As a kid growing up in Texas, my Methodist church basically just squared the creation myth as metaphor. “What is the length of a day to god?” Essentially equating the scientific explanations, as simply the way god did it. So there wasn’t really any controversy about learning about evolution and the age of the universe.
I was a closet atheist, but never realized there was much controversy about evolution until I was in high school and terminally online.
I grew up the same, mostly because allowing so much as not literal means and easier time for a pastor that also does car upholstery part time to sell any concept. Literalism is pretty demanding a a position.
The literalist interpretation was seen as extreme until maybe 20 years ago. I was shocked to learn about how many denominations are going in for it now. But maybe that’s just the internet showing me parts of the world I hadn’t seen before.
I was being fed biblical literalism over 30 years ago in the few years I was forced to go to church age 10-14. Pretty large congregation for a town of 20k with plenty of other churches.
One of the few things they got right was that small children shouldn’t be baptized, that a person should decide for themselves after age 13. I decided. I decided hell no.
Yeah, sadly that same chill Methodist church I grew up in has since slipped down into that literalist BS. When the United Methodist Church changed its stance to allow LGBTQ+ membership, clergy, and marriages in 2024, they decided to split off and just be an independent Methodist church.
Yea, Catholics and Mainline Protestants like Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians etc are like this. Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest, was one of the figures responsible for the big bang theory
As a kid growing up in Texas, my Methodist church basically just squared the creation myth as metaphor. “What is the length of a day to god?” Essentially equating the scientific explanations, as simply the way god did it. So there wasn’t really any controversy about learning about evolution and the age of the universe.
I was a closet atheist, but never realized there was much controversy about evolution until I was in high school and terminally online.
I grew up the same, mostly because allowing so much as not literal means and easier time for a pastor that also does car upholstery part time to sell any concept. Literalism is pretty demanding a a position.
The literalist interpretation was seen as extreme until maybe 20 years ago. I was shocked to learn about how many denominations are going in for it now. But maybe that’s just the internet showing me parts of the world I hadn’t seen before.
I was being fed biblical literalism over 30 years ago in the few years I was forced to go to church age 10-14. Pretty large congregation for a town of 20k with plenty of other churches.
One of the few things they got right was that small children shouldn’t be baptized, that a person should decide for themselves after age 13. I decided. I decided hell no.
Yeah, sadly that same chill Methodist church I grew up in has since slipped down into that literalist BS. When the United Methodist Church changed its stance to allow LGBTQ+ membership, clergy, and marriages in 2024, they decided to split off and just be an independent Methodist church.
Yea, Catholics and Mainline Protestants like Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians etc are like this. Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest, was one of the figures responsible for the big bang theory
Methodists are pretty chill from what I’ve seen.