Leaving the faith for societal reasons acceptable or is there another way?

[nobspeople]

Kudos to him!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mormon-billi ... 58255.html

If you disagree with your faith's views on things like women's rights, LGBTQ+ issues, race issues, etc., is this the best thing to do, or is there another way you can stay in your faith (rather or not you stay in your 'church') and still be a champion to these issues, or is this the best way?

[benchwarmer]

... is there another way you can stay in your faith (rather or not you stay in your 'church') and still be a champion to these issues ...

One could do the time honored tradition of creating a new denomination

[nobspeople]

... is there another way you can stay in your faith (rather or not you stay in your 'church') and still be a champion to these issues ...

One could do the time honored tradition of creating a new denomination

Now THAT'S a good idea. But being that he's giving away most of his money, I doubt he's in it 'for the money'.
But who knows?!

[TRANSPONDER]

Kudos to him!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mormon-billi ... 58255.html

If you disagree with your faith's views on things like women's rights, LGBTQ+ issues, race issues, etc., is this the best thing to do, or is there another way you can stay in your faith (rather or not you stay in your 'church') and still be a champion to these issues, or is this the best way?

Good question. It isn't common but I have come across examples of Christians who expressed problems with the socio -political views being expressed from their church pulpits. Without going into details, their inclination was to find another church that suited their views. It was never a case of doubting themselves away from religion. Indeed one was a very interesting case study with asking for advice or opinions at least about things wrong with what he was being told in Church, and he slipped into "Agnosticism" as it was called and then, when he had settled into a non - religious God -belief (having abandoned Christianity) he stiffened his attitude towards us atheists and became even more abusive, unreasonable and denialist and plainly because he had no Bible or Dogma to argue, but not a lot more than 'Atheism bad'. Which of course required a truckload of dumping onto Atheism and insisting that he knew better 'what was wrong with us' than atheists and atheism. He couldn't budge or concede anything because abusing atheism was his only argument, really.

Anyway of course the Better Way (as Paul might call it, as though He knew) would be doubting through reason. Doubting the credibility of the Bible is the way I'd like better, but the fact is that the Problem of evil is an equal deconverter in thinking about the Bible and Christianity as a guide to Life as doubting that what it says is credible as actual events (1) And, apart from doubting that the god of the Bible can be as described (that is, logically impossible) doubting the worth of the Religions - or at least some manifestations of it. But, like I say, that way may just leads to a different church or even religion, or to "Agnosticism" (irreligious Theism) as much as leaving Godfaith altogether.

(1) the slip from Bible literalism into pick and mix Christianity is a whole other discussion.

[nobspeople]

[Replying to TRANSPONDER in post #4]

Thanks for the input

the slip from Bible literalism into pick and mix Christianity is a whole other discussion.

I feel that this is something that can be addressed here, in this discussion, as, to put it simply, it's happened in the past and created a myriad of different denominations we see today and, sometimes, even different groups within the same denomination (at least for a time).

I think this option (pick and mix, as you call it) is a very viable option that allows people to stay within their faith while being socially conscious. It seems to me, only a small % of people 'override' this option and causes they to leave the faith entirely. Rather or not that's a good thing is, most likely, a whole other discussion for sure.

But just my 2¢

[1213]

...If you disagree with your faith's views on things like women's rights, LGBTQ+ issues, race issues, etc., is this the best thing to do, or is there another way you can stay in your faith (rather or not you stay in your 'church') and still be a champion to these issues, or is this the best way?

I would also resign from a group that I don't agree with.

[historia]

If you disagree with your faith's views on things like women's rights, LGBTQ+ issues, race issues, etc., is this the best thing to do, or is there another way you can stay in your faith (rather or not you stay in your 'church') and still be a champion to these issues, or is this the best way?

By 'faith' here I assume you mean denomination, and by 'church' you mean your local congregation. (I would tend to use the term 'church' to refer to the denomination, so will do so below.)

For Protestants in this position, the easier (and perhaps better) thing to do is to leave your current evangelical church and switch your membership to one the mainline Protestant churches, which already hold liberal views on social issues.

The guy in the article is in a very different boat, however, in that, being Mormon, there really isn't a viable liberal Mormon denomination to switch to -- the Community of Christ (née Reorganized Church) has gone down that route, but is a small, largely regional, denomination.

The Mormon Church, like most high-demand religions, has a leadership structure that makes it challenging for would-be reformers to make changes. You're more likely to be expelled from the Mormon Church for speaking out than to affect the kind of change you want to see. So going at reform from the outside, as he has done, might be more effective.

Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians are somewhere in between those two poles, with the Roman Catholic Church in particular having rather liberal priests and bishops in large parts of western Europe and North and South America. In those traditions, it may be better to seek reform from within, although it would be a very tough row to hoe in Orthodoxy.

[JehovahsWitness]

I would of course leave and religion whose central tenets I could not agree with. The majority of Jehovahs Witnesses were not raised in the faith but have already joined from other religions (or were atheists or agnistics that changed their views).

There is no shame in recognising one was mistaken.







JW


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[Tcg]

I would of course leave and religion whose central tenets I could not agree with. The majority of Jehovahs Witnesses were not raised in the faith but have already joined from other religions (or were atheists or agnistics that changed their views).

There is no shame in recognising one was mistaken.

But there is a big price to pay when one recognizes they were mistaking about accepting the teachings of JWs or other Christian sects that practice shunning or excommunication or whatever it is that JWs call shunning.


Tcg

[JehovahsWitness]

[
But there is a big price to pay when one recognizes they were mistaking about accepting the teachings of JWs or other Christian sects that practice shunning or excommunication or whatever it is that JWs call shunning.

CAN JWs BE SHUNNED SIMPLY BECQUSE THEY CHOSE TO NO LONGER BE PART OF THE ORGANISATION?

If by that you are implying that Jehovahs Witnesses shun/ disfellowship members because they choose to leave our religion that is incorrect. Anyone that is a baptised member can simply stop coming to our church and after 6 months is no longer counted as a member.



FURTHER READING

Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Shun Those Who Used to Belong to Their Religion?
https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/shunning/





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Can a Jehovah's Witnesses be shunned for no other reason but that they chose to walk away from'the organisation ?
viewtopic.php?p=1060595#p1060595

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