Help Requested *God Bless*

[quest4christ]

Hello, I am a Lutheran conducting an "online religion" project for my religion class at my local university.

The only way I am able to complete this project is if I have responses from people on online forums like yourselves. I also hope to get some personal answers through my research

If you would like to help me, please respond the questions I have created below. It would be phenomenal if you could answer all five of the questions, but even answering one of the questions would greatly help my research.

Thank you very much
[FONT=&quot]1. How, if at all, has participating in this forum changed the way you go about asking religious questions, having religious conversations, or interacting “religiously” with others in general while you are offline? [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]2. Do you feel a need to approach religious topics in real life [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]conversations because you have this forum where you can instantly get responses from countless people? [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]3. This might be a difficult question to answer truthfully. Please PM me if you feel uncomfortable answering it in an open forum; your results will be kept confidential[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]: Do you feel that you act or present yourself in a different way in this online community compared to when you interact with people when you are offline? [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4. How has your offline life changed the way you act or present yourself on this website? [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5. Does this website contribute to the “compartmentalization” of religion for you? (the separation of various aspects of your life). In other words, does being a part of this website serve as your only religious outlet, or does it further facilitate the integration of religion in your day-to-day life? [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Have a blessed day! [/FONT]

 

[lovernotafighter]

Hi there. I don't know if you can use this, because I'm not Lutheran but I'll do it anyway, and if you can well then that's great.

1. It hasn't particularly, but it does bring up some interesting points when I try to discuss my religious differences with my parents. And it increases my understanding of other faiths.

2. No, I usually approach religious conversations anyway and usually don't ask for help here.

3. Yes. Being a desperately-wanting-out-Catholic, who is surrounded by a very Catholic immediate and extended family, and going to the most conservative Catholic school around, this is the only place where I get to openly discuss my beliefs and be myself religiously, without getting punished because someone can't answer my arguments.

4. The aforesaid circumstances in question 3 have made me quite anti-Catholic, to be honest, which I suppose runs of in some of my posts here.

5. It is actually, my only non-Catholic religious outlet, besides reading the Bible. As for other religious outlets, I go to Catholic mass twice a week and have religion class everyday at school.

Good luck on your study!

 

[quest4christ]

Thanks so much for your reply!

Anyone else? Even replying to one question would help my research greatly!

Have a great day!


Sincerely,

q4c

 

[Kalevalatar]

As a member of the Evangelical Church of Finland:

[FONT=&quot]1. How, if at all, has participating in this forum changed the way you go about asking religious questions, having religious conversations, or interacting “religiously” with others in general while you are offline? [/FONT]

Well, it has certainly improved my "religious" English vocabulary!

Well, jokes & jesting aside, I come from the very old, very "traditional" Scandinavian/Nordic Lutheran and very, very homogenous tradition. Our trad. "state"/national churches act like "umbrella" organizations, and we as Scandinavian/Nordic people are known to be very concensus minded, if you like, although I cannot quite explain why, esp. vis-à-vis. the North/American traditon. You see, we actively make room for dissidents in the name of unity, whereas the North/Americans seem very eager to break away and establish church groups of their own at the slightest hint of disagreement (I tend to call these the "acronym" churches, as I cannot quite keep up with them). Learning about these different NA divisions of Lutheranism and their ostensibly "deep" divisions has been a real eye-opener for me. Before meeting this online community, I did not realize even us Lutherans were so deeply devided.

[FONT=&quot]2. Do you feel a need to approach religious topics in real life [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]conversations because you have this forum where you can instantly get responses from countless people? [/FONT]

If I understood the question correctly, the answer is "no." I have plenty of people to "argue"/test my thesis with in "real life". If anything, this forum serves to enrich my picture, as my day-to-day reality is elsewhere, so to speak. To be sure, I have lived in NA -- both Canada and the United States of America -- so in a way, this forum keeps up my "nostalgia", as there are things I prefer here "back at home" and things I would prefer the North/American way.

In Finland, The "religious" people/conversations I tend to meet are either Lutheran or Eastern Orthodox, with very few Catholics and Jews thrown in. So this forum also serves as a welcome "window" and opportunity to interact with Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, etc., also including "diehard" atheists, which are very hard to come by in my neck of the woods despite all "hype."

[FONT=&quot]3. This might be a difficult question to answer truthfully. Please PM me if you feel uncomfortable answering it in an open forum; your results will be kept confidential[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]: Do you feel that you act or present yourself in a different way in this online community compared to when you interact with people when you are offline? [/FONT]

You are right: this is not an easy question.

My answer must be yes. For one thing, in Finland, my voice is just of the many, many voices. Here, in the Christian Forums, I activily feel like a diplomat, that I do not represent just myself and my opinion, but us the Finns, more importantly, us as the Luthrens and Lutheran Finns/Nordics, as there are so few of us, but also as us as the Scandinavian/Nordic Christians of the World.

[FONT=&quot]4. How has your o[/FONT][FONT=&quot]ffline life changed the way you act or present yourself on this website? [/FONT]

I no longer take my "religious partners"/their "religious understanding" as "granted" as I used to. Yet, despite all our ostensibly doctrinal differences, I still feel humbled that we all, still, face the same cross and the same sacrifice of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ.

Those who turn to their prophet Mohammed, or their God Yahwed, now, really, really, can they, hand to heart, in their own internal differences and disputes, say the same?

[FONT=&quot]5. Does this website contribute to the “compartmentalization” of religion for you? (the separation of various aspects of your life). In other words, does being a part of this website serve as your only religious outlet, or does it further facilitate the integration of religion in your day-to-day life?[/FONT]

My answer must be a resounding "no."

I am a (vocal, excuse me!! ) political animal. Because, as I understand it, "politics" is nothing more "sinister" than "taking care of our mutual business/es."

And I do, do want to take care of my community, both local and national, as well as my global neighbours (if not *that* much in (Western/Northern Europe or North America, where so many of us already have it so well, better than anyone else in the entire history of God's creation).

But in a world where my one, single, day's earnings could feed a poor family for a whole month, or even a year, or maybe a half. What I DO know is, my dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, did not come here to establish an earthly kingdom of earhly greed and wealth.

Nothing more than an anecdote, I do realize, but I once had a deeply, and I do mean a deeply, deeply Catholic woman, whom I did so, so deeply respect, mind you, to tell me, that the decision that the President (of the United States of America) does is/are somehow still somehow removed from our Lord Jesus Christ: that the decision(s) that the POTUS, although, by his own word, a Christian, the follower of Our Lord Jesus Christ, do or do not, must be, somehow, based on this thing "real politik", AND that, in the eyes of all of this, Our Lord Jesus is, "somehow" only something for Sunday at 10 o'clock and nothing more, is TRULY, truly disturbing.

[FONT=&quot]Have a blessed day! [/FONT]

Have a very blessed second avent!