My friend and I still say "Don't touch me!"

I said focusing on the positives. That is very different than "dwelling only in happy places"

If there's a Tolkien Reading Day, then I won't do it. Don't like him, but that's not why.

I'm kind of anti-days things, anyway. I smoke every Great American Smokeout Day, even in years when I've quit.

So, where do you stand on "joining" things?

I've been hearing more and more "religious" people whose definition of God is virtually identical to my own. What is it, I wonder, that makes them feel compelled to join what is essentially a social club, based on these beliefs, whereas I myself emphatically state NO THANK YOU to such a proposition.

My running theory is that some people are just "joiners" ...

I realize the question was directed at wolf, but I, for myself, I, sir, am not a joiner.

most emphatically NOT a joiner.

It's difficult for me to even go to AA meetings. They usually piss me off. This has nothing to due with sobriety - it has to do with being a non-joiner. I leave before the effing Lord's prayer. UGH. CanNOT stand.

duck-billed plathithudes?

I feel the same about the "special days" -compelled to do the total opposite.

Me too. We should form a club or something.

sure, I'm in as long as there aren't any meetings, emails or any of that shit.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Okay, but you're still doing the tax books! :D

..I know....

I do join things on occasion, but am very selective about it.

Like they have to give me a nice backpack or drink bottle, or reusable shopping bags with a nice picture of a panda or a baby tiger on them or something ...

Even if I were Christian, I wouldn't join one of those social sorts of churches. I handle my access to deity more directly and personally, actually.

Actually, the Cellar is one of the few things that I've joined and stayed joined to consistently.

My theory is that THE ONLY THING that makes you "a Christian" is that you belong to the social club. My evidence is that I have identical beliefs to people who call themselves "a Christian" while I do not. There is no substantive disagreement. The label itself is the only thing that the label describes.

I take the opposite point of view. A lot of people who call themselves Christian, aren't. That includes a lot of people "in the club". They will know we are Christians by our love.