...Never Went To Church The loss of a family member can be a hard thing to deal with, and some people get despaired by whether they should start to believe in something - a religion, to help them get through the rough times. This is what Mike Skinner does in the song “Never Went to Church” from 2006, which is dedicated to his late father. Skinner finds help in his father - even though he is not with him anymore. The loss of his father makes him consider the thought of going to church, and at least he decides to take his advice. He is going to hedge his bets by visiting a priest, a rabbi and a protestant clergyman - he is trying to find something to believe in. Skinners loss makes him go through a thousand thoughts about what he has left to remind him of his father. He is afraid that he has lost him ‘for good’ - that he does not have anything at all left. At first he cannot find anything to remind him, but the more he thinks about it, the closer he comes to the conclusion that he actually does have something; himself: “I guess then you did leave me something to remind me of you, every time I interrupt someone like you used to do, if I do something like you, you’ll be on my mind all through because I forgot, you left me behind to remind me of you” (p. 2 ll. 13 - 14). Skinner realizes that he has himself to remind him of his father, because they have some of the same traits and habits. The whole song trough, Skinner sings about how his father was and what he is supposed to...
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...Hughes is a short narrative story about his experience being ‘saved’ while attending church with his Auntie Reed. He was going on thirteen years of age at the time and he tells us about how he felt as he waited for Jesus to make an appearance before him. His Auntie Reed’s church was holding a big revival during the week. Many sinners were being brought before Christ. Before the revival is to end, they are having a special meeting just for children. Auntie Reed is very excited for him to be there and be brought before Jesus. She tells him that when you’re saved, you’ll see a light and feel something inside of you that has never been present before. Hearing from many older people before, he had believed what she was telling him. As he sits on the mourner’s bench inside this hot crowded church waiting for Jesus, he listens to the preacher sing songs and preaches. At the end, the preacher holds out his arms and calls out to the young lambs to come to Jesus. Some went up right away while others waited and remained sitting on the bench. The older people in the church began to sing and got the whole church in an uproar. Then the remaining of the children went up before Jesus and was saved except for two. Langston and another young boy named Westley. It was getting late and Westley was tired of sitting and went up to be saved. Langston was sitting alone now as everyone in the church was calling for him on up to Jesus. As everyone continued to call for him to go up...
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...I have always had a struggle with organized religion. I have grown up in a household with a religious mother and a non-practicing father. Having moved a lot during my teenage years I was never able to gain a strong foothold in a new environment before it was time for my family to move again. I was taught that the basic principle behind 1 Corinthians 7:14-24 was to “bloom where you are planted.” This was a difficult concept to grasp as my “planting” never actually took place. I was a life- long traveler. As I continued going through life in two or four year chunks (middle school, high school, college) I moved further and further away from God. It was a concept that was non-existent in my everyday life. I have grown apart from the church and my family never questioned my actions. I’ve grown to despise organized religion, especially the Catholic Church. Growing up as a rebel in a Catholic household, I maintained the religious traditions that allowed my family to sit and enjoy each other’s company; Christmas Eve was one of them. Since I was a kid I had issues believing in God. I believed in what the Catholic Church taught me because, as a kid, I had no other choice. Throughout middle school, I wondered what god would allow my parents and myself deal with the pain and hurt that comes from our experiences at the time, immigration, homelessness, lack of funds. We were cut off from the entirety of the family, alone in a foreign land. The stress this caused created less than desirable...
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...clothing. At time this got St. Francis into a lot of trouble. Francis never actually felt satisfied in life until he was a prisoner of war. At that time God appeared to him in jail. Jesus told Francis, “Go Francis and repair my house, which as you can see is falling into ruin.’’ Francis restored the church in 1206 . It is now called San Damiano. It was there that Francis wrote the Canticle of the Creatures- The Hymn of Thanksgiving to God. Francis gave up everything to serve God. To show his Bishop how serious he was about wanting to lead the life of a religious, he even stripping naked in front of the Bishop and asked him for forgiveness. Francis’ parents were not happy about this, but this action gave Francis the courage to begin to live his life for Christ. San Damiano became the...
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...When first starting this project I found something out that I never really thought about before. The people I know are either a domination of Christianity, a form of Buddhist or non-believers. My longtime friends are mostly non-believers and a couple that are Zen Buddhists. A majority of my family are Christians while the remaining minor are non-believers. It seems that my social group is not very diverse in religious aspects. Of course this may change with my online friends but I decided to leave them out for this project as it may be hard to attend a religious event with them. The two religions I choose to write about were almost chosen by default, Christianity and Zen Buddhism. As I said previously my social group is shallow in the...
