When I was a TBM, I had many interactions with Born-again Christians.

To me, these people were annoying. First, they claimed that Mormons were not "Christians." Who made them the judge?

Second, they called the Church a "cult." While I cannot disagree, I didn't want to hear it from them. And, most of those so-called Christians didn't really know why it was a cult -- just that the Morg was not a Bible-based church.

Third, I found it offensive that, instead of practicing their own religion, they found it necessary to demean every other faith. Talk about a lack of class!

Fourth, I found their preaching somewhat hypocritical, in that they claimed to be true followers of Christ but their behavior was not any better than anybody else's. They would say, "Christians aren't perfect -- just forgiven." They would then sin as much as anybody else, then expect to be forgiven just because they had accepted Christ.

So, to me, these people were and still are annoying.

Thoughts?

I grew up in Texas so know them well. To paint them with a broad brush, they are one of the worst religious groups:

1) They are hypocrites. They preach the Bible, but a lot of them sleep around. They correct that by praying to be forgiven and then hooking up again. My coworker complained that Evangelical Singles camps are just big hook up sites. Couples disappear for hours in the afternoon to have sex and then show up for evening prayers.

2) They are incredibly homophobic. That is convenient for them because they will never be gay, so making that the worst sin shields them for their own sins.

3) They are anti-intellectual. They preach the Bible, but your average RM could easily dispatch their limited Bible knowledge. At least Mormons have respect for education and learning. Evangelicals love holding up professors, doctors, lawyers, etc. as servants of the anti-Christ (see: God is not Dead)

4) They assume that non-believers are ignorant. I've had more than a few shocked that I know the Bible and still do not believe. They just assume you are too stupid to read if you don't believe.

5) They are highly political. They love taking over local and state elections to push their anti-intellectual agenda. They specifically hate anything to do with gays, abortion or Evolution.

6) They are very prejudiced against non-believers. They condemn the poor as sinners and preach the perverse Prosperity Gospel where God rewards the righteous with obscene wealthy and punishes non-believers with poverty and suffering.

I would much rather have Mormons in my neighborhood than Evangelicals. They are still miles ahead of JWs or Scientologists.

You are absolutely right about #1. Every evangelical I have known has preached abstinence but I have never met a chaste "Christian," as they like to call themselves.

Even while preaching "purity," they will admit that seeing each other naked is o.k., oral sex is o.k., anal sex is o.k., masturbation is o.k., etc., because the woman is still a virgin. Even so, it is highly unlikely that you can engage in all of the above behaviors and not have vaginal sex (we are talking about heterosexuals here).

Evangelicals bothered me because they were always tearing down Mormonism and seemed so self-righteous in doing so. Look, I want Mormonism destroyed like the rest of you -- I just find it so distasteful that Born Again Christians are the ones trying to do it.

They see the mote in someone else's eye but they don't see the beam in their own.

and they are the worst people imaginable.

All the ones I've met have been very pushy, obnoxious and hypocritical. I would agree, they are worse than many Mormons.

I live in the South. They didn't bug me until my kids started school and were constantly asked by classmates if they were "saved." Hoo Boy. Hard to explain THAT concept!

See . . . you say a 30-second prayer . . . God forgives you for all of your sins (including all future sins you may commit for the rest of your life) . . . and you get a free pass to Heaven.

What's that? Yes, you can kill someone (providing you actually said that 30-second prayer at Baptist church camp when you were 12) and God's grace will forgive you. And you still get into Heaven. Magic!

;o)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2014 10:58AM by shannon.

One of the scriptures most used for "born again" is probably better translated: "born from above".

The term 'born again' is supposed to have been spoken by Jesus, telling a man he must be "born again". In fact it is based on a wordplay in Greek and that conversation could not have taken place because Jesus spoke Aramaic. In Aramaic the wordplay doesn't work. Bart Ehrman explains this in one of his many books/talks.

Cannot bear conversation with a BAC.

The conversation is interesting as to meanings. It is over the head of fundies.

Interesting point. And while I agree with you 100% that the Jesus myth is pure nonsense, I can see my intellectual TBM family members arguing that the conversation happened in Aramaic, and the Greek play on words crept in later. You can make any belief work if you're creative enough...

Can someone please provide the time and place of the next evangelical singles camp? K,thanx.

Ha! That's funny.

Just don't forget your "sinners" prayer beforehand. Then you are good-to-go. No harm, no foul.

;o)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2014 12:32PM by shannon.

On my mission, born-again christians were the absolute WORST. They spit on us, yelled at us, called us obscenities, and slammed doors in our faces. One even pointed a gun at us. Hell, we were treated better by Muslims.

Yes, I hate the mormon church too now. But there's no excuse to treat fellow human beings like born-agains treat mormon missionaries. I guess they think that since they've been "saved" they can do whatever the hell they want.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2014 11:38AM by hangar18.

I have one BaC friend. She knows how to keep her views mostly contained unless asked. I did get the annoying "Have you been saved?" question.

Just answer: "Yes!"

