Being Christian and Collecting Gay Anime Figures

[IceJad]

Dear Nebula1,

If you collect the figure because you love the character then I see no wrong in it. You're not worshiping it or anything. You're not performing any ritual with it. It's no different than playing with a barbie doll or G.I Joe action figure.

It only becomes an issue when you start putting spirituality into the figures that it becomes a sin. A sin that can easily be done with common house hold objects like knives, family portrait and the like. Willingly inviting evil in. It not the object that is sinful but your own act. For nothing that goes into you can defile you but what comes from you (Matthew 15:11).

So no worry as long as you have God in your heart He promise you that you will have no need fear curse even when you accidentally come into possession of a cursed object. For with God in you He is greater than any curse.

Proverbs 26:2
Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest.

1 John 4:4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world

 

[IceJad]

It's not about me being visited by anything supernatural, Buddhists don't necessarily believe that in every manifestation and you can just as easily call me atheist with Buddhist influences, not Buddhist as you mistakenly seem to think merely because of associations with the label

Then the issue is with your own profile misrepresenting your belief. If you're not a Buddhist, then don't label yourself as such. And get workup when people call you as such. It's disingenuous at best.

 

[Nebula1]

Dear Nebula1,

If you collect the figure because you love the character then I see no wrong in it. You're not worshiping it or anything. You're not performing any ritual with it. It's no different than playing with a barbie doll or G.I Joe action figure.

It only becomes an issue when you start putting spirituality into the figures that it becomes a sin. A sin that can easily be done with common house hold objects like knives, family portrait and the like. Willingly inviting evil in. It not the object that is sinful but your own act. For nothing that goes into you can defile you but what comes from you (Matthew 15:11).

So no worry as long as you have God in your heart He promise you that you will have no need fear curse even when you accidentally come into possession of a cursed object. For with God in you He is greater than any curse.

Proverbs 26:2
Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest.

1 John 4:4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world

Sorry for such a late reply and thank you for your kind words it meake me feel so much better hearing other peoles take and opinions so are you're the best post thx once again.

 

[muichimotsu]

Dear Nebula1,

If you collect the figure because you love the character then I see no wrong in it. You're not worshiping it or anything. You're not performing any ritual with it. It's no different than playing with a barbie doll or G.I Joe action figure.

It only becomes an issue when you start putting spirituality into the figures that it becomes a sin. A sin that can easily be done with common house hold objects like knives, family portrait and the like. Willingly inviting evil in. It not the object that is sinful but your own act. For nothing that goes into you can defile you but what comes from you (Matthew 15:11).

So no worry as long as you have God in your heart He promise you that you will have no need fear curse even when you accidentally come into possession of a cursed object. For with God in you He is greater than any curse.

Proverbs 26:2
Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest.

1 John 4:4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world

How did you get to curses? That's hardly demonstrated even in the bible to be a thing and even if it was, how are we supposed to determine whether something is cursed even if it's just some mundane item like a figure from a fictional series? Are my plushies cursed? Are the little Hotei sculptures I got years ago cursed because they're not Christian? Or can a cross be cursed somehow?

 

[muichimotsu]

Then the issue is with your own profile misrepresenting your belief. If you're not a Buddhist, then don't label yourself as such. And get workup when people call you as such. It's disingenuous at best.

There's not one flavor, in the same vein as Christians. Atheism isn't a religion, that's why I don't use it as a descriptor, because that's dishonest and oversimplifying things.

If you think you know Buddhism by all means, try and tell me what you think I believe by association. Theravada are pretty much atheist by all intents and purposes, for instance. I'm not saying I'm Buddhist in the sense you could find otherwise, that's selective interpretation to make me seem like a liar.

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

Thanks, yeah I was getting attacked until I got rid of some sinful decoration from my home. Now it's gone Strange how that works.

Indeed. Would be an interesting experiment to let one of your friends to put some "decoration" behind a self that you did not know was either proper or inproper.

Then you could decide if you were attacked or not. Change the decoration now and then and figure out how the attacks went and ceased.

Afterwards you could see if your feelings for attacks were in any relation to the sinfulness of the hidden decoration.

 

[IceJad]

There's not one flavor, in the same vein as Christians. Atheism isn't a religion, that's why I don't use it as a descriptor, because that's dishonest and oversimplifying things.

If you think you know Buddhism by all means, try and tell me what you think I believe by association. Theravada are pretty much atheist by all intents and purposes, for instance. I'm not saying I'm Buddhist in the sense you could find otherwise, that's selective interpretation to make me seem like a liar.

Ah the semantic argument. Just because atheism is not a religion doesn't mean you can't put it in the religion column. The point of the religion column is for you to tell other people what you believe. Is just putting atheism in the column such a contention because it was label as religion?

