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if youre christian, what convinced you to be the particular "branch" or "denomination" that you are? since ive "figured things out" ive been focusing more on my relationship with god than on this question, but im looking to take things a little further [...]
i have some suspicions and inclinations and things i currently suspect are true about this but want to make sure ive cohesively surveyed the whole situation. im kind of stuck at this point where i can see where (almost) everyone is coming from equally
i honestly dislike a certain flavor of christian infighting (although i really enjoy actual theological debates) so i normally would not ask such things but im taking some time to consider this so i thought id put the feelers out and get as much on my radar as possible
tbh whatever call i make i want to make sure im doing it for the right reasons and not for pure aesthetics or to look cool online so, ill probably not really bring this up again. basically, im not only appealing to the internet but now would be ur chance to make ur case if u want
please refrain from "tfw ur a type of christian i dont like [brainless wojak.jpg]" style posting in the replies to this. that is not my vibe (nor will it ever be)
in the interest of spreading knowledge here are some honest questions i have when i think about this stuff. as resident mystical idiot i dont feel stupid asking such basic questions nor should others. in fact imo most mysticism entails asking questions others see as dumb or basic
1. if youre a type of protestant that doesnt think there needs to be some big organized church authority deciding things, how do you know basic things like what books belong in the bible? there are scriptures that could have been added to the bible or were removed, so...?
2. i dont really know by what means the orthodox church claims to be the "official" or "real" church. basically i feel like i still dont "get" their version of the story
3. if god wants us to do all this stuff that isnt in the bible, why isnt it in the bible?
4. if there was a guy in the woods who really got on his knees and begged god to redeem his soul do you actually think god would withhold his grace and love and redemption because he wasnt part of the right church or because he didnt do the proper rituals and procedures?
5. theres a simple guy who works at a factory in alabama. am i supposed to believe god expects him to go online and do all this complex research on history and theology in order to figure out which church is the right one? his IQ is like 85 and he hasnt read a book in 35 years
6. (similar question) likewise, someone was born into a family that is devoutly part of a church organization that you think is incorrect. do you actually think theyre going to hell even if they love god because theyre not the kind of person that would ever question this?
7. hurts me to ask this and i say this not as someone who is just doing the fedora atheist talking points, in the interest of questioning everyone equally, if youre catholic how do you "explain" all the bad stuff in the church hierarchy and church history? opulence, sex crime etc
right now i kind of view this as a "bad king doesnt invalidate the kingdom" type of thing and, obviously if there was an actual holy institution on earth it would be the maximum level of beset by satan but, i know a lot of people interested in catholicism wonder this
lots of answers to go with whats in my family, my family is very not christian, going back further some of them were baptist (south style) but i never really met them
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not saying ill become orthodox just covering all my bases here since i opened up this line of questioning and, i like seraphim rose a lot so obviously ive thought about it:
cant shake the feeling that if i rolled up on an orthodox church and was like "yeah i went online and decided this was the religion for me" that would be... kind of weird? and everyone there would be like... some type of eastern euro? just being honest. also theres none near me
im also kind of wondering how much of my perception of orthodoxy is that its more foreign and "far away" and if it ever would be possible to penetrate that layer of mystique that exists purely by virtue of it being something so frankly alien to me [...]
like sometimes i feel like orthodoxy is a little bit more explicitly mystical but, what if thats only because its from and totally of a culture that isnt mine (american) and, how would i ever know how much of what im seeing is my own perception as an outsider vs the reality?
presumably orthodoxy would have much less sexy mystique if i grew up in russia. and then the opposite is true for protestantism. hearing cheesy protestant rock worship songs on the radio has nothing to do with if its true or not but i likewise feel clouded by this "closeness".
when i was studying buddhism i could clearly see all the different paths and branches, i had a top down view on this massive labyrinth easily as an outsider. but now im inside of the labyrinth (of christian denominations) because i think the truth is actually somewhere in here... 
basically like i said i can really see where everyone is coming from equally. ill be taking some time to really think about all this. may add to this thread if i think of anything else tonight but probably wont bring this up again as i dont want to promote infighting
just being candid with my thoughts and laying it all out there as a lot (a lot) of people message me about this problem to ask me what i think. it probably averages like 3 people a week so clearly its something a lot of people are thinking and wondering about
people saying "if you look at history [this group] is obviously wrong", id be interested in you elaborating on this.
