The Event I Went From A Christian Baptist

"Why I Left the Church" by Richard Garcia is a poem that investigates the nature way of religion and the relationship that the innocence of kids has with the congregation of the church. The narrator of this work is having thought over the genuine reason he left his faith. It is an account that blends a realist method of narrating with a twist of fantasy that goes from literal metaphors to figurative metaphors similitudes in the depiction of why the narrator left the congregation.

During the last eleven years I have worked at the department of motor vehicles. I have met many people from different backgrounds and cultures. While I worked at the Tempe office, I came across many people from the Middle East, mainly Arabs and people from Pakistan and India. It was through my dealings with Middle East people that I notice how friendly and accessible they are. It was then that an interest in finding more about this culture started. When I decided to visit a mosque as part this project I was not sure what to expect. My experience is divided in two, as I ended up visiting two different mosques. On Saturday January 24 around 12:45 pm I arrived at a mosque located in

were any racial prejudice at Baptist, they were being promoted by Karl Krebs and Mary Gibbs, and not by Nickie Moretti.

Going into this experience, I expected to feel slightly uncomfortable. I was born and raised a Catholic, and my experience involved me going in and learning about the Muslim religion. While I am open to learning about and experiencing new ideas I knew that this event might challenge some of the things I had grown up leaning about. I also knew this event would focus on the modeling industry so I expected this to focus on things like sexism and the stresses of being in the business. Some of this I could relate to. There is this idea that women need to be unhealthily thin and look like models who are photo shopped.

The second group I attended was the Kentucky House of Representative Candidates Forum for house districts: 7, 11, 12, 13, and 14. This group was attended by me via online and took place on campus at Brescia University in Owensboro Kentucky. The Candidates Forum was held on Monday October 17 from 7:00pm-8:30pm CDT. The scene was that of an auditorium with six candidates seated at a table in the front and to what appeared to be the group moderator at a podium to the right of the room. The camera did not focus in on much of the audience for me to give an accurate description, but there were several members there to observe and many had questions for the Candidates.

The Making of the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message. A. J. Smith Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2008.

I attend Gospel Light Freewill Independent Baptist Church in Thomasville, NC. It’s a relatively small church, with about 50-70 people on a Sunday morning. My grandmother, my aunt, and my uncle attend this church as well. I consider myself to be a child of God and a true “born again” Christian. Being “born again” means that one has accepted God into their heart and has been changed on the inside. I accepted him into my heart on October 9th, 2012. Growing up strictly in an independent Baptist church, I didn’t know that other churches were different, at least not until I visited my boyfriend’s church which is Southern Baptist. My pastor preaches heavily on hell-fire and brimstone. He walks up and down the altar, yelling and jumping. There are

After the silent prayer time, I’m thinking it’s time to dismiss, not! We had to pray again to bless the bread & wine. It was time for communion. After communion, and 2 hours of torture, I almost felt myself running to my car. I had never felt that kind of torture before in church. Don’t judge me. I went with an open mind, expecting something different but not that different. The other event I attend was a Friday Mid-day Muslim Prayer Service with one of my students at the Islamic Center of Macon GA. My student advised me on how to dress. In other words, make sure the top of my outfit was long sleeves and the bottom was long enough to cover all of my legs. I thought I was ok, until I got there; they gave me a scarf to cover my head. Oh, I forgot to mention, I had to take off my shoes and leave them before I entered into the place of prayer. I guess you can call it a sanctuary. One thing I found odd was the men and women do not pray in the same place together. Since I was a guest of my student and actually a participant of the prayer time, the wudo, which is a ritual of purification, was not necessary. My student prepared me for the experience very well. She said, “Ms Finney, when you enter the mosque, just go in with the mindset that you are there to talk to Allah himself.” That’s where she lost me, I’m down with Jesus, but I didn’t tell her that. The women’s prayer session was very warm and the ladies

• We must follow the Old Testament Laws that are also shown in the New Testament. VII. How did your experiences shape your understanding of and relationship with God? • The experiences that shaped my understanding and relationship with God was when God let me know that, I was the chosen one to help make disciples of the nation by utilizing my spiritual gifts and talents that God bestowed to me. The Lord blessed me thus, I can be a blessing to others.

Education: noun the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university

     Another part of the service that I did not get to witness was the actual baptizing part. In the English service they do not have a pool to baptize people in. They only baptize people in the Spanish service so I was not able to see this happen. The rest of the service was all about the preacher preaching. His sermon was not right out of the bible. He talked about real life situations that are related to what the bible talks about so I found it better to relate to what is going on in your life. It got pretty boring though when he kept on talking for around thirty to forty-five minutes. The whole service was around an hour and forty-five minutes to two hours.

In addition, I visited a local mosque to experience firsthand a Muslim prayer service. Finally, I interviewed a coworker to discover an inside view of the Islam religion from someone who practices the religion. The coworker has been a Muslim since birth and was very pleased to share his experiences with Allah (God) with me and was happy to answer my questions about Islam.

Many empires converted to Christianity, which was shaped by one person, Jesus Christ. Hebrews were made into slaves, and wanted a good, strong leader. In 63 BC, they then experienced independence. Four years later, in AD 66, there was a Jewish revolt and the Hebrews were abolished by the Romans. It was soon after that Jesus’ teachings began to spread. This idea began, because everyone had heard that He had conquered death. Jesus’ mission was to top off the salvation that was promised to Israel by God. The people of the empire believed it was the Messiah who would defend Israel from its enemies. This was only the beginning to the rise of Christianity.

In Baptist history there has always been differences in doctrine. This has unfortunately resulted, at times, to separate believers from one another. This can be evident from comparing two American Baptist confessions. The most notable difference in doctrine between The Philadelphia Confession of 1742 and A Treatise on the Faith of the Free Will Baptists, 1834 and 1948 is the doctrine of Calvinism versus free-will. The Philadelphia Confession supported Calvinism and the Free Will Baptists supported Arminianism. A closer look at these two confessions show that throughout Baptist history certain doctrines remain constant while others are debated and cause separation of believers. However, this has not stopped the Gospel message to be preached

In my second field experience, I’d decided to go to a Baptist church. However, I did not come from a religious background. Although I am not completely in the dark when it comes to religion I have learn about different religion through friends and books. Therefore, I thought this would be a great opportunity to finally experience a service and put my ignorance aside. Meaning the assumption and expectation I had of church service. Furthermore, it provided me the opportunity to challenge myself and my own biases I have towards going to church. Once I went to church I was surprise to see so many black people, for the first time since I moved too Greensburg, I was actual able to see a room overflowing with individual who looked just like me, my first emotion was excitement and enjoy. Some of my expectation, was something I have learned from my mother. My mother always told me that “black people churches last longer”, with this in mind I was prepare to be there for a long time. However, to my surprise it did not last as long as I’d expected it to. My overall experience, was warming, peaceful and positive.