Greg Laurie Hates religion?

[kingston1]

these guys are hucksters and tithe collectors, they want your money, that’s it. it’s a business, and when we stay catholic and have all those nutty rituals we cheat them their money. there is more to be a christian then going to a place and listen to some self appointed huckster tell you why you don’t need religion but heck while you’re here why don’t you drop a few bucks in the bucket…

if the sum of being a christian was our sunday worship not what we do the other 99% of the time then he might have something but being a christian is not only the hour or two at church it is always.

 

[EIF5A]

these guys are hucksters and tithe collectors, they want your money, that’s it. it’s a business, and when we stay catholic and have all those nutty rituals we cheat them their money. there is more to be a christian then going to a place and listen to some self appointed huckster tell you why you don’t need religion but heck while you’re here why don’t you drop a few bucks in the bucket…

if the sum of being a christian was our sunday worship not what we do the other 99% of the time then he might have something but being a christian is not only the hour or two at church it is always.

While I’m sure there are people who are greedy and use religion as an excuse to get rich, I don’t think Greg Laurie is one of them.

He and fellow Protestants like him genuinely believe what they say. We may not agree, but that doesn’t mean we can accuse them of being shady hucksters.

Slander is never appropriate…

 

[SMA_12]

I hate all this pro-Jesus anti-religion nonsense. Some of my close friends have been getting into this ideology lately. I think they get it from Mark Driscoll- one of the “I used to be Catholic but then I found Jesus” pastors. :banghead:

I think I’m gonna put together a nice little refutation and I just may post where they can read it…

 

[JustaServant]

It really has less to do with ritual and liturgy than it has to do with how evangelicals and fundamentalists redefine the word from it’s common usage. When I was a fundamentalist, “religion” referred any faith tradition in which “works” were a factor in salvation. Christian or non-Christian.
When dialoging with fundamentalists, it’s safer to steer clear of the word, since it creates a knee-jerk reaction, not a well-reasoned response.

 

[LegoGE1947]

It really has less to do with ritual and liturgy than it has to do with how evangelicals and fundamentalists redefine the word from it’s common usage. When I was a fundamentalist, “religion” referred any faith tradition in which “works” were a factor in salvation. Christian or non-Christian.
When dialoging with fundamentalists, it’s safer to steer clear of the word, since it creates a knee-jerk reaction, not a well-reasoned response.

Evangelicals, etc. seem to love taking words and redefining them. Same goes for modernists that try to push things like “women’s health” “gay rights”. " marriage equality" and so on. You don’t dare call things what they really are, such as “bad doctrine” " murder" " sodomy" since that would be offensive:crying:

 

[Darryl_B]

On Facebook the other day I saw a post by Pastor Greg Laurie it stated the flowing :
(02/08/2014)
Religion.I have to admit,I’m not a big fan.“But you are a Preacher and a religious person!”*some might say.I beg to differ.Follower of Jesus Christ?Guilty as charged.Religious person?I have no interest whatsoever.Let me take it a step further.I actually hate religion.I think more people have been blinded by religion to their need for Jesus then perhaps any garden-variety sin you can think of.Case in point- a very religious man named Nicodemus came to Jesus one night.He was searching for meaning in his ritual-filled life.Not only that,but he was in his day a famous religious leader.Jesus told what he had to do to go to Heaven.That’s what I want to talk about tomorrow at Harvest/Riverside and Orange County in my message,”Heart to Heart”.

Greg Laurie is like a lot of people who do not understand the definition of the word “religion”. They need to get themselves a dictionary and read it. A religion is a combination of A. Things that are believed and B. Things that are done as a consequence of A. In essence a religion is the characteristic that defines your life. There are people who claim to have no religion. This is simply impossible, everyone has a religion.

I am under the personal opinion (note opinion) that people who claim Jesus Christ without the context of the Christian religion are embarrassed about belonging to that religion, and therefore disassociate from it. “Are you a Christian?”, the question can be asked. “No no no, I believe in Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior”.

This also seems to be to soften Christianity to reach adherents of the Secular religion. You don’t need to change much just insert Jesus Christ into whatever you are currently doing.

 

[7_Sorrows]

somehow i got on greg laurie’s mailing list and i have received some correspondence from him.
i have never donated to his ministry. i have read some of the letters he sent and i thought they were pretty good, but i do not have a background on him and i was wondering if i should be reading the letters he sent if he is anti-catholic. i think i have received 3 or 4, but i have only read 2 so far.

