There’s a church maybe 30 minutes from me that’s been empty for years. Half the ceiling is gone. Big slabs of concrete are still hanging off the rebar over the side aisles, so you learn pretty fast where not to stand.

I’ve gone a few times now. The first time was just curiosity. I’d driven past it forever and finally pulled over.

The nave is basically a rubble pile. Grass is coming up through the floor near the entrance. Someone (no idea who) dragged a bunch of the pews together up front. Above where the altar was there’s a round window, blue glass with a red cross in it, and it’s completely intact. Everything else in the building is cracked or falling down, and that window is fine.

There’s also a white metal cross-shaped stand in the middle of the debris. I think it held candles at some point. It leans to the left now.

I’ve been in a rough stretch for a while and haven’t had much to say to God about it. At my parish I sit there feeling like I’m supposed to look put together. Here nobody’s looking. The second time I went, I sat on one of those pews and prayed out loud, which I never do. Didn’t feel stupid about it either. And after I did, I got very lucky on stake.

I don’t know what the official status of a building like this is, whether it’s still consecrated or not. I didn’t really care in the moment. Somebody built it so people could pray in it, and people did, probably for decades before whatever happened to it.

Last time I brought a broom, which was pointless because there are about four tons of brick in there. I swept a little square in front of the pew anyway.

Is this still a sacred place?

I suffer from a facial deformity that was not treated at birth, as my parents are morons and old-school Africans. Abusive and Narcissistic

Look At My Forehead.

I’m not going into depth, my life story and pictures are on this sub: [r/CranioFolk](r/CranioFolk)

I’m very ugly, 5’3, poor and born with a weak passport.

Wtf are these cards you’re born with, honestly?

Nothing is working out in my life from dating, to relationships, networking and career all because of how I look and how my selfish mother reproduced with whatever ugly turd, that could give her better life and escape her own household.

My mother refused to work her ass off, to afford her own place and here she is calling me lazy, and a failure despite giving me crappy cards at birth.

Birthing should be regulated and it is feasible especially in poor countries.

I would sue my parents and take them to court, for ruining me, if being a parent required a license and a certain set of qualifications and professional references to have a kid.

I feel disabled truly.

I hate my life and suffer from depressive episodes weekly.

Please Pray for me and hope I reach my financial goals for surgery, my efforts are on my profile. 🙏

Let me clarify, this is NOT an attack on anyone, just what I've observed recently. I've gotten into several discussions recently where my views are immediately discarded because I quote sources other than the Bible. The most recent one is where I brought up Saint Thomas Aquinas's explanation of blasphemy of the holy spirit and the guy immediately goes "Oh you're Catholic, you aren't worth debating with because none of your beliefs are rooted in scripture". This absolutely dumbfounded me and I don't know if this is a common view or if I just got in a discussion with the wrong kind. Anyone else have this problem?

Hello,

I’ve been dealing with mental health issues the later part of this year and it’s been completely ruining my life. I fear for my future and my mental health. I fear that I will lose myself.

Thank you and God bless.

Hey, I'm a christian teenage girl currently battling physical urges (sexual) that I have never experienced before due to the fact that I had been pretty much underweight + actively ​losing weight. I guess now that I’m gaining weight and eating healthier my hormones are finally alive again and so this is something new happening. Though I have fallen into sexual sin before, I've seen porn once and hentai on multiple occasions a few months back. I haven't gone back to those but this is something new that I'm experiencing. Personally, I believe that masturbation is a sin, so this isn't really about whether it is or not. I just want to know, for anyone who has once struggled with it, what are some things and some ways to get rid of the urge? How do I prevent getting addicted? All useful, beneficial responses are appreciated :3

I'm not Christian, and I live in a mostly Catholic community(not a Catholic tho) and I also am not in America, so I just want to ask for any American Christians here on why do some Christians support him?

Is it because he's Conservative? When I look at his actions, I see a lot of blasphemy, and for what I can remember from my Catholic friends, is that blasphemy is a major sin that can not be forgiven.

So I wonder if those people know what he's doing is blasphemous or if they actually know what he's doing is blasphemous and just ignored it and continue to favour him?

Also, in my opinion and observations, Trump spreads a lot of hateful propaganda, and isn't this religion supposed to be about love and stuff??

I just wanted to ask cause I don't usually interact with religious media, and I had recently gotten in Conservative Christian American tiktok and was confused by it all.

I tried for so long. I’ve been in pain for so long. God allowed so much evil and suffering into my life and I can’t take it anymore. I can’t say I wanted to eagerly believe in god due to the amount of stuff I was going but I tried to ask Him for clarity, guidance and protection and I haven’t felt any of that. I feel so terrible and so sick, I don’t know what to believe anymore.

Like omnibenevolence I believe is the main aspect of Gid. I'm agnostic but doing religious studies with the inconsistent triad it feels a lot of denominations break what I feel is often overlooked. Omnibenevolence is loving everyone unconditionally and would someone who loved you let them be away from them like with the parable of the prodigal son that'smeant to represent God but eternal damnation for not following him doesn't feel omnibenevolent. Quakerism I feel follows the nature of god to its truest.

This isn't intended to be a "aha stupid christians not believingright" but it's a genuine question and my re teacher isn't too knowledgeable

Lots of love and hope you have a great day

"Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions."

