be honest, I will I am a little sexist, sometimes it really feels like its better to be a man than a woman. however i hold women in higher regard, and I do prejudge men in a negative way. so I am sexist against my own kind ocasionally. this is however extremely minimal. I always say I am not racist, however I have said racist things. this bothered me when it happened, because it is truely not how I feel, but I guess we dont always have true controllover our words, or maybe peer presure affects how you react to simular situations in different company. There are some cultures which I ocasionally feel a lower level of respect towards based on their actions. this is their culture, not the people. people are all ok, and judged by their own actions. however I have has a hard time respecting the imagrants into this country who have capsulized into groups that do not accept their new home. I have an especially hard time with "white trash" and have maybe too harshly judged the caucation population of my own country. and yes I am white, but this is an economic based racism, because I do not have as much a problem with black or hispanic trash, just white trash. Religion. Am I a religicist?? actually, yes I am definately guilty of this. I peosonally hold any deeply religous person as a lower person than myself. I have some reasons why, but it is generally unfounded. this makes me a religicist. I eventually have issues with devout girlfriends. have fallings out with religous friends. it is right of me or fair?? probably not, but it is part of me. I havnt really worked on this as far as self improvement, however I am sure i will continualy become more tolerant as I get older. but I dont hate people who worship. I just hate the instatutions, and think a little less of people who identify themselves by those institutions. what are your faults. what grudges do you hold un-duely?? how many of you have issues with cultures like the arabs in these times, or hated the rusians in the early eighties?? any other religicists out there??
My New Zealander mother automatically assumes that anyone who does anything awful 'must be religious' (specifically Christian and often Baptist). She lived in the South for two years in the seventies and the 'drinking alcohol out of teacups' brigade obviously had a huge effect on her. They cheated on a test? 'They must be religious'. They stole from their relatives? 'They must be religious'. They killed their children? 'They must be religious'. It would be pretty funny if it weren't so often true.
THIS CAN NOT BE FUTHER FROM THE TRUTH, AND SENSE WE ARE BEING HONEST... I BELIEVE PEOPLE WHO HAVE ISSUES WITH CHRISTIANS MUST FEEL GUILTY ABOUT THEIR OWN LIVES!! I AM A CHRISTIAN FIRST, AND MY DENOMINATION IS SECOND. WHAT SOME PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT BEING A CHRISTIAN IS THAT YOUR NOT PERFECT, BUT YOUR PERFECT IN CHRIST. WHICH IS SIMPLY SAYNG THAT YOU ARE FOR GIVEN FOR YOUR SINS, THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU WILL NOT MAKE ANY!!! BEING "RELIGIOUS" AND BEING A "CHRISTIAN" TO ME ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. IT IS SAD THAT PEOPLE WILL NOT STRIVE TO FIGHT THEIR OWN PERJUDGES AND EXCECPT PEOPLE FOR WHO THEY ARE AND WHERE THEY ARE IN THEIR PERSONAL LIVES!! WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN AREAS THAT NEED TO BE FIXED, I THINK IT IS CRAZY TO THINK THAT CHRISTIANS DO NOT AS WELL. I AM NOT SAYING IT IS RIGHT, BUT IF WE ALL START WORRING ABOUT OURSELVES AND NOT OTHERS IMAGINE WHAT KIND OF WORLD THIS WOULD BE?
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU ARE SAYING. WHY CANT THERE BE MORE GREAT POSTERS LIKE YOU ON THIS BOARD? GO TEXANS!11!
young24, First, you might want to take your caps off, unless you intended to scream your entire response . Secondly, I think a lot of people may take issue with overly-religious folks since they envision someone who imposes their beliefs on others, and they seem so certain that their beliefs are right over all others. JMHO.
Oh boy, this thread had promise. VOR, nice topic. I was going to post, but I decided I need more time for reflection. It's interesting how I've developed a bit of a slightly negative connotation of "Americans," particularly 'white Americans' since I've arrived in Taiwan. It's very related to the whole "American tourist" complaint, but I'm disturbed because I see racial overtones in this connotation. The status of Americans or just Westerners in Taiwan is just interesting.