 

[laircy]

patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2012/01/why-i-hate-religion-but-love-jesus-the-smackdow.html

 

[Darryl_B]

somehow i got on greg laurie’s mailing list and i have received some correspondence from him.
i have never donated to his ministry. i have read some of the letters he sent and i thought they were pretty good, but i do not have a background on him and i was wondering if i should be reading the letters he sent if he is anti-catholic. i think i have received 3 or 4, but i have only read 2 so far.

I don’t think Greg Laurie is anti-Catholic, I think it is probably more that he does not know much about the core of the Catholic Church and its faith.

 

[CalCatholic]

While I’m sure there are people who are greedy and use religion as an excuse to get rich, I don’t think Greg Laurie is one of them.

He and fellow Protestants like him genuinely believe what they say. We may not agree, but that doesn’t mean we can accuse them of being shady hucksters.

Slander is never appropriate…

I agree

 

[LegoGE1947]

Is it at all possible that Jesus established these rituals and sacraments at the time because humanity needed them, since there was a prevalence of deep spiritual immaturity?

Maybe today, with the greater spiritual maturity of many, the deeper significance of those rituals can be established without the rituals?

Rituals are like any other ritual. We have an alarm clock ritual, for example, to wake us up at 8 am every morning. After 5 years of carrying out this ritual, you eventually realise that this is no longer needed to fulfil the purpose, which is to be awake at 8 am…

I acknowledge that sometimes there is great value in the ritual itself. For example, my wife used to walk to the local grocery store every morning to buy fresh milk and eggs. It was a daily ritual. One day the grocery store said they have a delivery service, door-to-door. My wife refused because there was also inherent value in the actual walk.

Just some perspectives to consider, which I feel both hold value and are of pertinence to ponder upon

.

With all due respect, I don’t think there is more spiritual maturity. Seems people want to be “entertained” with rock style music to sway to, jumbotron tv screens with happy clappy songs to sing along with, loud mouth motivational speakers that make one feel good and call that “worshiping” It is worshiping but unfortunately it is not worshiping God.

 

[Darryl_B]

With all due respect, I don’t think there is more spiritual maturity. Seems people want to be “entertained” with rock style music to sway to, jumbotron tv screens with happy clappy songs to sing along with, loud mouth motivational speakers that make one feel good and call that “worshiping” It is worshiping but unfortunately it is not worshiping God.

Ouch. You just reminded me of the time I went to the Catholic Church at 9 and then to the Evangelical Church at 11. Because of the contrast I suddenly felt like the Evangelical was trying desperately to entertain me and retain my attention and interest so I would not skip church next week because I would perceive it to be boring.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Ouch. You just reminded me of the time I went to the Catholic Church at 9 and then to the Evangelical Church at 11. Because of the contrast I suddenly felt like the Evangelical was trying desperately to entertain me and retain my attention and interest so I would not skip church next week because I would perceive it to be boring.

Actually, if you strip Evangelical services of all the hype and happy-clappy music you don’t have much left. At the Catholic Church you have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is not supposed to entertain, but direct your attention to the sacrifice of Christ and all He went through to make His death on the Cross always present and effective until He comes again. Even if the priest conducting the Mass isn’t all that great a speaker,you have Mass still because he is acting in place of Christ Himself.

 

[RileyG]

Unfortunately, the whole ‘Jesus and me only’ attitude is very common among some evangelicals (or some liberals…but that’s a different story…).

 

[Darryl_B]

Actually, if you strip Evangelical services of all the hype and happy-clappy music you don’t have much left. At the Catholic Church you have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is not supposed to entertain, but direct your attention to the sacrifice of Christ and all He went through to make His death on the Cross always present and effective until He comes again. Even if the priest conducting the Mass isn’t all that great a speaker,you have Mass still because he is acting in place of Christ Himself.

Yes. I wonder sometimes whether an Evangelical church would be able to conduct a service during a power cut or whether they would have to postpone it until the power is restored.

A slightly different power than that which drives a Catholic Mass.

 

[House_Harkonnen]

On Facebook the other day I saw a post by Pastor Greg Laurie it stated the flowing :
(02/08/2014)
Religion.I have to admit,I’m not a big fan.“But you are a Preacher and a religious person!”*some might say.I beg to differ.Follower of Jesus Christ?Guilty as charged.Religious person?I have no interest whatsoever.Let me take it a step further.I actually hate religion.I think more people have been blinded by religion to their need for Jesus then perhaps any garden-variety sin you can think of.Case in point- a very religious man named Nicodemus came to Jesus one night.He was searching for meaning in his ritual-filled life.Not only that,but he was in his day a famous religious leader.Jesus told what he had to do to go to Heaven.That’s what I want to talk about tomorrow at Harvest/Riverside and Orange County in my message,”Heart to Heart”.

