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The church with no God in America's Bible Belt
The Telegraph ^ | 7/27/2014 | Peter Foster

Posted on 07/27/2014 2:20:23 AM PDT by markomalley

Viewed from the outside, the pointy-roofed building in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee deep in the heart of America’s Bible Belt, looks very much like a church.

And stepping inside, where a congregation is swaying along to music, listening to sermons and discussing ways to help their local community, it sounds very much like a church too.

There is, however, one rather fundamental missing ingredient that sets this congregation apart from the hundreds of others turning out to worship this Sunday morning in Nashville: this is a church without God.

“I pass seven big churches between my house and the main road two miles away, there are plenty of churches in Nashville, but we needed a place for us,” says David Lyle, a founder-member of the Nashville branch of the “Sunday Assembly” secular church movement.

Started in London in January 2013 by a pair of British stand-up comedians, Sunday Assembly offers a church experience but without the “God part” and, according to organisers, it is starting to catch on in America.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Skeptics/Seekers
KEYWORDS: spiritualjourney
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1 posted on 07/27/2014 2:20:23 AM PDT by markomalley
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To: F15Eagle

It’s like Sam Kinison...in reverse..except not as funny.


3 posted on 07/27/2014 2:54:09 AM PDT by BRK
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To: F15Eagle

So it has a similar background to the “Church” of Scientology, started by a novelist.


4 posted on 07/27/2014 2:55:46 AM PDT by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: markomalley

The United Methodist Church has been trying this for years.


5 posted on 07/27/2014 3:29:07 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople (Ob)
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To: T-Bird45

Speaking of novelists, I’m reminded of Flannery O’Connor’s novel “Wise Blood”, with Hazel Motes and his “Church Without Christ”. Its congregation consisted of Hazel Motes...


6 posted on 07/27/2014 3:33:45 AM PDT by mrs. a (It's a short life but a merry one...)
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To: markomalley

“The church with no God”

Unitarians?

CC


7 posted on 07/27/2014 3:49:10 AM PDT by Celtic Conservative (tease not the dragon for thou art crunchy when roasted and taste good with ketchup)
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To: markomalley

We already have Episcopal church.


8 posted on 07/27/2014 4:08:58 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: markomalley

Sounds like a good way to get money from the marks.


9 posted on 07/27/2014 4:13:09 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: markomalley

Church without God. Shoot, go into Politics, same thing.


10 posted on 07/27/2014 4:29:08 AM PDT by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job.)
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To: markomalley

The article carefully avoids mentioning the number attending this get-together. The fact that they could all go out to lunch together suggests quite a small group.


11 posted on 07/27/2014 4:29:33 AM PDT by Tax-chick (No power in the 'verse can stop me.)
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To: markomalley

As Western Civilization sinks deeper and deeper into the mire of decadence, the lost are lost further and further in the same mire.


12 posted on 07/27/2014 4:44:08 AM PDT by Savage Beast (Hubris and denial overwhelm Western Civilization. Nemesis and tragedy always follow.)
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To: AppyPappy
Sounds like a good way to get money from the marks.

Pretty much what L. Ron Hubbard said.

13 posted on 07/27/2014 4:51:20 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To win the country back, we need to be as mean as the libs say we are.)
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To: Celtic Conservative

I once attended a Unitarian funeral.
I couldn’t tell who the mourners were, who the minister was, etc.

People came in, sat down for a few minutes. Said nothing. Heard nothing.


14 posted on 07/27/2014 4:54:15 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: Raycpa

Thank you...a correct comment.


15 posted on 07/27/2014 4:54:38 AM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag ($$$$$$$$ DEFUND OBAMA! $$$$$$$$$)
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To: Savage Beast

While true, don’t lose heart. Unbelievers have always been among us. We have to accept the fact that we aren’t going to win every soul:

Matthew 13 New International Version (NIV)
The Parable of the Sower

13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Find a good, Bible-believing church, and get involved. You’d be surprised how quickly fears fade. Trust in God, and don’t fear the world’s inability to believe in Him.


16 posted on 07/27/2014 4:59:19 AM PDT by Eccl 10:2 (Prov 3:5 --- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding")
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To: Celtic Conservative

“The church with no God”

Unitarians?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Reminds of the old joke:

What do you get when you cross a Unitarian with a Jehovah’s Witness?

Someone who comes and knocks on your door for no reason.


17 posted on 07/27/2014 5:01:37 AM PDT by Eccl 10:2 (Prov 3:5 --- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding")
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To: markomalley

How so very special ... yawn!


18 posted on 07/27/2014 5:06:06 AM PDT by SES1066 (Quality, Speed or Economical - Any 2 of 3 except in government - 1 at best but never #3!)
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To: markomalley

I wonder how such a gathering would receive occasional Christians who showed up Sunday morning, joined the conversation, and asked, “aren’t you missing something?” Think Paul in the agora in Athens.


19 posted on 07/27/2014 5:08:45 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: markomalley

We have long had a religion with no deity, it is called secular progressivism.


20 posted on 07/27/2014 5:12:40 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
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