Lititz Springs Park

[ken_sylvania]

The early church did not own parkland which in turn was used for pagan worship against the church/landowner’s will, which is exactly what is happening here.

No, I imagine their property got confiscated first before it got turned into pagan temples.

The opposite is true. As Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, a number of early churches were built on the foundations of pagan temples.

Sigh...
Of course it's also true that pagan temples were destroyed and "Christian" churches built over the site. Are you suggesting that my statement was inaccurate? Or why the argumentative language?

[Jazman]

I’ll repeat myself: as a general rule, sincere believers do not wish to have their church property used for pagan idolatrous worship rituals. In this case, the Moravian church owns the property but a rebellious park board is refusing to honour the owner’s wishes. The church at this point would have to replace the board.

There is nothing noble or just about what the park board is doing. I wouldn’t try to wrest control from the owners of a synagogue and use it for Christian worship services against the owner’s wishes.

After reading the op article, it sounds a little more complicated than that... It seems there are differences of opinion within even the involved boards... (Park board, trustees board, etc). It sounds like some involved want to work out their differences and it also sounds like the LGBTQ org. is willing to change some things in order to please park board and church board... To another point, I assume there's a good faith process to replace members of the park board; maybe there's terms that will run out, etc. That process isn't mentioned. As a private entity that's kind of their business; not ours or even the local community.

As for everyone else, the event times are / will be published and probably more widely known than before. If you have children, religious convictions, sensibilities etc, then don't go into the park that evening... There have been equally vulgar/sin-inspiring 'events' happening in public places / private venues in Lanc Co. since its inhabitation. As a Christian who believes in God's gift of free will, I have a choice to participate or not and so does everyone else. By the same principle I allow them the choice of facilitating an event I wouldn't go to, plan, promote or facilitate.

[Josh]

I’ll repeat myself. My own church owns property that in various places gets used like a public park.

We would be very unhappy if other people found some way to force us to hold gay pride marches and drag shows on our church property.

I think we should all be able to agree that is very evil. The church doesn’t want drag shows held on its property and other people have found a way to force it to happen.

[Szdfan]

No, I imagine their property got confiscated first before it got turned into pagan temples.

The opposite is true. As Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, a number of early churches were built on the foundations of pagan temples.

Sigh...
Of course it's also true that pagan temples were destroyed and "Christian" churches built over the site. Are you suggesting that my statement was inaccurate? Or why the argumentative language?

I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be argumentative.

I'm not aware of a time in the early history of the church where churches were turned into pagan temples or places of worship. Most of the churches in early Christian period were house churches or shrines outside the borders of a city.

In case anyone is interested, there's a Wikipedia article on the Christianization of pagan sites. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianized_sites

[Josh]

Have you heard of Constantinople?

[ken_sylvania]

The opposite is true. As Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, a number of early churches were built on the foundations of pagan temples.

Sigh...
Of course it's also true that pagan temples were destroyed and "Christian" churches built over the site. Are you suggesting that my statement was inaccurate? Or why the argumentative language?

I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be argumentative.

I'm not aware of a time in the early history of the church where churches were turned into pagan temples or places of worship. Most of the churches in early Christian period were house churches or shrines outside the borders of a city.

In case anyone is interested, there's a Wikipedia article on the Christianization of pagan sites. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianized_sites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversio ... to_mosques

[Szdfan]

Have you heard of Constantinople?

(Rolls eyes). Islam isn't a pagan religion. Paganism refers to polytheistic, ethnic religions that pre-dated Christianity or the modern iterations that interpret and draw from those religions. The word "pagan" comes from the Latin pāgānus which meant "rural" or "rustic." Paganism has often had the connotations of bring the religion of peasants.

Most modern pagan religions are pantheistic, panentheistic, polytheistic, or animistic.

Islam isn't that. It's an Abrahamic, monotheistic, major religion that includes multiple ethnicities and races in it's demographic.

So yes, with the rise of the Ottoman Empire, multiple Christian sites throughout the Middle East and far eastern Europe were converted to mosques. But Islam is generally not considered to be pagan.

[Szdfan]

Sigh...
Of course it's also true that pagan temples were destroyed and "Christian" churches built over the site. Are you suggesting that my statement was inaccurate? Or why the argumentative language?

I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be argumentative.

I'm not aware of a time in the early history of the church where churches were turned into pagan temples or places of worship. Most of the churches in early Christian period were house churches or shrines outside the borders of a city.

In case anyone is interested, there's a Wikipedia article on the Christianization of pagan sites. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianized_sites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversio ... to_mosques

Like I responded to Josh, Islam is not generally considered a pagan religion.

[Josh]

(Rolls eyes). Islam isn't a pagan religion. Paganism refers to polytheistic, ethnic religions that pre-dated Christianity or the modern iterations that interpret and draw from those religions. The word "pagan" comes from the Latin pāgānus which meant "rural" or "rustic." Paganism has often had the connotations of bring the religion of peasants.

Most modern pagan religions are pantheistic, panentheistic, polytheistic, or animistic.

Islam isn't that. It's an Abrahamic, monotheistic, major religion that includes multiple ethnicities and races in it's demographic.

So yes, with the rise of the Ottoman Empire, multiple Christian sites throughout the Middle East and far eastern Europe were converted to mosques. But Islam is generally not considered to be pagan.

An alternative view is that Islam is indeed a pagan religion, starting with, for example, its rather odd practice of worshipping the moon (and using it as a symbol all over the place, despite claiming to be against “idols”).

[Josh]

Like I responded to Josh, Islam is not generally considered a pagan religion.

As Christians, most of us would believe that Islam is a false religion that does not save, and would not quibble about the definition of “pagan”.

Only faith and belief in Jesus can save. All other religions are false. We are very comfortable calling false faiths pagan or heathen.