My family isn't very religious so I never went to church or anything. I've always liked studying different religions though so I'm probably more into those topics than most people. I wouldn't say I'm exclusively Christian though.
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Jesus had his OWN definition of discipleship, and it's simple and very clear:
LOVE encompasses it all: protection of children (and not just of children), planning and preparing for the future, honest dealings in business and in one's personal life, fidelity in marriage, putting one's fellow humans above material goods and gain . . . you name it.
LOVE is the one-word, all-inclusive concept that defines the real-world, here-and-now aspects of Christianity, imo, and I highly recommend it as a goal to strive for and as a course of action.
There are also what I think of as supernatural elements to Christianity, and perhaps due to my own quirks, I've never been able to embrace those elements.
When I was young, I had a chip on my shoulder about this. My views have changed as I have become aware how differently people experience and conceptualize what they see and hear and feel.
Is God an old man with a long white beard living, somehow, up in the sky? That's how adults seemed to view Him when I was in Sunday School and church as a child, and it . . . just didn't work for me. Many of those same adults were neurotic and often unpleasant -- to children and to other adults . . . because, of course, BELIEF in a religion or any other system does not erase emotional damage. Emotional HEALTH and the resulting healthy BEHAVIOR is what I am interested in. It's what I want for myself, what I want for others, and what I want to see in the world.
And THAT is and has always been more important to me than a particular religion or other conceptual framework.
For that matter, I believe that a healthy WORLD in the here-and-now was at the least a big part of what Jesus wanted as well, and what he willingly gave his life to help bring into being. Listen to what He says in Luke 17:21 and see if you can't feel the compassion and the longing for a loving, healthy world -- IN THIS WORLD -- for the children and men and women of his time, and of those who would come after:
Luke: 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
This thread needs a book (or several) to cover more than superficially, so I'll leave it at that, but add one thing:
My sense is that most the those on this board are doing their best -- and often better than I -- to feel and to show love to their fellow human beings, whether they came up in a Christian household, or Hindu or Jain or any other tradition, including "atheist." That's all I care about, and I think it's all we can reasonably ask of anyone.