Answers to Sunday School Questions, Part 7

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 Last Summer, we took up questions from our Adult Sunday School Class at First Presbyterian Dyersburg, Tennessee.  I have adapted the answers I gave in articles in the church newsletter, and I wanted to share them here.  I hope you find the short essays helpful. 

Why would I want to be part of a system that has done so much harm?  Regarding people who have left the church/faith due to injury by broken churches.

            Always find out what a person means by their objection.  Ask, “Why do you believe that?”  Ask questions until you understand the real reason.  Listen well.  One answer to personal issues is sympathy, empathy, and shared tears.  This objection is very much like the problem of evil discussed at length above, so the answers given here will be short and to the point. 

You don’t usually quit eating out because of a bad meal at one particular restaurant.  So, why should you quit the Christian faith over one church that violates the teachings of Jesus?  There are good churches out there, so attend one.

            How do you know what “harm” is?  Where do you get the idea of right and wrong? Could it be that the reason that we feel harmed when someone offends us is that, deep down, we know that we are made in the image of God and that we should not be injured because we are made in that image.  What other religion teaches that we are made in God’s image besides Christianity?  One of the things that makes Christianity so attractive is that it allows evil and suffering to be real whereas other religions do not provide a reason for why things are good and evil.

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