I was watching some church show the other day, some preacher guy with a TV church, you may know the type. He said “you can’t pick and choose what parts of the Bible you believe in.” That’s exactly what he’s doing.
First of all, Protestantism is nothing but picking and choosing, believing some of Jesus’ words over others, and in some cases believing in the exact opposite of what Jesus said.
But look at everything else about this guy. Jesus clearly established the church along apostolic lines. Now randos go to “Bible college” and become “bishops” in some fake hierarchy outside of any established apostolic line and they believe they’re part of a legitimate church.
He clearly believes in many of the social norms that have established long after biblical times. What constitutes appropriate dress codes has changed dramatically. A lot of “traditionally feminine” women’s fashion today was men’s fashion 200 years ago, and “traditionally masculine” men’s fashion was ad hoc regulations adopted by soldiers in WW1, except now things have changed and the church that misinterpreted the injunction on women covering their heads in church and men leaving their heads uncovered to mean “women must have long hair and men must have short hair” (even though that didn’t exist until the 20th century), NOW that fashion has changed again and men are saying “fuck it, we’re growing long hair and beards like men have had for thousands of years and it was never against church rules” NOW the “conservative” “traditional” churches have no problem with men with long hair and beards, or women wearing horse riding clothing that men adopted a century prior and used to be considered “crossdressing” but now it’s a-ok. Just like tattoos. Tattoos were forbidden until it became a social norm, now there are loads of church people who are covered head to toe with tattoos and it’s perfectly fine because what’s “traditional” and “conservative” changes with time.
He believes in women preachers even though there is an injunction against that. I heard one of these TV churchmen say “Well this woman in this book of the Bible was said to have been “respected” by an Apostle, so that means she was a preacher, and this other woman was said to be a “co-worker” of an Apostle and we all know co-workers must do the same thing and can’t work in different departments and have different duties, so that means she was a preacher.” I’ve had co-workers who’ve done vastly different things than me, and I’ve respected people who’ve done vastly different things than me. It’s bullshit.
Why do people leave the church? Two reasons: 1. they’re sexual deviants who don’t want someone telling them that sexual deviance is a sin*, and 2. they belong to some church that’s changed so much that it’s clear that church doesn’t really believe in anything. The more conservative (in the truest sense of the word) churches are the ones that are surviving while the more liberal churches that change doctrine with the times are the ones that are falling apart.
*Shit, I and probably everyone else who uses this site are sexual deviants, and I’m under no illusion that it’s good and right, but that doesn’t make me reject church doctrine as untrue because it says that I’m a sinner like literally everyone else on the planet. It’s childish to pretend like you’re free of sin because your sin makes you feel good. Of course it does, that’s the whole point.