My point was never about the Buddhist beliefs nor its theology. It's about you misrepresenting yourself and getting worked up and angry. Just look at your own replies.

Look I was a Buddhist before I converted. You assume I don't know a thing about Buddhism solely by my Lutheran label. You should take your own advise on assumptions. Anyway you don't have to guess. I'm a Malaysian and majority of Malaysian Buddhists belong to the Mahayana school with a tint of ancestral believes and Taoism. And yes I was a Mahayana Buddhist.

Buddy if anything you should take a step back and look at how you replied to other posts. To put it mildly it's disrespectful. You project too much with too little actual points besides saying this is not Jesus teaching and why should things be this way and not that way. There are better ways to disagree.

 

[IceJad]

How did you get to curses? That's hardly demonstrated even in the bible to be a thing and even if it was, how are we supposed to determine whether something is cursed even if it's just some mundane item like a figure from a fictional series? Are my plushies cursed? Are the little Hotei sculptures I got years ago cursed because they're not Christian? Or can a cross be cursed somehow?

You really don't read my post properly do you. I already said the object is not sinful but the person using it to perform rituals and worship makes himself sinful. Your action figures are not sinful but when you use it to perform rituals like witchcraft then it is sinful. The person made it sinful by willingly inviting evil into his life.

Leviticus 19:31
Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.

Yes there are curses it's all over the Bible. You get cursed when a person curses you it's just that simple. It need not be a demonic curse or in the name of some Pagan deity. Like you would like to assume. A simple "I wish death and suffering upon you" is a curse or "I wish this item will cause you pain" is a curse. Whether you will be affected by it is up to God. And God has promised that an unjust curse will never take hold. You can look at the verses in my original post.

Just because something is not Christian doesn't mean its cursed. How you came to that conclusion is beyond me. You clearly don't read the Bible in its entirety. But a simple google search with key words like curse and Bible will return 1000's of results.

 

[muichimotsu]

Ah the semantic argument. Just because atheism is not a religion doesn't mean you can't put it in the religion column. The point of the religion column is for you to tell other people what you believe. Is just putting atheism in the column such a contention because it was label as religion?

My point was never about the Buddhist beliefs nor its theology. It's about you misrepresenting yourself and getting worked up and angry. Just look at your own replies.

Look I was a Buddhist before I converted. You assume I don't know a thing about Buddhism solely by my Lutheran label. You should take your own advise on assumptions. Anyway you don't have to guess. I'm a Malaysian and majority of Malaysian Buddhists belong to the Mahayana school with a tint of ancestral believes and Taoism. And yes I was a Mahayana Buddhist.

Buddy if anything you should take a step back and look at how you replied to other posts. To put it mildly it's disrespectful. You project too much with too little actual points besides saying this is not Jesus teaching and why should things be this way and not that way. There are better ways to disagree.

When someone uses religion in that sense that would be attributed to things generally considered a religion but then makes atheism fall under that, it's not accurate, I studied religion as my major in college and continue to educate myself. It's not even a belief to be atheist, and that's not semantics, there's a more precise term for outright believing there is no God, which isn't what I say.

Religion is not the same as worldview and the same myopic notion applies in criticism, because atheism is a facet of worldview, it's not a worldview unto itself, there aren't implicit or explicit things that are expected, so it's like using theist as a descriptor for a religion, when it's a position on a single question that comprises part of one's worldview.

You misinterpret, I'm not misrepresenting a thing, because it's not just one grouping and, last I checked, it's just Buddhist, there's not really a nuance, because why would they care about non Christian religions in terms of the denominational distinctions? Maybe I'm wrong, it happens.

I'll admit I was mistaken, and you bringing up the Mahayana is making my point for me: I mentioned Theravada and you seem to just think that because of your upbringing that's what should automatically be associated with Buddhism? Did you never hear about any other forms?

What you're describing is more the Asian tendency of eclecticism and such, like how Japan, something I study in particular, incorporates various aspects of a number of religions

So me criticizing how superstitious and nonsensical the ideas people put forward is disrespectful? Ideas don't deserve respect, they're not sacrosanct, particularly unfalsifiable ones that attribute evil nature to mere objects, among other aspects of Xianity I still find utterly reprehensible, some I've seen pretty consistently too. If one disagrees, at least give some substance to the beliefs and not just parroting

 

[muichimotsu]

You really don't read my post properly do you. I already said the object is not sinful but the person using it to perform rituals and worship makes himself sinful. Your action figures are not sinful but when you use it to perform rituals like witchcraft then it is sinful. The person made it sinful by willingly inviting evil into his life.

Leviticus 19:31
Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.

Yes there are curses it's all over the Bible. You get cursed when a person curses you it's just that simple. It need not be a demonic curse or in the name of some Pagan deity. Like you would like to assume. A simple "I wish death and suffering upon you" is a curse or "I wish this item will cause you pain" is a curse. Whether you will be affected by it is up to God. And God has promised that an unjust curse will never take hold. You can look at the verses in my original post.

