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The Atheist Savior Presents: |
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"The Search for the Holy Male" |
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If you're a minister, pastor, reverend etc... of a local church (Cincinnati, Oh) and would like to invite me to your congregation, please feel free to contact me. If you would like to join me on my quest, click the MeetUp logo: |
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"Search for the Holy Male" Crusade |
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Click on the highlighted day for the results of that visit. Click Here for a complete calendar of events from The Atheist Savior |
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| March 2009 |
April 2009 |
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| October 2006 |
November 2006 |
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| June 2006 |
July 2006 |
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Copyright
© 2005 by AtheistSavior.com.
All rights reserved. |
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February
12, 2006 (back to
calendar)
Our first adventure takes us to the First Baptist Church of Amelia. My sister goes to church here so I thought it would be a good place to start since she is so devoted to Christ. The church itself was nice. Plenty of room. The sound system was more than adequate (Bose© makes a great speaker) and they even had a PowerPoint projector which broadcast on the wall. Very cool! Service lasted about 2 hours, kinda lengthy for a first timer, but I did not fall asleep. The members were very friendly (I think I shook about 40 hands). There weren't too many expensive cars in the parking lot which I thought was very Christ-like (WWJD? -What Would Jesus Drive?) I only rated this church 3 nails for a few reasons. I did not feel the minister was very receptive to me. I introduced myself as an atheist and the brother of a member. He said it was nice that I came and would like me to come back. I was expecting a little more since I stood before him, a condemned man to hell in his eyes, and he did not want to give me any more of his time. Oh well. His loss not mine. Also, his sermon I felt was somewhat lacking. None the less, I did not witness or observe any events that would suggest Jesus Christ was present, except for the Pastor's ghost-like, pale complexion. May I suggest a little more time under the sun, instead of under the Son. If Jesus does exist in spirit somewhere, he wasn't here this Sunday. I did leave my contact info on a welcome card, but it is too early to get a response. |
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| Minutes: | ||||||
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| As with most, if not all, sermons, I
just had questions popping up in my head and was unable to ask them. The
passage (Ephesians 5:22-23) just seemed
rather sexist. If I were a woman, I would be rather offended by this
passage. Basically it seems that the woman is the mans servant, having
to submit to him as a Christian would submit to Christ. Also, the
preacher kept speaking of marriage and relationships between a man and a
woman. What if someone were gay? How does this church view homosexuals?
Not very kindly. And speaking of servants, I just happened to notice the
next chapter (Ephesians 6) talked about
Slaves/Servants and Masters. I wonder, why do pastors never speak about
these passages? Could the preacher make a sermon about slaves, the
treatment of slaves, how slaves should be punished, and so on? Why does
the Holy Babble not condemn slavery? Instead it says that it's ok to own
slaves as long as you treat them properly.
Bottom line, I do not feel you need the Holy Babble to teach you to love your wife. If you are having marriage problems you should seek a professional counselor, not a minister. A marriage counselor can give you in depth advice, analyze the problems and find real solutions. The Holy Babble just says "Husbands, love your wives..." -Ephesians 5:25. If problems were only that easy to fix. Real life problems require real life solutions. |
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| Ephesians 5 (New International Version - UK) | ||||||
| Wives and Husbands | ||||||
| 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. | ||||||
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For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the
church, his body, of which he is the Saviour.
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| Ephesians 6 (New International Version - UK) | ||||||
| Slaves and Masters | ||||||
| 5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. | ||||||
| 6 Obey them not only to win their favour when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. | ||||||
| 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, | ||||||
| 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. | ||||||
| 9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favouritism with him. |
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February 19, 2006 (back to calendar) Unfortunately, I was extremely sick this Sunday and was unable to make it out. Maybe we'll have a double header next Sunday. |
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February 26,
2006 (back to
calendar)
All I can say is WOW!! WOW to the absolute beauty of this place. WOW to the constant and utter confusion I was in. WOW to the way I was treated here. The only thing that stands out is when a fellow named Patrick, who had his 4 sons with him, approached me and told me to leave. This man screamed at the top of his lungs. It was very embarrassing. Below is a letter I wrote to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Reverend Daniel Pilarczyk and his response. |
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| Intro to the Church | Interview with Josh after being thrown out | |||||||||||
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March 23, 2006
Archdiocese of Cincinnati 100 East 8th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Dear Reverend Daniel E. Pilarczyk, I am writing you regarding an incident that happened at Old Saint Mary’s Church on February 26, 2006. I attended the 12:30 mass with a Catholic friend of mine. I myself am not Catholic, however I was interested in learning more about the faith. Being my first time at a Catholic mass, I was a bit confused about all what was going on. My friend that accompanied me explained the different rituals and motions that were going on. Although I did stand when everyone else stood, I did not kneel down, pray, take communion I believe it’s called, or participate in anything. Towards the end of the mass, I was approached by a man named Patrick. All I know about him is that he had four sons with him. He was sitting about 3 rows ahead of me. He and another guy asked me what I was doing here since I obviously was not Catholic. I told him I was curious about the Catholic faith and was here observing. He got extremely offended and rude with me and told me to leave. I asked him if this is how all non-Catholics are treated in ‘his’ church and at that point he literally screamed at the top of his lungs, "Get out!" There were 100-150 people in the church at the time including Bishop Juarez. Everyone got very quite and looked towards us. He, Patrick, yelled 3 or 4 times for me to leave until I stood up and walked out. Anyone who was there that day would definitely remember for his voice filled the entire church. I was extremely embarrassed and shocked to say the least. I was more upset that Bishop Juarez did not do anything about this matter since it was so blatant. When I exited the church, a young man named Josh approached me and apologized for what happened. He said the way I was treated was not right and that I should file some type of complaint, which is what I am doing now. I am 32 years old and have been to dozens of churches in my life. Most recently I attended my sister’s church, Amelia Baptist, and felt like family there, even though I am not a very religious man. The members their made me feel welcomed. Not only did I not feel welcomed at Old Saint Mary’s, but I left there very upset and embarrassed. I feel almost like I should apologize for not being Catholic. If I am not welcome at a Catholic church, as Patrick told me, then let me know. But please be aware of the conduct of some of your worshippers. I do not feel it’s fare for a guy like Patrick to come between my personal search for Jesus Christ. ScoT Singleton Response from Reverend Daniel E. Pilarczyk
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March
26,
2006 (back to
calendar)
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| On our way | Arrived | Synopsis | |||||||
| This visit was much more pleasant than
our trip to Old Saint Mary's, but very, very boring. We didn't have
services in the traditional room with the pews. Instead it was
downstairs in a civic center looking room with folding metal chairs. The
sheeple there were very friendly. The cars in the parking lot were not
expensive (we should know, we carpet bombed the parking lot with flyers).
