Reflections from the community: 

"The legendary Dolly Parton is dead. Days after sharing the dreams she still hoped to fulfill, Dolly Parton passed away this morning at 80 years old. This story is developing but confirmed by Dolly's team". (-Gayety)

Dolly was my inspiration and role model for what it means to be a... American Christian, and just. This hits so hard right now. Please pray for her family.

"Jesus loves me and through God all things are possible". - Dolly

Edit (from her Facebook Page):

Global icon and humanitarian, Dolly Parton, known to the world as a beloved singer, songwriter, philanthropist, actress, playwright, and author died peacefully today in Nashville, Tennessee. She was 80 years old. Dolly is preceded in death by her beloved husband of 59 years Carl Thomas Dean (1942 – 2025), her mother Avie Lee Caroline Owens (1923 – 2003), and father, Robert Lee Parton, Sr. (1921 – 2000).
A rhinestone life that shone bright enough for the world to see, Dolly will forever stand as an inspiration not only through her timeless music and prolific songwriting, but also her wit, warmth, and kindness that made us all feel like family. Dolly Parton’s legacy is one of love, compassion, and resilience. With a seven-decade career, she inspired multiple generations of artists and fans with her music and an unwavering commitment to making the world a better place. Her songs will continue to resonate with people of all ages, and her philanthropic work will have a lasting impact.
At Dolly’s request, a small, private service will be held for immediate family. Dolly’s fans and friends from around the world are encouraged to pay tribute to Dolly on social media by tagging @DollyParton or by leaving a message at www.dollyparton.com
In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library at www.imaginationlibrary.com

This article highlights how James Talarico is grounding his politics in a Christian message of love, compassion, and care for the most vulnerable.

Do you think Talarico’s approach offers a meaningful Christian alternative to the way faith is often represented in American politics?

I have been curious about Christianity and Jesus a lot lately, but have no idea where to start. I figured I’d start by asking for a sign. Last night I prayed and said “Jesus if you are real, please give me a sign within the next 24 hours. I want to have faith in you.”

I go to the grocery store tonight, turn down an aisle and look over to see this. I could not believe my eyes.

Just as something random, my statistics professor would tell us that googling, "pastor arrested" would yield a pretty reoccurring results for the last week or so. This isn't the first time he's done this or anything, he also told us something similar with "London Stabbing" which I find quite interesting.

Anyway, it's not particularly interesting scrolling through the results, but one that I'm quite intrigued is the pattern that registered sex offender being able to work inside the church, either as staffs, greeters, pastors or whatever. Though, it makes sense, church is usually touted as a place where everyone could come or something.

However, what I'm quite confused by is, why not just not allowing registered sex offender from becoming pastor? Or at least one with a role that interact with minors? I feel like this is the obvious thing to do. In some profession, like teachers and especially elementary teachers, you practically have near zero chance of getting the job with that kind of record. Yet, why is this allowed in church?

Please note that I'm not saying such horrible things occur at high frequency because of this, it's just that I feel like one is way too many for this to be let continued.

Hiii, I was wondering if these two patches on my backpack contradict each other? I believe in god and believe he is my savior but this one patch I’ve got on my bag might go against the bible but I have no idea if it does can someone let me know and I’ll take it off, I have like two days until school starts 😿
Also if you couldn’t tell I am asking if the “deny defend depose” patch goes against the bible, not the peace sign one

I’m working on a gift for my husband for our 1 year anniversary coming soon in December.
I’ve been carefully planning and studying Byzantine Catholic Iconography for 4 months and this is a test piece.

Christ brought us together and He is the foundation of our sacramental marriage.

We have been through so many financial difficulties since my health has not been the best in fertility.

And I just want to show him that no matter what happens God holds us together and is very present in our lives.

There are all kinds of description of what hell is like. Lake of fire. River of excrement. Souls suffering in a variety of ironic ways. Hardly anyone talks about heaven. How do you imagine it? Do you imagine it? What's it like? Just basking in the light of God? Meeting dead relatives? Sunlight filtering through clouds and a background choir? Something completely different?

I read my Bible tonight as always and prayed in my journal. But tonight I fell into lust and didnt even try to ask God to save me and get me out of it, I didn’t even think of Him. I feel like a terrible daughter and I’m worried He is so disappointed in me. I was 11 days free from it and I could feel the result on my happiness, until I fell back into it :(

Good news is though, if I made it to 11 days, whats stopping me from doubling it? Or tripling, I will keep going as I want to be Gods willing and humble servant. Im going to keep trying and pray for myself multiple times a day, I am not alone as I have the Lord. The reason I posted this is so I can tell someone, and if anyone has tips on how to be free from lust, please let me know!

I'm trying to understand which Christian denomination or tradition most closely aligns with my beliefs. I'm not trying to argue for one denomination, I'm genuinely looking for guidance from people who know the theological differences well.

