Originally posted by Cris'pus:
...It's hard for the same open-minded person you talk about, to find a group who serves God without hypocrisy.



Find me any religion that has 2 millenia of history behind it in it's various iterations that is without some degree of hypocrisy or bad blood in places.

You can't, because it doesn't exist.

Just because a certain religion pushes for a particular concept of "perfection" doesn't mean that man's interpretation and execution of it will EVER be perfect.

In today's "instant gratification" society (especially here in the US), the concept of struggling and staying on a difficult path with any measured degree is quite the alien one. The problem is that many people have one or two hiccups with religion, or someone professing to be a purveyor of religion and they just give up when the going gets complicated or difficult. To some, faith is a disposable diaper; once it's dirtied, you toss it out, never to be used or considered again. To others, it's much more resilient and pliable.

Finally, The Bible does hold reference to habits, ideas and concepts that were in place LONG before Christianity; a good deal of these can be found within other religions that pre-date the foundation of it. Some of which are even social in nature rather than religious. I don't have the time to put forth examples now, but I'll certainly dig up a few. Some can even be found in the side-notes of the Bible in the NIV version.

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