Just because something is not Christian doesn't mean its cursed. How you came to that conclusion is beyond me. You clearly don't read the Bible in its entirety. But a simple google search with key words like curse and Bible will return 1000's of results.

Feels like a stretch to go from defiling yourself to "curse", which tends to have a more specific notion about it, though I doubt it's entirely universal across various positions of occultism.

The feelings themselves are not curses, that's adding an extraneous and superfluous terminology to what can just be described as negative or hurtful. I wouldn't disagree that thinking those things about someone or ascribing some superstitious value to an object is silly, but you've failed to demonstrate how the OP is actually doing anything remotely ritualistic by merely collecting figures. It's basically a red herring fallacy: someone possibly doing that is not relevant if we have no information to suggest that the OP is doing such a thing, which would be concerning, even to me who doesn't believe in the supernatural to begin with

Oh, so we have no protection from anything unless God wants us to? Seems oddly convenient in the same vein of us having freewill, but God having a plan and being sovereign, cognitive dissonance on display

The internet can give you many results in a search that have no basis to them, it's mere assertions and expecting me to take your bible seriously as anything holding truth claims about reality that are remotely unique to it is the faulty thinking you've begun with.

 

[muichimotsu]

Indeed. Would be an interesting experiment to let one of your friends to put some "decoration" behind a self that you did not know was either proper or inproper.

Then you could decide if you were attacked or not. Change the decoration now and then and figure out how the attacks went and ceased.

Afterwards you could see if your feelings for attacks were in any relation to the sinfulness of the hidden decoration.

And that's the problem with experiments involving the supernatural: you have qualification upon qualification until, like the invisible gardener, it might as well not exist at all and there'd be no need to attribute supposed "attacks" to supposed "evil spirits" or even "sin"

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

And that's the problem with experiments involving the supernatural: you have qualification upon qualification until, like the invisible gardener, it might as well not exist at all and there'd be no need to attribute supposed "attacks" to supposed "evil spirits" or even "sin"

It mostly how you approach something philosophically. You get enraged when someone slights you. Whatever you see this as lack of selfcontrol or attack of rage demon seems to be dependant on your viewpoint....

 

[muichimotsu]

It mostly how you approach something philosophically. You get enraged when someone slights you. Whatever you see this as lack of selfcontrol or attack of rage demon seems to be dependant on your viewpoint....

And yet not all positions can be equally true, so how would you determine something in a remotely objective fashion? Occam's razor comes to mind: which explanation involves the least assumptions? A person getting angry doesn't have to be some outside force, it's you responding in a negative way to an emotion that is stimulated.

Science doesn't deal in the supernatural, esp. when it's generally defined in such a way that it's unfalsifiable and also generally just beyond investigation, part of science's process.

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

Occam's razor comes to mind

When talking about religious stuff Occam`s razor is usually the last blade wielded.....

 

[muichimotsu]

When talking about religious stuff Occam`s razor is usually the last blade wielded.....

Because special pleading, exactly the problem at the root of the fallacious reasoning. Making different standards apply when you're talking about what is supposed to be a relatively consistent reality suggests to me it's neither consistent nor real, in the vein of things people tend to take less seriously than religion, like psychics and astrology, along with ghosts and magic

 

[KarateCowboy]

Those PVC anime figurines are waaaay overpriced and a huge waste of money. I'd feel guilty about spending money on them more than the vices of the characters they represent.

 

[muichimotsu]

There are sales, probably, that can get them cheaper, but it's definitely not for everyone and some don't even go further. I got one from a convention, sold it for maybe $30 later (broken a bit), realized I didn't want to deal with the maintenance, etc.

And most people that collect them are pretty particular in what they get in the first place (Gundam, idol singers, bishounen, etc). Long as they're financially frugal and practical, I could care less as to what they buy.

Heck, I bought volume 17 of Black Clover, even though I only have 1-3 otherwise because it was on sale and I had gift card balance to spend. Do I want to get the others? Of course

 

[fwGod]

So here's my question, feel free to answer even if you're not religious, but religious opinions are preferred so I'm a christian girl that likes collecting anime figures and I ran across this dramatical murder anime figure that I really want to

Collect, and keep in my that the anime character is gay and I was wondering would it be wrong for me to get it if it was just for art purpose and not because of lust or anything thanks in advance to those who answer.

I'm not going to beat around the bush. You saying that you really want to have it.. is lust.

Anime isn't Christian. They don't have Christian values. Some times they portray good morals and other times they don't.

The social relationships in Japan are stringent. .. just holding hands is called sexual harassment. So their anime takes freedom from such societal hinderances. Children use guns to fight battles with demons or or human bullies. And sexual situations happen accidentally or openly.

