#if i ever were to go to church it would likely be Methodist so I'd say my family religious background is methodist

[bottomoftheriverbed]

Both sides of my family view religion as an incredibly personal thing so even if they're religious they tend not to talk about it a lot and church attendance is very much not mandatory and there is no greater example of this than the fact that we don't actually know whether or not my dad was baptised. He has an invitation to his uncle asking to be his godfather so we know what church he would have been baptised in (interestingly it's an anglican church in his mother's hometown rather than his local church - presumably a compromise between my (anglican) grandfather and my (baptist) great grandmother) but because his uncle hasn't signed it we're not actually a 100% sure he was in fact baptised.

#my paternal grandfather went to church regularly by all accounts but my paternal grandmother apparently wouldn't step foot in a church #except for weddings and funerals which is presumably one of the reasons why my dad doesn't know if he was baptised #her mother was incredibly religious though and did live with them for some years. she was a baptist but had to go to the Methodist church #because there wasn't a baptist church near them (she was actually born Methodist but presumably became baptist when shw married) #because from what i can gather from newspapers my great grandfather's family were baptist #trying to track the denomination of that side of the family is hard they were and i say this with the greatest respect very welsh #interestingly my maternal grandfather is also a methodist i have no idea whether he's still religious but he obviously was at some point #because he converted and his father was a c of e lay preacher. my grandmother is just kind of non denominational #she's very religious she was born Lutheran but she went to a Catholic school (it was private so i assume it's because it was being paid for #by her mother's polish employer) and now tbh i don't think she really believes in organised religion #god yes jesus yes the church not really #but when my mum went to church as a kid it was to a Methodist church and my parents married in a Methodist church #if i ever were to go to church it would likely be Methodist so I'd say my family religious background is methodist #but because my family is not really practicing in that way my personal religious background is cofe #because it comes from my very religious primary and to a lesser extent secondary school #and all of that means fuck all if you aren't a protestant

[v-tired-queer]

Hi!! I'm a Christian, and while I've encountered people who combine witchcraft with their Christian faith, I've never understood it. I saw in your pinned post that this is something you do. If you're willing/interested/have the energy, would you be willing to share more about that? Or point me in the direction of some more information on it?

I know really little about this, and I really want to understand more. I'm not coming here to be critical, just super curious. :D Hope you're well!

Hello there! 😃👋 I hope that you're doing well, too, and sure, I'd love to share a little more about combining witchcraft with my Christian faith!

I think, for starters, that it's important to remember that, like for everything else in life, how I've experienced this might not be how another Christian witch experiences it, views it, or even came about it. But I think that as Christians we can also understand that fairly easily, as that's just how a lot of us experience Christianity in and of itself. How one person came to Christ won't always be the same way that another person has come to Christ, and how we worship won't always look the same, either. It's just like that for Christian witches, too.

In an attempt to make a very long story short (spoiler alert: I failed), I feel like I am very lucky and blessed to have grown up with a Methodist mom, Southern Baptist father, aunts who were Catholic, cousins who became atheist and agnostic and friends at school who were Muslim and Jewish. I was surrounded by all sorts of different paths to take, and my mom had always encouraged my brother and I to choose our faiths for ourselves when we were old enough to understand what having faith really means, which is why we weren't baptized when we were babies, but raised in church nonetheless. I grew up very faithful. Sunday School was my favorite part of the week, and I loved to learn more about God and Jesus and say my prayers at meals and at night. God always made me feel loved. Still does 🩷

When I was in middle school, I was very, very traditional. I was open minded to others, but I was always hesitant to let myself explore more things for myself. I think I was afraid that exploring meant that I was a bad Christian, that I was questioning God, and I didn't want to make Him angry or upset with me. But I eventually met a friend who was a Wiccan, worshiping a god and goddess, living by the cycles of the moon and seasons, doing spells and rituals and worshiping at home or in nature. I loved things like that growing up, but always thought that it was just something from Hollywood or the mideavel period at best. I didn't think people actually did it, though I had always wished that they did. Little middle schooler me thought that maybe this was God's way of giving me permission to explore more, so I asked questions, watched spells and rituals, learned correspondences, and eventually asked, "Is there a Christian faith that's like this, too?"