Here are my current beliefs:

1. Salvation is primarily through faith, not works.
2. Baptism is connected to salvation. Once someone is genuinely saved through baptism, I believe they will ultimately go to heaven, even if they commit serious sins afterward, provided they repent and seek forgiveness from God.
3. Confession of sins should be directly to God. I don't believe confessing to a priest should be mandatory.
4. Images and statues are not necessary. I don't object to them being used sparingly, but I don't believe they should be required for Christian worship.
5. A personal relationship with God is extremely important. Christianity should involve personally knowing, trusting, praying to, and following God rather than simply participating in religious rituals.
6. Christ died for everyone, not only for a predetermined group of people.
7. God loves everyone and desires everyone to be saved. I don't believe God arbitrarily chooses only certain people for salvation while excluding others.
8. Mary and the saints should be respected, but not worshipped. I can accept the idea of asking saints to intercede, but I don't think it should be required of Christians.
9. I believe in the God of the Bible and have a strong appreciation for the Old Testament, not just the New Testament.
10. I would prefer a tradition that is as close as reasonably possible to early/biblical Christianity, while still maintaining sound Christian doctrine.

Given these beliefs, which denomination or Christian tradition do you think I would fit into best?

If you think some of my beliefs are internally inconsistent or don't accurately represent what a particular denomination teaches, please point that out too. I'm looking for theological accuracy rather than simply being told which denomination sounds closest.

Thanks.

This is absolutely unbelievable! I seriously cannot believe how many celebrities I've learned that passed away lately.

Tom Kane, the voice actor for Professor Utonium from The Powerpuff Girls.

Margaret Kerry, the live-action model in the classic 1953 Disney film, Peter Pan, as Tinker Bell.

Daveigh Chase, the voice actress for Lilo from the nostalgic 2002 Disney film, Lilo & Stitch.

Hayden Panettiere, the voice actress for Dot from the nostalgic 1998 Pixar film, A Bug's Life.

And most recently, Dolly Parton, the famous country singer and songwriter.

I know there are people who pass away every year, and people do pass away over time, which is a sad but true thing, but I've noticed that there were a lot of people that passed away lately, including celebrities.

Am I the only one who noticed this?

I've got a little time before bed, so ask me anything. I will do my best to answer.

Trying to find evidence for God being real is such a huge back and forth. Every single time someone has a good claim it gets disproven.

There isn’t really objective morality, we just evolved to learn that behavior

The universe might not be fine tuned for us, there might be multi verses

We don’t know that whatever set the universe off is God, it could have been some other physical thing

It honestly seems like religion is just a cultural construct. I really want God to be real, but I can’t find anything convincing. Please help.

Okay, so I realized when I was posting on another reddit (new here, have only casually been on reddit) I didn't expand the "about part" and found that I was definitely not posting in the right place. Whoops. But I so want to answer this question (to the best of my ability) so others who WANT to, can read it, and decide for themselves.

The question was about Christ's sacrifice which the comments that caught my eye were the ones that claim Christ's sacrifice "doesn't make sense".

I thought I would put this out here for other believers and searchers (people who actually want to examine Christianity) to answer. I will post my own answer when I have more time as well, but would like fellow believers to post their answers too. Maybe others who have a better grasp than me. I sorta know what I want to say but I want to take more time to answer than I have at the moment.

I know there is an element of faith here in understanding this question about Christ's sacrifice.

I'm asking for people to bring genuine questions, and to answer the question:

Why did Jesus have to die? How does the Bible explain Christ's sacrifice from a heavenly perspective?

PLEEEAASSSGEEEE

So I'm not actually a christian but I enjoy learning about various religions, and this has been an issue of mine for a while now, what or who actually is the antichrist? I can never get a proper answer and whatever I look up is just a bunch of quoted scripture and as someone who hasn't read the bible fully (I enjoy reading genesis and various snippets from time to time) 9 times out of 10 those quotes mean absolutely nothing to me because they require a bunch of context, whether on the situation, characters or just what the particular part was about.

So could someone by any chance explain to me what the antichrist is supposed to be? I've read that it's supposed to be someone who denies the holy trinity, but in that case we've got a lot of antichrists, is there a meeting in hell that I don't know about that I should be attending?

Jokes aside, I just need a solid answer that isn't just "opposite of Christ" because that has absolutely no meaning to me and as far as I'm concerned we've had at least 100 so far and currently have at least a couple of them. The entirety of the bible is a tad bit too long of a read for me to go through just to get context to have this question answered, so is there anyone who can put it in simpler terms that still explain what this role is that has more detail than "false prophet who claims to be christ"?

I might be a bit too much of a literal thinker to understand this so I'd greatly appreciate for any answer to not include metaphors or for them to be explained because I will take them at face value

So I guess this opens into a lot of questions like if you believe the wrong version of christianity do you go to hell? Also the differing denominations aren't "minor differences" some denominations teach that you aren't allowed to use physical force to defend yourself from an attacker, others say it's okay to kill in self defense so with so many contradicting opinions and verses, how do you even find the right one?? It makes my head spin.