When I'm really angry about a sermon at church ...

[struggle4progress]

Poll question: When I'm really angry about a sermon at church ...

[roguevalley]

1. My parents walked out when the Rev said you couldn't vote for

Kennedy because he was Catholic.

[struggle4progress]

2. Good for them. I should have walked out of a church I was visiting,

for the first time, the Sunday after 9/11/01, when the minister said that the WTC attack was G-d's punishment on America for tolerating gays. But I was shocked witless and sat there nicely until the end of the service -- though I then never, ever went back.

[Is It Fascism Yet]

14. WOW! Weren't your parents wonderful! I love them! n/t

[Wilms]

3. I just left...

It was the best thing I ever did to encourage spiritual development.

(Oh! It probably would help to mutter, "Forgive them Father. They know not...")

[supernova]

4. If you violently disagree with a sermon,

perhaps you're in the wrong church? :shrug: Just a suggestion.

I have disagree with sermons, before, but debate and argument, as they are in Judasim, are part of the Presby tradition. But I've never felt vomitous after listening to a Presby minister.

[struggle4progress]

8. I couldn't stay in a church where the sermons enraged me. But ...

... this poll was really motivated by recent speculation that the Wisconsin church shooter had originally been infuriated by a sermon.

[woodsprite]

5. Somehow we ended up with a real fundie substitute pastor

one Sunday. He would have been much more suited to a fire and brimstone tent revival. It did not go over well with our rather liberal presby. congregation. There were quite a few people who walked out of the sermon, some stayed but breezed past him in the receiving line, others actually shook his hand and told him how inappropriate they thought his sermon was.

Needless to say, he hasn't been back :)

[Alpharetta]

6. I earmark alternative offerings

"In lieu of my regular offering...

... in our church's name, to support the troops I am donating X dollars to the National Guard Family Relief Fund."

... in our church's name, to defend marriage I am donating X dollars to the Housing and Homeless Council which aids families on the verge of losing their house or apartment."

etc.

[YankeyMCC]

7. I don't have this problem anymore :)

But the last time it happened I called the rectory the next day to point out what I thought was inaproprate. I was too angry to say something that day.

[Igel]

9. None of the above.

I would talk to the minister to figure out if I understood him correctly, if he said what he intended to say, and where we disagreed. That pretty much invariably solved the problem.

And if I disagreed, well, it's danged hard to find a church with a well developed set of doctrines and theologies that I agree with on all points of detail.

[Tux]

10. My UU church

Allows us to discuss the sermon except today when we had a guest. Some Christian talked about jesus but refused to have a discourse on it and ran off before church was done.

[Poppyseedman]

11. I check out what the minister/pastor said

as compared what the Bible said.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

12. I let it slide. Honestly, I've never heard a sermon at my church

that made me angry. I've heard plenty that I didn't want to hear (but needed to).

[Is It Fascism Yet]

13. If you don't agree with the dogma, why continue to subject yourself to it?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

15. I never had this problem, but my father-in-law did

The family was visiting friends and went to church with them. When the preacher said something to the effect that only members from his church could be saved, my father-in-law stood up, said something to the effect that that was bull, gathered his family, and left. He died in a plane crash when my husband was a teenager, so I never met him, but I think he would've been an interesting character to know!

The last time I attended my church was when in Sunday School class some people made anti-Semetic remarks. I said that sort of thinking caused the Holocost and stormed out, never to return.

[Modem Butterfly]

16. I wonder...

...just how much I drank last night to wake up in a fucking church, since I'm an atheist.

:evilgrin:

[liberalinAZ]

17. Never had that problem

I've never had that problem because I am pretty sure my pastors are Democrats. I know the one who recently retired was. It isn't that they preach liberalism, they just don't teach conservative values and I can sort of tell by their sermons. One pastor makes fun of the people who act like Pat Robertson. One time I was talking with him and he called Bush "W" so that sealed it in my mind.

[CatholicEdHead]

18. Depends on the frequency

for me the only one was last Sept or Oct when there was a sub from Cathetheral in for a weekend. It was one just below the Bishop. He gave the anti-Kerry vieled "pro-life" sermon that was common on the web (but not my usual pastor) at the time.

If a sub does it, I will blow it off. If a newer priest starts doing it with higher frequency, I am gone to somewhere else.

[knitter4democracy]

19. Other.

I talk with my husband about it, and if I'm upset enough, I say something in hopes that I misunderstood his point. The thing is, we're a community of sinners. There's always going to be conflict and problems. Hopefully, though, we'll stay away from real nastiness and rancor over the small stuff (and most of it's small).