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Steve Sjogren: Conspiracy of Kindness (Paperback, 2008, Regal Books)

God is seeking to enter the heart of every person on this planet. Yet, for …

In short, the evangelical church in America is not very evangelical.

Conspiracy of Kindness by 

Ain't that the truth. I think it has got even worse than when Sjogren originally wrote these words 33 years ago. Now-a-days I think most Americans see evangelical being a synonym for conservative.

in addition, the Catholic Church has been becoming more evangelical over the past few decades. A "personal relationship with Jesus" was never mentioned when my dad was a kid growing up in the Church. Now-a-days it is a common theme I hear of multiple times a year during homilies and throughout additional Catholic media and events.

@re@d.jimfulner.com is "personal relationship with Jesus" an evangelical thing? I'm not Christian but I had Bible study in 6th grade in 2002 and our workbook had a question "why do you want to become friend with Jesus" (I wrote "I don't, this class is brainwashing" and got sent to the principal's office lol).

@Tellington@millefeuilles.cloud YES, that's pretty much the only thing that is evangelical. Evangelical comes from the word evangelizing, which comes from getting people to "proclaim their lives for Christ" say some magic words and "get saved"

@re@d.jimfulner.com Bible Study was (kinda) mandatory as part as my middle school curriculum (private catholic school, my parents could legally have exempted me from it but nobody was so they didn't want me to get excluded) (maybe Bible Study is not the best word, we call it "catéchisme" in French but it seems like in English "catechism" is a text?)

replied to Ezra Tellington's status

@Tellington@millefeuilles.cloud TLDR ~ yes catechism is the correct word.

The CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church) is what we call the book in English. It's a summary of all the teachings of the Church. Catechism class is where you are instructed in the teachings of the CCC.

I am a convert to Catholicism. While my dad was raised in the Church he left when he was about 20 and was more-or-less an atheist, or at least a "non-believer," if there is a difference. Later he and my mom became born-again evangelical Christians when I was ~5 years old, so I was primarily raised in evangelical/charismatic circles. Like most American Protestants we changed churches every time we got a new pastor that said something challenging. I digress. I didn't go through Catechism class until I was 20, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and my wife did likewise …