Ecclesiastes 7:10

Man I didn’t even know this verse existed. What are your thoughts on it ?

Okay I am personally not Christian but am not against Christians and I think it's a nice thing. My question is out of all the religions why do you believe in Christianity and god? This is not a personal attack and I'm not trying to aggravate you. I'm just curious.

My entire life I’ve been of the philosophy that God’s will is immovable and that believing in Jesus means believing in the path laid out for us. Because of this I could never really get into personal prayer requests, or trying to will my ideas and wishes to God. What do others think about this? Is there scripture that would benefit me to do a deep dive on? Are there others that share my philosophy? I do group prayer at church but I think I can count on both hands the amount of times I’ve prayed to God directly. I’ve been getting back into Bible Study and have been reflecting on this a lot recently. Not trying to be offensive to anyone in any way here. 26M

hello, brothers and sisters in Christ. i’m sure some of you will relate to this. i’m a 30 year old woman who has remained unmarried. i live in a southern state and go to a nondenominational church.

i have struggled a lot with the marriage-focused culture in church, and the near- blatant neglect towards single people above the age of 22. a lot of sermons discuss marriage, and i just kind of have to sit and listen which is ok. but then they announced a new season of small groups and they said “we’re organizing these groups by the life stage you’re in” so i joined a co-ed group for people aged 30s-40s and guess what? all the other members are married with children and it’s all they talk about. i eventually left the group because it was so isolating.

there’s not much chance of me meeting a nice guy in church whom i could date or marry because everyone in their 30s in church is married. i’m still on dating apps trying to swerve past the guys who just want a hookup. still praying for God to help me fulfill my dream of having a family. and no one in my Christian community can relate.

before you suggest switching churches, i already did. went to my former church for 5 years and had the same problem. who here is going through a similar thing? thank you for listening.

TL;DR:

People keep asking why he’s appealing if he already left the Catholic Church.

I don’t really see the contradiction.

If I quit a company and they later issue a formal ruling basically saying I was the problem, I can still challenge it, especially if it affects how my wife and kids are treated.

What bothers me more is the contrast.

A priest abuses his son, gets convicted, is removed from public ministry, but apparently remains a priest in the clerical sense.

The father moves his traumatised family to another Christian church, and he gets excommunicated for schism.

Now yes, canon law can explain why those are technically two different processes.

Fine.

But “the rules explain it” is not the same as “therefore the outcome makes moral sense.”

And honestly, I think calling it a ____ can muddy the discussion because then everyone starts debating definitions instead of the actual behaviour.

Institutional betrayal. Clericalism. Asymmetric accountability. High-control behaviour.

Pick your term.

Strip away the church language, and it’s basically:

Priest abuses son.

⬇️

Priest gets convicted.

⬇️

Family leaves.

⬇️

Father gets excommunicated.

⬇️

Priest apparently keeps clerical status.

If some tinier religious group did that, I doubt people would be nearly as careful with their language as I've been.

Please pray for me... Right now in a situation where I need to make a hard choice ....

Everything I try to produce before I make these reddit posts fall incredibly short of God's will. I can't even think straight without having problems and even when I can think straight I fall away quickly. I can tell I am and will be planted in bad soil in the future, but I just need something to hold onto (God's promise) and to forget about my problems. I love it, and I love being aware of what happens

It was a tragic accident so trying to turn a structural failure into a theological gotcha is completely disingenuous and disrespectful to everyone involved. We should be focusing on the human aspect of this not really using it as a prop for religious debates….

I keep asking God to show me a sign on which Church to go to because I’ve been to so many and they’ve all been a bad match for an influx of reasons and I’m tired of going to Church after Church and leaving because it’s not a good fit. I’ll put some examples of why these Churches didn’t fit. One of them was basically just a social group filled with gossip, and people actively living in sin without seeing an issue and disregarding the Bible. The other one was another gossip group filled with people who act nice to your face then gossip when your leave, so not for me. The other one was another social group where everyone knew eachother and pushed away new people and it was filled with Israel worship like begging us to donate to Israel and only pray for Israelis not the Palestinian Christians being persecuted by the state of Israel. Not to mention that I’m autistic and that’s another limiting thing in social situations. I’m so lost and I’m so close to giving up. When I pray it feels like God is just ignoring me and laughing at me. I’ve been isolated for a few years too and I feel like I’m just gonna make a fool out of myself and people are gonna judge me after I lost so many social skills

Growing up, I had no one religious around me. Pretty much every single friend and family member were Atheist. I was brought up to view Christianity negatively. That was until I met my friend in college around 12 years ago. He pretty much changed my entire view and I eventually converted to Christianity and started praying/reading the Bible.

Even though I’m not a massively practicing Christian… I do still believe in Jesus. However, I’ve always felt like I’ve needed to hide this from my family, especially my parents. I’ve always hid my Bible and I’m afraid to buy any books on Christianity, since they view religion so negatively. I’m also terrified of attending my local church, in case someone sees me there and tells my family.

I understand I’m a 28 year old grown man and shouldn’t worry about this, but it is generally something I worry about. I wouldn’t ever be shunned from the family, but my parents would definitely be concerned I’ve joined a “cult”.

I was wondering if there’s any other Christian’s of Atheist families out there who can shed some light on their experience?

(Also, yeah I know. I’m 28 and still live at home. But this is a tough economy)