1) I was just being open-minded about those in the past, but if you want to pin me down on morality, I would say that generally I adhere to Descriptive Moral Relativism (also called cultural relativism), the main tenet being that morality is culturally defined, and cultures change over time. I will not accept moral absolutism. We can't base our morality on what mortal men (and notably JUST men) wrote in a book more than 2000 years ago. Is it moral to kill a woman who seizes the private parts of a man without his permission? The Bible says so. I say no. I could make a list of such things all day long.
2) Fat Hurts, I made a reference there to what the Bible says is acceptable and expected to do to people who work on the Sabbath. If you are not familiar with The Bible to the level that I am, I can not help that.
3) The pool of Christianity is just too polluted now. It's not that I care what others think. It's that I don't want to associate with the vast majority of today's Christians. I will consider Jesus to be a great teacher and the Bible to have some good guidance, but there is no absolute truth in The Bible, and I will not be associated with those who believe so. I will wash my hands before eating and will not kill a fig tree if it is not currently bearing fruit.
4) I just made an off-hand comment that no one called him "Jesus" (which is true), and for some reason this really bothers you and you think it meant more than it did. Seems that you didn't know that. No harm in that. I did not bring it up to bother you.
5) If you stop at "A Christian follows the word of Jesus." I can agree with that. I can take that to mean not every single thing he says in a Modern English translation of The Bible. I do NOT believe he is literally the Son of God, and there are Christian denominations past and present who also would not say that is a requirement. Like I said earlier, I will wash my hands before eating and will not kill a fig tree if it is not currently bearing fruit.
Religious scholars have disagreements about what it takes to be a Christian, so I'm not about to take your definition as "the one". Again, the inflexibility of current Christians is much of what drove me away. I'm hardly unique there.
4200 religions on this Earth. You are a Christian because you have a personality that is accepting of an omnipotent being and you were born in a predominately Christian part of the world. Had you been born elsewhere, you would be Muslim or Hindu or some religion you don't even know exists. Most of them profess to be the one religion...can't get to Heaven if you don't do X, will go to Hell of you do Y. Ridiculous to believe that The Bible has it right and all other religions are wrong.
When my daughter was 10, a church camp counselor told her that all Jewish people were going to hell. She was terrified and cried for a few days after that because she had and still has Jewish friends. This was a liberal United Methodist Church camp. F*ck that and the horse that guy rode in on.