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...being involved with his children, being involved in the Church, and not being power-hungry. Having a father who demonstrates these qualities is important, and it gave Louis many lessons on how to be a good Christian king. The first lesson regards being learned. A good king should make a strong effort to learn other languages beside his own native tongue. Charlemagne demonstrated this quality well, as is seen in the text: “He … was such a master of Latin that he could speak it as well as his native tongue; …” Charlemagne learned Latin and Greek. He was also very learned in the liberal arts. He spent much time learning about other...
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...there is one more person. Therefore I think Lord Capulet is to blame for Romeo and Juliet's death because of the way he forced the whole situation of Juliet marrying somebody she didn't love. Lord Capulet told Juliet who she was going to marry which was Paris. "Doth she not count her blest"(813). The quote explains Capulet saying it's a blessing to marry Paris and him only because I picked him out. "Get thee to Church a Thursday"(813). The quote explains how Lord Capulet set the date that Juliet is getting married. That date only and that day and time. "But fettle your fine joints gainst Thursday next to go with Paris to saint peters Church, or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither"(813). The quote explains how if Juliet doesn't go to Saint Peters church on Thursday morning he will drag her there. Lord Capulet also tried to put a guilt trip on Juliet to marry Paris. "I tell thee what get thee to church a Thursday or never after look me in the face. Speak not, reply not, do not answer.(Page 813) The quote is explaining how if Juliet doesn't marry Paris she will never be allowed to talk to him ever again. "Hang thee, young baggage. Disobedient wretch!!" (813). Capulet is calling her awful names in hopes she changes her mind and know her wrong. "Unworthy as she is that I've have wrought so worthy a gentleman to be her bride"(813). Capulet is basically saying that Juliet is unworthy which is like waste of space and energy. He is saying why not marry perfection but try and marry imperfection...
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...I had a life changing experience when I started going to church, and taking discipleship class. I developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I learned to build Christlike character, and achieve spiritual victory. In my family going to church was something we did faithfully. I can remember as a little girl every Saturday and, Sunday we would have Morning Prayer at Grandmother’s house. I like going to church, but I didn’t like going every Sunday. When I was a teenager, I would tell myself, when I get older, and move away, I’m never going to church again. When I was eighteen I moved to Atlanta, and I did that exactly, I stopped going to church. At first it was good, I enjoyed my Sundays, working, relaxing, or just doing nothing. Some Saturday nights, I stayed out late, partied knowing that there would be no prayer or church first thing Sunday morning. I did this for many years went by, I didn’t attend church while living in Atlanta. Then one day I started feeling like something was missing from my life, I started missing going to church. First I had to find a church, one that I would enjoy praise, worship and the sermon. I sent out to find that church, and I did that. I went for a little while as a visitor and I joined church at Voices Of Faith. One Sunday, an announcement was made for discipleship class, I didn’t know what the class was about, but I was curious after church I spoke to a representative, and I signed up. Little did I know that the classes were every...
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...very well. As many would have set traditions, my family observed everything around them. I remember eating at variety of different restaurants such as Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, and the regular American style restaurants. One thing my parents were very good at is changing variety of food to receive the taste of different cultures. My parents never discriminated against any other race. They brought us up to love everyone and be very respectful. In the church atmosphere, my parents went to many different churches throughout my teenage years because they felt as if they needed to find where they belong in the church. I also believe that every church we went to, the Baptist religion became very hypocritical. We soon found a church that we since belong too and my parents attend very often, and it is a non-denominational church, where they accept the way they are. This church opens my eyes to what I believed in and I began to like it much better. They did not judge you, they spoke of their pass experience and how God helped them through the tragic times and people were open and honest and everyone accepted everyone with open arms. I liked that church better because it gave the people the feeling regardless of your past experiences such as alcoholism, drug abuse or any other problems that you...