The service lasted one hour. The sermon had me kind of lost. We watched
a clip from 'Lord of the Rings' for about 10 minutes which the minister
was using to tie into his speech of 'rings'. One thing I did note is
that the money basket was passed around at the beginning of service as
opposed to the middle or end. That's like a waiter asking for a tip
right when you sit at his table as opposed to after you provided your
service. Although I did not feel or find the presence of Jesus there, I
did receive two 'golden' rings from the service. I
will be putting them on eBay to try and retrieve some of the $5 I
donated to the basket. Below are some of the materials
from the service.
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April
16, 2006 (back to
calendar)
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| This Sunday will take us to an Episcopal church for the first time. We missed last week because of daylight savings. The Episcopal Church is also known as Catholic Lite. Apparently it's a less hardcore version of Catholicism. It has half the guilt, a third of the salt with no trans fats. | |||||||||
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This Sunday we successfully managed to not get thrown
out of another Catholic
church. I completely forgot about it being Easter Sunday. Needless
to say, it was standing room only. We managed to find a couple of seats
in the last row of pews. This was actually a rather pleasant experience.
There were well over 300 sheeple in attendance. The choir sounded great.
We had an itinerary of events and everything flowed flawlessly. Since
this church is located downtown with on street parking, I couldn't gauge
with any accuracy the types of cars that were driven (WWJD-What Would
Jesus Drive?) Being Easter Sunday, the attendance was way out of
proportion as well. The sermon was about some girl named Mary Magdalene and Reverend James Dean Diamond was a bit too
dramatic with his delivery. Why are preachers like that any way? I know
they don't speak like that all the time in their daily lives. Why must
they insist on getting on stage and acting. He reminded me of someone
trying to land a part in movie or play. This ain't Broadway sir. It's
church. Leave the acting to Hollywood. My advice Mr. Diamond, try BEING
YOURSELF!!
I only rated this church 3 nails because there was too much theatrical bullshit and not enough Jesus Juice flowing. There were kites flying all over, wind socks, huge golden staffs. Also, being Easter Sunday, there were too many damn people. Not a very intimate morning with Christ. |
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May
28, 2006 (back to
calendar)
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This Sunday
will take us to the Philippus United Church of Christ. I did a little
research on this style of church. It came into being in 1957 when two
Protestant churches (Evangelical and Reformed Church and the
Congregational Christian Churches) merged.
Each of these, in turn, were formed from the union of two earlier
denominations. So this is the combination of six past churches. The
chart on the left is what this church's 'family tree' would l ook
like. This much 'cross-breeding' can lead
to some rather screwed up Church DNA. |
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| Synopsis | |||||||||
| This service
started off on a rather non-Christ-like manner. First off, the church is
located in a rather 'rough' part of town. 'OTR' (Over The Rhine) in
Cincinnati is more like a street in Baghdad than anywhere else. When I
showed up there were police present. Apparently, there was a crack deal
in front of the church. Then, a yocal prostitute got into a car with
some guy in front of the church. Then, an elderly man who lived across
the street and attended church there died. Not off to a good start. Then
there were only about 45 people in attendance. I later found out that
some of those that were in the choir were paid professionals singing.
Beyond that, David, the minister, was very pleasant. He gave a nice,
seemingly genuine sermon. After service, we all met downstairs in the
gymnasium and had coffee together. I spoke with David, the minister, and
really liked the guy. He mentioned that he took some flak from some
members because he married two lesbians. This is by far the most liberal
church we have visited.
I am constantly amazed at how these churches
survive from a financial standpoint since their attendances are so low
and I know they aren't raking in big buc |
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June
5, 2006 (back to
calendar)
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July
30, 2006 (back to
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October
15, 2006 (back to
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November
5, 2006 (back to
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June
24, 2007 (back to
calendar)
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April
27,
2008 (back to
calendar)
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May
11,
2008 (back to
calendar)
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April
10, 2009 (Good Friday) (back to
calendar)
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Churches in the Greater Cincinnati area |
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