Obviously I'm going to say yes, why would I be on this sub otherwise?

But I wanted to share some thoughts I've been having recently to see if anyone else had opinions thoughts or ideas on it. Pardon if it seems scattered or like the points are not connected very well. I have only about 45 minutes before a training.

(When I say Church, I mean Churches around me.)

1. The Church is using secular language, and in doing so removes Christ from the metric that acceptance should be measured.

I've heard it said "Obesity is the only sin a Churchgoer will never be criticized for." Is having an unhealthy, cumbersome fat body enticing? Probably not.

Recently my wife and I were watching a video about some guy who, with his computer, digitally created some black model and was likely profiting heavily off this imaging, the catch: she didnt exist. Race commentary aside, one of the things that regularly came up was that if these digital models are accepted it will continue to exasperate the body image problem for people who are impressionable.

In Church I regularly hear people talking about learning to love themselves, and there seems to be a big push from administration to do this. What is so wrong with people feeling unsatisfied? I'm asking this rhetorically, but why are people so scared of the pain?

I'm asking this genuinely: Why is the Church so ready so alleviate the pain of self dissatisfaction with moralism, or theology sans Christ's expectations of us.

2. Church leadership is terrified of criticizing(read: correcting) their leadership which has resulted in the only seemingly successful Churches being the equivalent of country clubs.

I'll admit I may just be fire and brimstone on occasion, so take this with a grain of salt.

On a smaller scale version of Church, the Youth Group I participated in Youth Leaders would regularly discuss drinking and partying during the half hour following group. Regularly there would still be youth kids there. When I brought it up, the only thing the Youth Admin did was an equivalent of "hey, you should stop talking about this. " Not even a "Hey, this is obvious sin. Pick it or us." It's nonsense.

Why is the Church so okay with poor leadership, especially when it comes to shepherding 'at-risk' sheep? Sure, the kids loved it, they felt cool, but who cares? The point isn't numbers, the point is actualized faith.

3. Churches that do align their values to a more scripturally accurate agenda are scared to admit.

I think this specifically comes up with practicing premarital sex and financial responsibility.

Right now there is only a small small handful of Churches near me that will speak negatively on the sin of premarital sex. Specifically gay sex. Even fewer Churches will speak out against their congregation managing their finances poorly. Why is there nobody willing to have conflict?

As another personal story, as a child my family was pretty poor. We had a house but were quickly reaching foreclosure. My Mom and Step-Dad were apart of a few different small groups, and despite there being a few keyholding Church Leaders nobody once ever called my parents out to stop. They understood my parents were struggling financially but instead of saying "Wow, you are really poor stewards of what God has currently given you, why do you expect to be given more?" We'd get heapings of "God provides." Yeah, but if you don't take care of what he gives you, you'll still fail. God let's people fail.

Does it all boil down to ego? Is that why RP and the Bible share so many fundamental ideologies? Kill the ego, die to yourself. So that you can live in Christ?

Thoughts?