Lutheranism is weird, it seems to also be particularly strict. Martin Luther was weird dude.
To be fair, a ton of us are descended from North Germans and Scandinavians, who were some of the most Protestant people on the planet and came to the US because they were sick of the bullshit happening in Europe (what else is new). So much so that my church still has a tradition of where when we sing Silent Night for Christmas, we turn off all of the lights except for candles, and then we sing it in German instead of English.
And yes, Lutheranism is one of the more conservative sects of Protestants (not as conservative as the Baptist, but not far off). But your are right that we are a little on the weird side. Because we value free thought and expression above dogma, since it was the suppression of free thought and expression in the name of dogma that led to us existing in the first place, and many of our ancestors had to shoot their way out of having to listen to what the Pope says. So you end up with situations where I once told my pastor that I disagreed with him over the message of a sermon, and his response was "I am glad you are listening and thinking instead of blindly believing me.", and they know that my fiancé is Bisexual but dont say anything about it (even if she sometimes gets shot dirty looks).
This is where we come in.
Yep. And a lot of them didnt even need to be told, they figured it out on their own. Like I have been saying, I have in the past few years met a ton of Zoomers that I knew had been degenerate, woke Communist that are now Christians (albeit the laidback variety I described in my other post) and Anti-Establishment Populist or Libertarians. Because they saw everything that happened over the last few years, realized how empty their lives were and how messed up they were becoming, even though the people who believed everything they did had all of the power. So they finally started to realize that maybe they were wrong and/or had been lied to, and so they came looking for meaning. I know you consider yourself an Anti-Theist, but I am sure even you would admit that its at least a step in the right direction, and there are ones like me there to make sure they dont go screaming off into being zealots like existed more in the 90's (because "Remember why you hate the SJW's, and dont just become a Christian SJW").
To be fair, a ton of us are descended from North Germans and Scandinavians, who were some of the most Protestant people on the planet and came to the US because they were sick of the bullshit happening in Europe (what else is new). So much so that my church still has a tradition of where when we sing Silent Night for Christmas, we turn off all of the lights except for candles, and then we sing it in German instead of English.
And yes, Lutheranism is one of the more conservative sects of Protestants (not as conservative as the Baptist, but not far off). But your are right that we are a little on the weird side. Because we value free thought and expression above dogma, since it was the suppression of free thought and expression in the name of dogma that led to us existing in the first place, and many of our ancestors had to shoot their way out of having to listen to what the Pope says. So you end up with situations where I once told my pastor that I disagreed with him over the message of a sermon, and his response was "I am glad you are listening and thinking instead of blindly believing me.", and they know that my fiancé is Bisexual but dont say anything about it (even if she sometimes gets shot dirty looks).
Yep. And a lot of them didnt even need to be told, they figured it out on their own. Like I have been saying, I have in the past few years met a ton of Zoomers that I knew had been degenerate, woke Communist that are now Christians (albeit the laidback variety I described in my other post) and Anti-Establishment Populist or Libertarians. Because they saw everything that happened over the last few years, realized how empty their lives were and how messed up they were becoming, even though the people who believed everything they did had all of the power. So they finally started to realize that maybe they were wrong and/or had been lied to, and so they came looking for meaning. I know you consider yourself an Anti-Theist, but I am sure even you would admit that its at least a step in the right direction, and there are ones like me there to make sure they dont go screaming off into being zealots like existed more in the 90's (because "Remember why you hate the SJW's, and dont just become a Christian SJW").