Religion has just been twisted and mangled beyond belief during the last 2000 years. We don't know what to believe in anymore.
The Christian faith was prosecuted from the very start. It's teachings, moved from the original disciples of Jesus, and it eventually reached the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was wary of these teachings as it greatly contradicted their belief of their Roman gods with roots to Greek Gods. There were severe prosecutions, including the death of several disciples and taking the blame for the Great Fire of Rome. Even with these prosecutions, Christianity began to spread. Some Romans believed it, some decided to stick with their religion, and some decided to believe neither, denying the belief/truth of a greater deity than they. Only by the year 325 did the prosecution stop and the Roman emperor declared the creation of the Council of Nicaea, the first Ecumenical Council, whom issued the Nicene Creed "One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church" Years later, Christianity was accepted as a state-religion, which was the contributing factor to the fall of Rome, due to the fact that at the time, Christianity was about spreading love and care and convert as many people as possible to become God's children, in which the Romans' misinterpreted, (It was hard for them at the time to accept a new religion) and led to the decline of Rome's unique cultural, military, and economic strength. This wasn't the MAIN factor though, as indigenous tribes were also attacking Rome in its weakened state. At this time, the church appointed bishops, whose jobs were to interpret the Bible into a lifetime doctrine and rebuking false regards of others. Most of the time, the interpretations of these bishops often contradicted each other and led to different support groups of these bishops and caused the branching of the Christian faith. One of these was Arianism, or in other words, today's religion. It gave the belief of Jesus Christ being a separate entity of God himself. This branch was (in my opinion ridiculously) based on Bible verses such as where Jesus says that the father is "greater than I" or "The Lord created me at the beginning of his work". This was shot down in Roman-Christain faith, but was quite popular underground for some time until the fall of Rome. In which Arianism rose again and became today's Catholic faith. (I didn't want to mention the other branches cause it would take too long)
Now let's forget about Rome for now and fast forward a few years.
The Crusades were military attempts at taking back the Holy Lands (Israel) from the Islamic race. It was also another attempt to spread Christianity again to the conquered lands of of the fallen Roman empire in which the Islamic people now reside. Basically the Pope called together an army and gave them the idea that they were fighting (and killing) for God. -disapproving face-
Not even 1500 years later and Christians are killing for god? Tsk tsk. SOMEONE is forgetting the 10 commandments.
I'm not even gonna tell you what the Crusaders did to the villages they slaughtered along the way....
As you can see, Christianity is not a true nor pure faith. It was twisted beyond the point of where we don't even remember the original idea of why Christianity was founded in the first place. That's why it pisses me off when half-butted "prophets" come and tell me something I didn't know about Jesus. And they won't even tolerate other religions. Screw them. NO ONE knows the true faith of Christianity anymore. No one is perfect. Humans make mistakes and they sure did it to Christianity. You can't know for sure if someone is going to Hell or not based on their actions because remember, something you do in your life may condemn you to hell, whether it exists or not. It's the same deal with Islam. Their true purpose was to spread peace and love, but terrorists extremists just warp that into excuses into attacking and terrorizing people.
I'm not saying Atheism is true, nor is Islam. I am a devoted Catholic but the forcing of religion unto other people just contradicts Christianity history.
What do you people think?
This is heavily why I'm considering the Anabaptist faith for my family. They basically just cut the fluff and rooted back to early Christian principals. I just wish there was an Eastern Orthodox church that skipped out on the "fluff" and lived the way the early Christians did. There were those who were not persecuted, and lived very similar to the Anabaptists.
You must be aware that Baptists are also Anabaptists. Also, there are many non-Anabaptist Christians who strive to live a simple, Godly life. Finally, the lives of the Mennonites and Amish are not as simple as they seem at first glance.
I completely disagree. Baptists are NOT Anabaptists. There is a world of difference in both theology and acceptance of protestantism.
Agree that there are other Christians that live a simple Godly life, but not so much in a group.
Also what you are saying about Mennonites and Amish makes no sense as if I don't understand how they live. I've lived with them for a time as well as attended their churches. I've read with them, dined with them, and our children are friends with them. I often converse & spend time with them. I am on a first name basis with countless Old order Mennonites. They are simple in their ways as they want to be. They can be complex in reasoning, but simplicity left in focus of God. Perfect people no. But I've also been around EO Christians too... Believe me, a world of difference on a general basis and not specific.
My family has adopted their dress and we have been asked several times with open arms to join their church.
We do not have TV, nor the influence of TV for several people who keep mentioning it. No TV's in our house. LOL
Internet is a tool only, no entertainment.
We have only a cell phone for emergencies and do not talk on the phone.
Everything is in letter format to family members & friends. Half hand written.
Simplicity does have a complex backing, but at face value can be as simplistic as one wants to know it. For instance (just a mere example of a specific and does not apply to everybody) -
COMMUNICATION from the telephone:
How many people call family & friends because they are driving around in a car? They let their voice mail pick up calls and then call back when they are driving with nothing else to do? Too much of a rush of life, and casting off friends and family in the time of your boredom. Often this can create a narcissistic understanding of the time of others, whether we know it or not. Consider when people do this that "Our time is important to only us, and somebody else's time can wait until I'm ready".
People don't think like this because they see a phone as harmless. Amish & Mennonites understand these things, and are hesitant to accept the technology until they understand the full effects of it. Many Anabaptists just in simplicity say "If I can't write it or speak it, I don't need it".
This is why Anabaptist communities keep a phone shanty booth for entire communities. If a phone call is important enough, you have to get off your hind end, and walk to the booth to do it. Usually it is only used in emergencies or tough situations.
Otherwise for communication and updates, letters are the way. Why letters? Because when was the last time you got a hand written letter from somebody who loved you enough to take the time out of their life to write you a letter and the things that they had to say were important enough to write down? We don't get this through the telephone. It's dial the number and start talking. Simply read books about older times and you'll find when families updated each other through letters entire households gathered around the letter the person wrote.
Today we facebook by ourselves.
Anyway, Amish & Mennonites don't just "shun" new technology, they are just hesitant to accept it because they feel we don't know the long term results of using it.
Have you ever asked yourself why the divorce rate today is so high?
Has divorced increased exponentially since the 1950's when television, radio, music, movies, video games and other media has had a heavier impact and time in our lives? YES.
Has the Eastern Orthodox divorce rate gone up since the 1950's with the rest of society (not at the same level %)? YES.
Has the Anabaptist divorce rate gone up since the 1950's with the rest of society? No it hasn't.
Many relationships are boiling down to merely what somebody can see through a screen today. Texting, cell phones, IM's, facebook... Hollowness in families with TV as their central focus.
Amish & Mennonites at least have a means of protection against these things which are not to accept new technology until they understand the impact of it.
So yes, its simple. Yet the understanding of it can be complex.