Is the Christian community receiving too much "outside" secular influence?

[Hatikvah]

It’s obvious that, as Christians, we’re constantly surrounded by secular influence in our day-to-day lives.

Also, we’ve seen that entire denominations and congregations have been receiving pressure to accept gay “marriage,” euthanasia, abortion, and some other acts that need to be decried.

Luckily, however, the more ancient and traditional Churches (most obviously, the Catholic Church) has remained steadfast in faith, charity and piety.

I’ve attached a simple poll here as to what you would answer for yourself, which is the primary point of the article, but you may discuss the issue here, too.

 

[pianistclare]

Which religions, specifically, are you referring to, and what article?

 

[E_7]

In my opinion, the more people are exposed to any source of media, the more influenced they get. People get used to it and children would come to accept it as something normal because they see it every day. And people who say that whatever it is is a "no biggie ", have already been influenced, in my opinion. A person that is rarely exposed to any source of media, can see the evil in it immediately and feel repulsed.

Personally, I discard whatever is useless to me or anything that might lead to any occasion to sin. And whatever enters the eyes, stays in the memory. Therefore, we don’t have TV service, we stream movies on amazon.com that we find “ok” after reading the parents guide on imdb.com, we have an Internet filter called Net Nanny on our phones and computers, and we watch or read news in a few selected sources in the Internet. Outside, we practice custody of the eyes, and we go out of our ways to avoid certain places, not just for us, but for our son and his innocence. We try to make good habits. We are the Church Militant, and for us, it’s a serious thing to fight any kind of evil attack. But, you know, I get mocked by other Catholics every time I mention this, and I don’t really care. I’m not from this world and neither are you.

 

[chasingcars]

Absolutely. Entire denominations have been destroyed by the LGBT and pro-abortion ideology.

Here in Northern Europe three big Protestant churches have chosen to follow the public opinion and the times rather than the Bible… Den Danske Folkekirke (Denmark, 4,4 million members), Den Norske Kirke (3,9 million members, Norway) and Svenska Kyrkan (6,4 million members, Sweden) all accept gay “marriage” and even hold “wedding” ceremonies to same-sex couples. In Iceland same-sex couples can have their “marriage” blessed in Hin evangelíska lúterska kirkja (235K members). Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko (3,9 million members, Finland) is currently discussing whether it should change it’s teaching on marriage because the new gender neutral marriage law will enter into force next year.

 

[Robyn_p]

Yes. But sadly it’s not just a liberal problem. Those of us still holding on to the traditional teaching on marriage are not immune to compromising the gospel for worldly reasons. :sad_yes:

Both sides - left and right - are pretty equally guilty on this front. The Church thankfully still retains her teaching, but individuals in the pews too often put politics over faith. And because of that, we’ve lost credibility with non-believers.

 

[TheAtheist]

Both sides - left and right - are pretty equally guilty on this front. The Church thankfully still retains her teaching, but individuals in the pews too often put politics over faith. And because of that, we’ve lost credibility with non-believers.

Forget about you folks in the pews for a second.

I’ve met a member of the Society of Jesus (scientist like myself).

I’ve met a member of Opus Dei.

As a non-European, non-Christian, perhaps i’m missing some sort of subtext here…

But i still can’t figure out how both of them are still in the same religion.