are in some way connected to sex. And probably true for some females.

The church teaching on sex is idiotic and archaic. Nonconsensual sex is both a sin and a crime. Sex with and underage partner is both a sin and a crime. Sex between consenting adults, unless adultry is involved, is not a sin or a crime. Masturbation is never a sin. If it is then everyone is going to hell, but with a smile on their face.

One of the great benefits of not being religious is that sin is no longer somthing to worry about. Stuff is either legal or illegal, but it isn't sinful.