Turns out there wasn't really one specific faith in Christianity that I could find, but rather, a practice instead. Google led me down so many different paths of people who were both Christians and witches and I decided I wanted to give it a try, too. And honestly? It felt like my faith was renewed. I felt like by choosing how I specifically worship and "do Christianity", I was making a relationship with God and Jesus and even the Holy Spirit that was closer than ever before because I was letting myself actually feel my faith instead of just going through motions at church, which was a rut than even middle school me was stuck in. I wasn't just doing what I thought I had to, I was doing what I wanted to do to show God my love and faith, and it really empowered me to form my own path in life, one that was and still is Christ centered, even if not in a way that tends to be expected for Christians.

So, the witchcraft itself: personally, I don't know if I view my spells an rituals the same way that other witches do. I don't really do a spell and think of it as me bending the wills that be to my desire, but rather, I view it as a really intense prayer. I see it as me using visual representations of my goals, needs and wants as a way to show God what it is I feel like I need (or just really, really want lol), but I always still leave it up to Him and His plans at the end of the day. I can do a thousand spells for the same thing over and over again, but if God says no, than the answer is no, ya know? My rituals are just ways to show my love, devotion, and gratitude. I pay special attention to seasons because the world God made is beautiful in all of its many ways, and personally, when I take the time to rest in the winter or come alive in the summer, I feel like I'm using the natural patterns of the Earth to further build my relationship with God, and Jesus, too. I feel like God made so many things in a natural rhythm and pattern--I just try to live by those things to strengthen the relationship between us.

I'm sure you can tell by how many times I've said it, but at the end of the day, it's all about my relationship with God and our Savior, just like for other Christians. I'm just doing things a bit differently. I'm 1000% that there are people who don't believe that this is a "valid" thing to do or that I'm sinning or that I'm going to Hell for all of this, but their opinions don't matter to me. My relationship with the Lord, His Son, and His Spirit matters to me, and when I do the things that make me feel the closest to Him, that make me feel His love and grace, then I feel like I'm doing fine.

Allllllll of that being said, there's lot of different ways that other Christian witches worship or practice witchcraft, which I think is really cool! There are some that have Mother Mary as a huge focus in their worship, or the Saints, or even the Disciples! I especially like witchcraft that involves the angels (Gabriel, my beloved 🤍). Personally, I steer clear of anything that involves demons or dark spirits and the like, but I'm always on the lookout for signs that angels are near or that the Lord is with me (which He always is, like he's always with you).

Unfortunately, I can't think of any sources or materials off the top of my head that would be good for further research. But maybe there are some other blogs on here that would have some good starting points, or would share their own views, too! You could search by denomination and then put witch after, like "Catholic witch" or Methodist witch", things like that. There are some books about Christian witchcraft, too, but personally I haven't read any of them. I think there might be come Christian witches on YouTube, too.

I hope this post made sense! If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask! 😊

God bless! 🕊

#also i didn't add this in but i feel like for me personally my path helped me see both the human and devine in jesus #a lot of times i just talk to Him like i do my best friends lmao #i was out of wine for my altar so i put water in my glass and flat out said #“listen i'm all out of wine but like you've turned water into wine before soooo enjoy. love you” #that being said i don't expect to see things like water being turned to wine but spiritually it was nice to acknowlege one of his miracles #i'm also not the type of witch to put my practice above medical intervention #you can use tea and herbs for a sore throat and fever but for gods sake if you have a broken bone go to doctor; ya know? #and like i do use crystals and tarot and candles but i feel like that would be an even longer post so i tried to keep it simply to spells #and rituals but if you'd like i could go farther into it if you're okay with rambling lmfao #anyway thank you for your ask and being so kind! i hope all is well with you! #asks #answered #christian witch

[prove-it-or-lose-it]

I'd like to think that my queer friends would consider me an ally, though it's not my place to self apply such a label. But when I see news like this, it's really hard for me to believe that we've progressed in any significant way with this move.

The Bible has been used throughout history to "other" people of many different walks of life. In some cases it's through a stretch of interpretation that believers can be led to ostracize members of different communities, but in so many others, as it has been with homosexuality, the holy book that they read from makes firm statements that it considers some people to be worth less than others.

Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13 both make it plainly clear according to the old testament that god hates homosexuality. There's a lot of hand-waving and back and forth debate about later passages and references within the new testament among scholars and laypeople alike, and what they may or may not have to say about homosexuality, but if we take the Bible at its word and believe (unwisely) that the words written were ever actually spoken by a man called Jesus, then Matthew 5:17-18 makes it clear that the old testament and everything in it is the foundation upon which he was teaching.

All this is to say that there's nothing in scripture that supports these "progressive" moves by heads of the many different denominations seeking to either retain their followers or indoctrinate new ones. This is part of an ongoing process of believers deciding which parts of this bronze age collection of fables they like and agree with, while ignoring the rest when it's convenient to do so. It's the reason why (using some quick googling) there are somewhere around at least 30,000 different denominations within the christian faith.

That's a huge number and it's intentionally lower than what I'm seeing in the search results; just an estimate, but it gives an idea of exactly how many different aspects of doctrine there are to disagree on so passionately; so many that there's not enough room in the singular label "christian" to accommodate for what exactly a person believes. For each move like the one reported on by this article, there's another splintering point. For each member of the United Methodist Church who is happy to welcome this change, there will be plenty of others who decide that this particular denomination no longer reflects what they believe, and so they will go and join another church.

I don't know how people can account for all of this dissonance and still keep their faith intact. If the head of one church says your queer identity is in accord with living a good life and such and such verse clearly states as much, while another points to a different verse and tells you you're going straight to hell, how do you maintain your belief in anything else this apparently contradictory book has to say? And if the book is so unclear on its stance on even one thing that could potentially see millions or even billions of people eternally punished for living their authentic lives, can we really call it the divinely inspired word of god? Wouldn't such a book be instantly crystal clear to anyone who has ever read it? Why would we even need a translation or interpretation?

As always, I'm left with questions while a myriad of people claim they have the answers. But hardly any of them agree with each other.

#skepticism #where's the evidence? #god on trial #lgbtqia #united methodist church #bible #scripture #christian doctrine #i'm still unconvinced

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

My father is not a church going man -- I don't know if he believed God but not church even. (The man was a damn vault when it came to information.)

And so we had my best friend, a Methodist pastor, which is what we all supposedly were (well maybe not my brother, he was never baptized or confirmed, and only involved in church for 6 weeks when my mother decided joining a friend who was very religious in service and youth group was an appropriate punishment for thinking about shoplifting -- he needed a refresher on the Commandments was her reasoning and the friend would make sure he paid attention and participated. One of her better moments as far as I was concerned, it was inspired) and ex Catholic priest. So the man knew his shit.

But he never really knew my dad despite his daughter being my best friend for 8 years. We didn't do family shit, and I didn't talk about him even after we connected -- like I said, he was a vault and I respected that instinctively I guess.

So the pastor had to ask us about him as a person. Now my mother should have been able to answer, they'd spent 26 years together and she loved him in a sick way. But all we could come up with was banal shit like his love of football.

And now at the oddest times, it strikes me what I could have said, should have said. That he'd take your secrets to the grave no matter how mad he got or how much he disliked you. That he could always calm me down in the most counter intuitive yet most effective way -- get even madder than I was at someone and my sense of fairness would kick in and I'd defend them, losing my anger and seeing their side. That he never made me feel like a disappointment even when yelling at me. That he never seemed to mind when I'd talk for hours or tune me out, even though he wasn't much of a talker for his own preferences. That he understood me when no one else did. That he spent his last hours in and out of anathesia, but every time he surfaced in recovery he apologized, and only later did I realize he meant for his failings rather than how he always apologized for falling asleep in chemo worried I'd be bored after giving up my whole day to sit with him. (Silly man, I brought books.) That he had the best work ethic i ever saw. That he meant every promise he made but just wasn't well enough to keep them. That he'd do anything for anyone, because he had the biggest heart. So much more.

That day, I missed everything that mattered, everything i wish everyone knew, especially those who never truly saw him.

So now maybe you'll see. And you'll know. Because he deserves to be remembered for the good and enough people already remember the bad.

#neil craig stewart #eulogy too late #my dad