church matt a place of worship for some form of diety. 990625 ... Lamont the church of jesus christ of latter day saints wants to give me a bible. i told them to go away or i'd hurt them 990626 ... poot The Three Pillars to building strong, competent, mature, responsible people are family, church and school. With most of the youth having only one of these, school, is it any wonder things have come to the state they are in? 990627 ... Heidi75 a building that tries to contain a God that is far too big and powerful for such a small cage 990627 ... Lothaine Get 'em while they're young. Keep them for life. 990720 ... benji "Asylum for one is a padded cell. Asylum for many is a church." 990902 ... Morpheus a place that should be (though it sometimes isn't, only because of human sin.) a house of grace. a building under which a group of people grow in the knowledge of The One, Jesus, who served first. 000204 ... old hick What more can you say about church? It begins with a consonant cluster and it ends with a consonant cluster. I think that pretty much sums up the whole dirty mess. 000209 ... camille the place within ones' self where communion with god, takes place. It is "not" a building. 000210 ... MollyGoLightly a nice, solid word. it could be in a building. i like the mormon temple in san diego. i'll never get in there, of course, but i can look at it all i want. it could be in your bathroom. it could be in your sheets or on the sidewalk. 000323 ... ... I believe in God, but not in church 000415 ... rabbit of the morning camille, you are so awesome. 000415 ... camille rabbit of the morning, (soft smile) you are too kind 000416 ... daxle I always wondered what that castle on the hill was, and one time my grandma came to visit us and she said she was going there, and I asked to go, being uninformed on the ways of mormons, and of course was carefully put down as if there weren't enough reasons to call them ridiculous... 000610 ... camille http://www.slonet.org/~rloomis/shepchp.wav 001121 ... god camille- that is gripping. what's it from??? 001121 ... camille God, i believe it actually happened .. a church service was in progress and being taped and someone spoke up and said blasphemy.. it showed the preacher motioning as he slid his finger across his throat to motion the camera's off... well i believe it captured more than he expected.. (I actually saw the video clip on tv) I found it on this wav page: http://www.slonet.org/~rloomis/odd.html Clay goes on to describe the content as follows: This is a clip featuring Pastor Arnold Murray, of the Shepherd's Chapel church. During the broadcast, someone obviously arrives off camera and yells "Blasphemy!" Sounds of a struggle can be heard as well. Pastor Arnold brings his finger across his throat to try and cut taping, but before they can cut away, the good pastor whips open his briefcase, pulls out a pistol and......... Well, just give a listen. No cheek turning here. This is pure Old Testament stuff. Don't ask me what happened to the boy. This clip goes right up to the end of the broadcast and I know nothing of what happened afterward Thank you for listening 001121 ... i even tried to bargain to be taken in their place a place and entity i once aspired to serve. the place i have not willingly set foot since i watched my mother drift painfully out of this existence, beatific in her devotion even at the very end, following my father who went five years before her thus was my quarrel brought to a boil thus did i become as a devil among men 001121 ... jennifer god is pretty damn cool church... not so much 001121 ... Chrity go to: i_have_words 010408 ... The Truth A church is the house of God. The Church is not the building, as many people have come to believe. A Church is unified network of believers of the same truth. I think people are confused because they think house/building and they associate the two together. But that's not correct. A churchhouse is what it used to be called, then people just sort of started truncating the whole word, referring to the building as a church. The actual church, the actual "House of God" is within the believers themselves. They are God's temple. God dwells inside the church members. The electrochemical super-thought factory known as our brain is much more biologically complex and phenomenal than some 2x4's, carpet, and some paint. God is the god of Life, not construction. He is life, and He lives within all living things. You can definately tell the difference between a church (where God's presence can be felt, there is an electricity in the air, and the people are "real") and a cult (where the people are miserable, the member's know nothing about Love, and there may be a few movie camera's, and a charismatic preacher.) A church generates love. A cult generates money. 010604 ... damaged I asked you who You said just one I asked you what you said just believe i asked you when you said constantly i asked you where you said in my heart i asked you why you said just have faith i asked you how and you didn't say anything. 020228 ... unhinged daddy said be careful when he sent me off to the big city but i wasn't a kid i would take care of myself i always rolled my eyes at him i would be okay i always was i wasn't a kid and i spent my realized childhood listening to noisy rock bands in depressed bars of dead steel towns where i learned how to pray for salvation where i learned how to cry where i stumbled through the valley of love and the valley of the highest suicide rate in the tri-state area in wet-cat rainy days grey i learned to carry marks at the wrist and when to give_up and the more cocaine nosejobs i got used to the straighter i walked standing my sanctuary of hate passing of a naivete i lost all i was ever looking for and never found but prayed to stay whole losing the last pastel pieces of me daddy said to be careful and the world showed me what he meant he never wanted anything to force me to my knees 020228 ... Ivonna H. Inside everything was dark. That light so many had talked about seemed to be hiding or not even there. Some people will say that it's only a metaphor, but this only makes things get more complicated. The only feeling that I could actually understand was fear. Religious freaks- But one must never generalize, and i agree, let's not. Nevertheless, those that are taught to respect other seems to disrespect them the most. Hipocresy... maybe. Or maybe it's just a cover. As i walked outside i looked around and still, all i saw in that enormous church was darkness, not a ray of light. I walked outside and felt the warm sun caressing my skin ounce again. 