Plenty of them here in southern Alberta....and many have the "if you're not born again. you're not as good as those of us who are saved" mentality. I have no use for people with that attitude. Kinda like the way I feel about some of the TBM's I've learned about on this site.

Ron Burr

ps: I was accosted by a BAC women one time while we were on holidays. She told me I had to be born again to be saved. I hit her with "I was born correctly the first time". She was speechless...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2014 11:43AM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

Ya, that Victory bunch. Whatever happened to that snakey slimy Dick deTwerp, or whatever the hell his name is. I heard he couldn't keep his little cockie in his panties.

You are correct...the little twit couldn't keep it in his pants...and got fired by Victory Christian Church & The Miracle Channel TV station (that he helped found)...but his wife forgave him...so he started up another couple of congregations...and get this...he's now an financial/investment advisor....

Ron Burr

My land, I'd hate top see posts from you that were sweeping generalizations.

Also, born-again/fundie delusions are just as ridiculous as Mormon delusions. Two of my favorite BAC idiocies:

1. Woody and Buzz of "Toy Story" were code for Sex and Drugs, which the film was secretly promoting.

2. The gay Teletubby.

I came online at the dawn of the Internet (early 1980s). When I was one of few TBMs online, my only opponents were socialists, feminists, homosexualists and fundmentalist Christians.

No fundamentalist Christian could say anything to "shake my testimony." Their only claims against Mormons were "You don't believe the same as me." and "You steal members from us." Both are very weak claims. At most their dispute could be classified as a difference of opinion.

Fundamentalist Christians have virtually no political power in Canada. Even though the Prime Minister is openly Christian, virtually no conservative social policy decisions have been made under his leadership.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2014 01:22PM by idleswell.

Actually,the opposite is true: I have been disliked by Born Again Christians. Well, disliked is not a strong enough word for the way they feel about me, but I'll leave it at that for now.

It may be a coincidence, but I have three pretty hardcore born agains at work who also have to be the laziest people there. They're also not the sharpest tools in the shed.

FYI: All Christians are born again.

Pushy fundamentalists of every religion are difficult to stomach, not just Southern Baptists.

Live and let live.

They are amongst the most arrogant and the most rude people on the planet. I never liked the everybody is going to hell, but me attitude.

We all have dark pasts, even the evangelicals. It is great when someone moves on from the past to be a better person; what evangelicals do is simply exchange one bad behavior for arrogance. I have dealt with so much crap lately that no evangelical can shake my testimony of being an agnostic.

Only the ones who made a point of waving their born again Christianity around.

Oh, one more funny thought.No doubt the Southern BAC's thought *MY* kids were weirder than theirs.

Once my grade-school daughter was taken out to dinner by her best friend's family and the mom asked her if she wanted iced tea with her meal. My daughter hesitated and shyly said, "I don't think I'm allowed."

crickets chirping . . .

Who the HELL doesn't drink iced tea in the South?!

;o)

They are annoying. We have Pentacostals in my family. The rest of us fall somewhere between Shelby Spong type Protestants and atheist / agnostics. We put up with their Jesus stuff, but one of them in particular periodically flips a switch and gets super preachy / pushy.

When my Aunt remarried, one of the first things that her new husband did was to introduce beer to the family gatherings, something that we had pretended not to do for 30 years for the sake of the uber-preachy one. Nothing happened. The sky didn't fall, no thunderbolts. I'm sure the was no permanent damage to anyone's speaking in tounges ability. But for years we tiptoed around this one person because of her extream religiosity.

Not a fan of evangelicals or any organization that calls itself "Bible-based". I prefer my Bible carefully cherry picked with only the nice parts accepted as true. I never had a problem with Christianity before I started reading the thing for myself.

They have more similarities in the way they do things with the Morg than they care to admit.

My favorite claim of theirs is that satan put the dinosaur fossils underground to test their faith of young earth creationism.

You ex-Mo's think you're so hot being the most persecuted by the Evangelicals.

Try growing up Catholic in the Mecca of Southern Baptists (Richmond, VA.)

Whore of Babylon, anyone?

Yeah. Still do.

They used to ask me if I were saved and I would reply I sure am.

Growing up, the local Southern Baptist church had a big 'cult awareness' event once a year. They had pretty epic turnout.

I'll give the Mormons credit for not hosting conventions to prove why other religions are false. SBC sure seemed to love 'em, though.

Like any other religion, it's the loudest, most obnoxious people that get remembered. One of the most annoying guys I worked with was a fundamentalist ex-Mormon. The other ex-Mo's (most of whom had gone atheist/agnostic) couldn't stand him.

I'm sure most fundamentalist evangelical Christians are just normal people trying to work to put food on the table and live a decent life. But the loudmouths in their bunch certainly are not improving how they, as a whole, are viewed.

Alpiner's comment makes sense: "I'm sure most fundamentalist evangelical Christians are just normal people trying to work to put food on the table and live a decent life. But the loudmouths in their bunch certainly are not improving how they, as a whole, are viewed."