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Prayer notices in the local paper - what are they for?

lysistrata — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:49:29 -0800

I sometimes see announcements in the newspaper praising saints and listing prayers or novenas with instructions to publish the same ad in a future edition of the paper if the prayers work for you. Who places these ads? What purpose do they serve? What's the deal?

So this is Easter... and what have you done

psmealey — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 22:27:26 -0800

What is a devout Christian to do that doesn't believe in the divinity of Christ? I was brought up RC, I rejected it during high school, remained agnostic throughout young adulthood. Though, I hated the Roman church, I eventually came back to Christianity (PCUSA) in my mid 30s. I found some solace there for a while, but now I'm back where I started from. I love and accept the message, the Gospels, all of it. But I cannot accept the divinity of Jesus. I don't doubt that he lived and walked among our forebears, but I cannot accept the miracles and such as anything more than apocryphal add-ons to consolidate or convince belief in him as a deity.

Today, I enjoy and get a great deal out of going to services (the folks that conduct services at the local PCUSA church I go to are very intelligent, open-minded and cool), but I am at a point where I cannot bring myself to go any more, for I cannot pass even the most basic litmus test for being there. I feel like a hypocrite for even sitting in those pews.

Should I just forgo the whole thing altogether, as it's just a huge waste of time for them, and for me?

I do believe in a higher being (though not some anthropomorphic old man with a beard), I believe in a higher purpose for all of us, and I believe in redemption for the penitent (so I'm 75% of the way to being there), but I cannot accept the dogma.

So, this religion thing... is it best to give up on it? Or, is there some other way to look at it, and by extension, Christianity, that I haven't thought of?

What is tat?

LeeJay — Mon, 30 May 2005 13:35:37 -0800

Every so often, when reading online discussions between Catholics and/or Anglicans, I see people mentioning something called "tat". What the heck is tat? Putting the word in context it seems to refer to a certain style of worship, one that is a little over the top, or to something that happens during worship. I am not at all sure about this though. Googling does nothing except bring up a few instances of folks using the word but not defining it and a whole lot of misspellings of the word "that".