020301 ... yummyC when i was little, I only went to church when i happened to be with my grandparents on sunday morning. I went to sunday school, when i did show up, and I was always grouchy. ijust hated it. Once I rippe up all the little worksheets they gave me and screamed. must've looked like a little devil child. guess that isnt too far off. 020302 ... Trig Perhaps church is the answer. Or perhaps I should look within myself for the answer. Hm, that sounds like I read it somewhere. 020909 ... PiX Kake pissed in the church parking lot one night,on our way to retrieve our bong out tha bushes..she was piss drunk n it was funny..we got spotted by the black cleaning lady who i think had a stroke or somethin'...that wAs a huge bitch too believe me...n we ran...it seems so long ago now 030118 ... god i jerked off on a church wall once 040102 ... freaked1 thats pleasant 040315 ... bobthebumb meow 040315 ... Zsiga MollyGoLightly: " a nice, solid word. it could be in a building. i like the mormon temple in san diego. i'll never get in there, of course, but i can look at it all i want. it could be in your bathroom. it could be in your sheets or on the sidewalk. " 000323 I feel that way, Molly. Churches are among the most beautiful buildings on the planet. Every religion has a type of church/temple. I like to admire them from afar, because i don't have a religion. I gain peace from knowing they exist, and that it gives something to those that need it. I like to visit churches, mostly when no one is speaking. and when i'm not reading, why the church wants me there. i am there because i simply am there. there are no words to describe it, only that a spirit that cannot be defined, has brought me to that place. 040404 ... pete there is always someone watching, waiting to get me when i don't suspect it. how many nightmares have i had where i am knifed by a phantom while sitting alone in a church? how many times have i run out of the basement so fast that i fall up the stairs? how many unfelt tears have fallen from my face because of the fear that someone is behind me. waiting for me. ready to take me where i dont want to go. i am afraid of churches, though i will enter them for important things such as a wedding, a baptism (poor baby without a choice), a funeral.. at the request of one of my few dear friends. (there are 4 or 5 of them). nothing else will get over the fear of those cursed buildings! I just want to scream: "GET ME NOW! STOP PLAYING WITH MY MIND! END THIS TORMENT." I don't, I won't. The nightmares have faded to memory, though churches still scare me. 040404 ... .fallen the temple stands in ruins... time to rebuild .... time to restore 040404 ... camille the carrier pigeons flew 040506 ... Deomis I can remember the bell ringing in its high tower, a deep reverberation calling out to all the people. The sun would flit through the trees surrounding the pale white building; appearing to be some tangible substance for but a second before moving onward. Those were the perfect days, when youth was in its blossom and I knew nothing of the world outside my little town. But now, time has gathered its payment, and the innocence of youth has fled my mind. The church's once white walls have turned grey with the rain and dirt of the years. The trees are twisted limbs protruding from the barren earth. All former glory gone. The bell is chipped and worn, I will ne'er again hear its tolling. The town lies silent and dead, all its residents deceased or gone elsewhere. This once innocent town of beauty has been laid to ruin by the perversion of the world. Now vile and ill-kempt, all hope of saving mercy has been destroyed. 040506 ... minnesota_chris I walked out of church again. It was a dramatic act for rather undramatic reasons. It was a fundraising sunday. The sermon was given by some non-pastor, and it was chock full of sports metaphors or war metaphors or whatnot. I don't remember it at all, except that it was rather rabid and nonreligious. To ease the pain of such an awful service, they had a bluegrass band. They sang songs that weren't really about God. "I'll fly away", "Down to the River to Pray", popular old-timey songs that aren't really being sung to God. When I'm in church, I like to meditate on God, worship God, thank God. As the bible says, to set my thoughts on God. These songs weren't about any of those things. During the awful sermon, I looked at the bass player. I recognized him as a guy I used to work with. A real jerk (I lost a job to him), and also an atheist. He was doing it for the show. It was just a gig to him. Later, he recognized me, and was looking at me. For me to listen in a band in concert, they have to be one thing: in tune. And this band was very pretty sounding. For me to listen to someone in church, however, they don't have to be in tune. They don't have to be good. But they do have to believe what they are singing. So, after the awful sermon, when the band was getting revved up on "Amazing Grace", I walked out again. I guess I'm too much of a punk. Rebel. I dunno, maybe hardcore? 040507 ... somebody Sounds like a good enough reason to me. 040511 ... god fuck_you_i'm_going_to_church 040929 ... maia I hate it when a church looks like a warehouse. The surroundings should lift your heart and mind to God, but with some of these newer buildings I think the intent was the opposite. 050128 ... smurfus rex that Shepherd's Chapel link was dead, but luckily, there was another site that had it. It was kinda hard to track down, but it was worth the search. I wish I could find the video clip... but more to the point, I would have to agree that there's something not right with calling an aluminum warehouse a church. It doesn't have to be Notre Dame Cathedral, but you should be able to tell it's a church without looking at the sign... 050129 ... dreamer an aluminum church is fine, in some places a church meets in a house, a hut, or just in a field. Truthfully a cathedral is merely a building if no one goes there. It could have thousands of religous markings, but not be a church. the people that congregate and worship are the church. 050301 ... shield56 Is cool. I can worship, I can praise. It's not boring like loads of people think. Meeting people who share your beliefs can only be a good thing. 050401 ... H. L. Mencken "A church is a place in which gentlemen who have never been to heaven brag about it to persons who will never get there." 081130 what's it to you? who go blather from