(May 10, 2021 at 5:20 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote: These teachings are both problematic, but they had nothing to do with money.
I wouldn't get involved in the discussion of what is the "right" interpretation of the verses from the Bible.
Pastors and preachers are dropping out of the profession because remaining Christians are getting dumber and more brainwashed by conspiracies from the internet, so they find it hard to lead a bunch of conspiracy nuts.
Quote:Jeff Weddle, a 46-year-old, wise-cracking, self-deprecating, Bible-loving, self-described “failing pastor” from Wisconsin, was already thinking of leaving the ministry before COVID and the 2020 election.
He was, as he put it, fed up with church life after two decades as a pastor.
Then, what he called “the stupid” — feuds about politics and the pandemic — put him over the edge. People at church seemed more concerned about the latest social media dustup and online conspiracy theories — one church member called him the antichrist for his views on COVID— than in learning about the Bible.
Sunday mornings had become filled with dread over what could go wrong next.
He eventually decided, “I don’t need this anymore.” Weddle stepped down as pastor, walked out the door and hasn’t looked back.
The last eighteen months or so have been difficult for pastors like Weddle. Already stretched with the day-to-day concerns of running a congregation at a time when organized religion is on the decline, they’ve increasingly found that the divides facing the nation have made their way inside the walls of the church.
https://religionnews.com/2021/05/07/for-...e-to-quit/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"