When i read this i was a little bothered so I commented on his post:
“wow, hate is such a strong word. You should be more responsible for the things you say. And why are you trying to sell this “Jesus is anti-religion” Stuff? Wasn’t Jesus Christ a devout Jew and read, understood, and shared scripture? It would appear to me Jesus was more anti-corruption than anti-religion. And I am not seeing the Nicodemus comparison.”

And Greg Laurie’s response
Deleted my post and blocked me from commenting on anything on his Facebook page.

Was I wrong with my comment? or Rude? I didn’t mean to be.

I actually like old Greg Laurie. I listen to his show occasionally.

Keep in mind the guy was evangelized by Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel fame. A church started by surfers in Southern California in the 60s. They were fed up with the establishment religion, and with good reason. They decided that they needed a relationship with Jesus without the trappings of religion, for better or worse.

Perhaps that’s what people needed back in those days. But today I think we need a healthy dose of traditional religion.

Why can’t we have both? A relationship with Jesus while following the trappings of the traditions of the Christian faith? Those trappings were put in place for a reason.

Still though, I used to drive by the guys church and it was packed. I say any full church is good. Especially in our day and age.

 

[Darryl_B]

I actually like old Greg Laurie. I listen to his show occasionally.

Keep in mind the guy was evangelized by Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel fame. A church started by surfers in Southern California in the 60s. They were fed up with the establishment religion, and with good reason. They decided that they needed a relationship with Jesus without the trappings of religion, for better or worse.

Perhaps that’s what people needed back in those days. But today I think we need a healthy dose of traditional religion.

Why can’t we have both? A relationship with Jesus while following the trappings of the traditions of the Christian faith? Those trappings were put in place for a reason.

Still though, I used to drive by the guys church and it was packed. I say any full church is good. Especially in our day and age.

I don’t quite see it that way. I see it as a fusion of Christianity with hippie philosophy, rather than being fed up with anything. 35 years on, those ideologist youth are now approaching retirement, and the fusion of Christianity is now with something else.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Yes. I wonder sometimes whether an Evangelical church would be able to conduct a service during a power cut or whether they would have to postpone it until the power is restored.

A slightly different power than that which drives a Catholic Mass.

They’d have to watch the Jumbotrons and play their electric guitars by candle-light

 

[Jon_S_1]

On Facebook the other day I saw a post by Pastor Greg Laurie it stated the flowing :
(02/08/2014)
Religion.I have to admit,I’m not a big fan.“But you are a Preacher and a religious person!”*some might say.I beg to differ.Follower of Jesus Christ?Guilty as charged.Religious person?I have no interest whatsoever.Let me take it a step further.I actually hate religion.I think more people have been blinded by religion to their need for Jesus then perhaps any garden-variety sin you can think of.Case in point- a very religious man named Nicodemus came to Jesus one night.He was searching for meaning in his ritual-filled life.Not only that,but he was in his day a famous religious leader.Jesus told what he had to do to go to Heaven.That’s what I want to talk about tomorrow at Harvest/Riverside and Orange County in my message,”Heart to Heart”.

When i read this i was a little bothered so I commented on his post:
“wow, hate is such a strong word. You should be more responsible for the things you say. And why are you trying to sell this “Jesus is anti-religion” Stuff? Wasn’t Jesus Christ a devout Jew and read, understood, and shared scripture? It would appear to me Jesus was more anti-corruption than anti-religion. And I am not seeing the Nicodemus comparison.”

And Greg Laurie’s response
Deleted my post and blocked me from commenting on anything on his Facebook page.

Was I wrong with my comment? or Rude? I didn’t mean to be.

The oddest thing about statements like this from people like Laurie… He is perhaps one of the most “religious” Protestants. I mean churches like his are about getting more and more people in their seats. Isn’t that religion? If he really hates religion, he should shut the doors of his church and stop accepting the money that they pay him.

 

[ShanPO]

Greg Laurie…not my favorite person. I had a “conversation” with him many years ago in Riverside, CA.

Your comment got in the way of his agenda or indoctrination (as other posters pointed out). Harsh words on my part but he just does not sit well with me.

My experience with him was I had wished to talk to him about his Catholic bashing during one of his sermons. His response was that I should set up an appointment so he can show me where the Catholic Church is wrong with the bible

Does not surprise me he would delete the comment and you.

Please tell me you took him up on his offer.