Those kinds of things are not in keeping with a godly Christian lifestyle. However, there are some anime that portrays decent behavior and family situations.

You ask is it wrong to want gun toting, gay anime characters.. I'd say yes.

 

[muichimotsu]

I'm not going to beat around the bush. You saying that you really want to have it.. is lust.

Anime isn't Christian. They don't have Christian values. Some times they portray good morals and other times they don't.

The social relationships in Japan are stringent. .. just holding hands is called sexual harassment. So their anime takes freedom from such societal hinderances. Children use guns to fight battles with demons or or human bullies. And sexual situations happen accidentally or openly.

Those kinds of things are not in keeping with a godly Christian lifestyle. However, there are some anime that portrays decent behavior and family situations.

You ask is it wrong to want gun toting, gay anime characters.. I'd say yes.

She can say she really wants to without it being greed or the like, esp. if they're considering that it might not be necessary

Animation has no religion, only content creators

I'd like some sourcing for the idea that holding hands is called sexual harassment: at most there are series where such things are cause for a disciplinary committee member (a fellow student in Japan, usually) to cry foul, but not charge someone with a crime

Fiction exists in any country's popular culture, the problem isn't the content, it's people taking it seriously rather than distinguishing it as a story that isn't reflecting reality

Sexual situations don't happen as a matter of course in every series, you're committing a sharpshooter fallacy in ignoring anything that doesn't fit your preconception, which is honestly more anime than you probably realize that doesn't have sexual situations

Oh, some anime: you mind pointing those out? And Superbook and such don't count, those already fit in line with Christianity by adapting the stories in their holy text (not to mention I seem to recall Superbook was commissioned by TBN back in the day)

And I'd say by your logic, you might as well just not engage with fiction at all unless it's so limited in scope that you can't even appreciate something like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter without the "temptation" of something "evil"

 

[fwGod]

She can say she really wants to without it being greed or the like, esp. if they're considering that it might not be necessary

Greed or lust is an unrighteous desire for something that the world promotes with intent to get a person to want it.

Animation has no religion, only content creators

Did I say that animation was a religion? No.

I'd like some sourcing for the idea that holding hands is called sexual harassment: at most there are series where such things are cause for a disciplinary committee member (a fellow student in Japan, usually) to cry foul, but not charge someone with a crime

To be clear, I said that it was considered as sexual harassment. I didn't say that it was sexual harassment. It being considered the same as, is evident by depictions in the anime. Where greater depictions of sexual harassment can also be seen.

I am aware (by videos on correct japanese behavior) that the Japanese people do not encourage displays of romantic expression: the holding of hands or kissing in public.

Fiction exists in any country's popular culture, the problem isn't the content, it's people taking it seriously rather than distinguishing it as a story that isn't reflecting reality.

When it comes to sexual behaviors in anime.. it is reflecting reality.

Sexual situations don't happen as a matter of course in every series, you're committing a sharpshooter fallacy in ignoring anything that doesn't fit your preconception, which is honestly more anime than you probably realize that doesn't have sexual situations.

I did mention in my post the contrast of anime which are family oriented. So what are you doing by not mentioning that just to label me with a false fallacy?

Oh, some anime: you mind pointing those out? And Superbook and such don't count, those already fit in line with Christianity by adapting the stories in their holy text (not to mention I seem to recall Superbook was commissioned by TBN back in the day)

I am amused whenever someone presumes something on me that I wouldn't do.

I don't watch TBN nor have I seen "Superbook" but I assume that it's American animation.. Biblical in kind. Whereas Japanese Anime isn't. So, really.. why try to use it as a comparison?

There are lists of Family based anime. Look them up yourself. But, it's been a long time since I've looked at Clannad so I couldn't say for sure if it had a level of PDA in it or not. Another is Bamboo, again if there's anything PDA in that I don't recall.

Another anime that I can't remember the title of.. the girl writes a story and the boy plays a violin. The American song "Country Roads" is featured in it. And again, if there's PDA I don't recall. There's another anime that I can't think of the title.. about a girl whose parents eat so much they turn into pigs, and boy who is turned into a dragon. If I recall correctly there's no PDA in that.

And I'd say by your logic, you might as well just not engage with fiction at all unless it's so limited in scope that you can't even appreciate something like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter without the "temptation" of something "evil"

This is a matter of personal conviction. The person asked what she should do, therefore whatever a response according to a person's convictions are.. is allowable to give.

The two movies that you mentioned left the topic of anime and jumped over into fiction.. So by your own statements.. they don't count.
However, I did watch "Lord of the Rings." The information I researched, stated that a Christian wrote it.
Whereas "Harry Potter" is a book that introduces children to witchcraft. I had that conviction on my own, but it's also confirmed by an ex-witch.