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...With A Retired Catholic Priest What is Catholicism? I come from a long line of Irish Catholics, but was never raised in the church because my father was excommunicated when he was 13 years old in his home country of Ireland. He never spoke of the church or his excommunication until I was an adult, and as a result, the Catholic Church was a mystery to me. Couple this with the fact that I was raised in a southwestern copper town that was populated predominatly with Mexican Americans who were of the Catholic persuasion. The attiutde amongst the people that I grew up with was that if y0our weren’t Catholic, then you were simply not in the club, and they were not willing to explain any of the “mysterious ways” of the Catholic Church to anyone not of the faith. I was sixteen years old before I ever stepped into a Catholic church for the first time, and that was for a schoolmate’s funeral. Nobody explained what a funeral mass was, and what was going on, so, as the only unelightened one there, I stuck out like a sore thumb. This paper is for all of those other “unelightened souls” out there who might have questions as to the Catholic faith. The interview section of this paper was conducted with Father Gregory Francis Patterson (ret.). A retired Catholic priest, who it was my privledge to be introduced to by a mutual friend. He still has a deep abiding love for the “Mother Church” as he puts it, and was a font of much wisdom and information, for which I am eternaly greatful. Catholicism...
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...Mr. Weaver Religion 101 9 April 2015 Assignment #2- Field Assignment For this assignment, I decided to visit Lexington Baptist Church. This experience was much different than anything I had previously experienced because as I stated in my previous essay regarding my religion and experiences, I have only ever gone to one church. I have not visited other churches other than a Catholic church, and it was very similar to my Lutheran services. The Baptist church I visited was Southern Baptist, and I have always wanted to sit in on one of their services. I decided to go on Easter because I could visit Lexington Baptist, and then go straight to my church and compare the similarities and differences. Going into this assignment, I was not sure if there were going to be enough differences, but there are quite a few. Since I went on Easter, the messages were the same, but the delivery was so unique that it made the whole message sound different. For example, the preacher at Lexington Baptist took the message of the stone in front of Jesus’ tomb, and related it to his congregation. He stated that, like Jesus, we all have stones blocking us in life. At my Lutheran service, the message was not related to us in our personally lives, but rather focused on how Jesus died for all of us and the story of what happened on Good Friday. While the basic messages were the same, the perspective that each denomination took were quite different. I also found it very interesting that instead...
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...Johnny showed traits of bravery. He showed bravery because first, he saved kids from a fire in a church, kept Ponyboy healthy in the church, and fought off SOCS. If Johnny didn’t do these types of things, then Ponyboy would be in some big trouble. The first reason why I think Johnny is brave is because he fought off the Socs to save Ponyboy. I know this because on page 56 in chapter 4, it stated “ He pulled my arm and twisted it behind my back, and shoved my face in the fountain. The Next thing I knew I was lying on the pavement coughing water and gasping. “I killed him”, said Johnny.” This piece of evidence shows Johnny saved Ponyboy because the Socs were drowning Ponyboy and Johnny save Ponyboy by killing a Soc named Bob. If Johnny wasn’t brave enough to fight against these big, strong, furious Socs than Ponyboy would have died. This all proves Johnny is brave because he fought off the Socs when they were drowning Ponyboy. But if he didn’t do that, then something bad would’ve happened....
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...Range: 5-74 Character’s Name (you’re interviewing): Dally Question: Why did you slap Ponyboy when he came home? Response: In my opinion the reason why I slapped him is because he came home late. Ponyboy never come home late but it was very late and I stayed up all night waiting for him to come home and then when he got home we got into an argument. And the out of nowhere I slapped him....
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...I transferred schools. I was never really an outgoing person I was always quiet and kept to myself I also never really had anyone to hangout with I would always float around to groups but never really had a true friend, grade 7 was the toughest year of my life, the bullying got bad and was diagnosed with depression and GAD but now i'm cured. Elementary school was tough but I made...
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...marriage. I didn’t know until after she got married that my dad was on drugs. When he was sober they got along great, but she would always ask him what made him change towards her at times. My dad would never answer her. One night after work, as my mother open the door and found him at the kitchen table sniffing cocaine. She confronted him about it and that led to an altercation. Very confused and hurt, my mother told him that she was leaving. It was at that time he threatened to take her life if she left him. My mother never believed that he would go that far, so she never paid him any attention. On October 1, 1999 they had another altercation about him not coming home the night before. He didn’t feel like he needed to give her a reason for why he stayed out. He started punching her and choking her until she fainted. When she woke up he was gone. He didn’t stay around to see if she was dead or alive. After this incident my mother was afraid to leave so she stayed because she thought that it would have gotten better because he would always apologize. Things did get better for a few months and he changed, so she thought. They started attending church regularly. My mother thought everything was going good until two months later he wanted to go out with his friends. He went into the bathroom and when he came out he was another person. When she told him that he wasn’t going, he pushed her head through the panel wall. Knowing what he had done, he left...
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