I agree with the religious part, and I said that religious people and christians are not the same! I take issue with religious people as well. I put caps because I wanted to be heard, but it still didn't work.
ok, so to stay on topic..... I guess this means that young is a religicist, maybe more likely an anti-religicist. anyone else here aware of your weakness in judging people. or groups of people. I knew a kid in HS that hated blacks, I mean all people with dark skin. why, because in his experience he had mostly bad experiences with "them" he is I supose entitled to make a decision. I mean if you have had people from one specific group mug/attack/steal from your family several times, I suspect you will feel a certain way. I said to him. do you love keturah?? (a black girl whom he grew up with) he answered yes, but she is not black... WHAT?? she is definately half black indian (the freed slaves often intermaried with american indian tribes on the east coast.) however to suite his steriotype, she was not black, because she didnt act like "one of them" so anyone else wiling to share your flaws. are you even aware of them??
why does it offend you? because what they said about christians offended me and no one said anything about it!! Iam going to get my point across regardless. I was trying to make a point!
oh jesus friggin' christ! i was just trying to make a point when you said you typed in all caps "to be heard." no i'm not offended by anything you said. i was merely trying to tell you that typing in all caps doesn't help one get heard better, thats all.
I don't so much mind religious people, I just don't like them to come by my house and try to convert me (and not only the Jehovah's Witnesses do this. I've had Southern Baptists come by, too). I also don't like it when my neighbors come invite me to their church gatherings. I have a church I like and am comfortable with, I'm not so much interested in joining theirs. There are some folks who put too much emphasis on the ceremony of religion and not enough on the messages that religions espouse. When I was in Junior High School, everybody got on a big religion kick and suddenly thought they were on some sort of crusade. And it became an excuse to beat-up people who were different. A friend of mine who happened to be a Black Sabbath fan and took to wearing their t-shirts had his head shoved through a window (of a church, by the way) because the Religion Mafia deemed him a "devil worshipper". But I don't hold the actions of those idiots against religious people as a whole. But I have to admit that I am often wary when someone starts telling me about their church or their religious beliefs of whatever even though I don't really mean to be. As for being sexist, I think I may be sexist, too, though I tend to be biased against men. I've personally had better luck working with women, tend to get along better with women (when I'm not trying to date them anyway), and would likely hire a woman over a man all else being equal. I'm not really sure why that is, but that's the way it is.
When I was a kid, I was definitely a racist, a homophobe and a sexist. I was also highly religious. As I got older and my influences changed, I really reversed myself. There are honestly times when I think I may be overly anti-racist or overly anti-sexist. There have been moments where I have assumed the reverse - instead of thinking a black guy did something because he's black, I've assumed that he didn't and was being oppressed because he's black. In many ways, this can be just as bad because I'm still seeing him for his skin color, not the reality of who he is as a person, good or bad. It's a hard thing to shake to be honest. I remember seeing Philadelphia and sobbing for like 15 minutes after the movie was over (fortunately, it was a rental and I was at home!). I wasn't crying because it was a sad movie, which it was. I was crying because I felt so guilty for being so anti-gay and hurtful towards gay people when I was young. After that, I felt much differently about gay people. As for religion, I see the benefits and pitfalls of all of them. I'm much more interested in spirituality than in religion anyway.
Jeff, I can relate to falling in the anti-racist trap, or what I would call the liberal trap. But I still have gut reactions to skin color at times, and it really, really bothers me. And no offense, because I think very highly of you, but I've definitely seen times on this BBS where I feel you've gone overboard bashing a conservative bias in the name of the BBS and let liberal biases slide. Not that I'm not guilty of that too. It's funny because while I'm pretty liberal politically, socially and theologically, most of my good friends are on the conservative side. Gotta go.
Nah. My mum just dislikes Christians. Except for Cajun Catholics. She loves them because they drink and swear. I must say, I would think twice about being *very* good friends (like, hanging out all the time, talking about 'deep' things) with a conservative or traditional Christian, and I'd never have a romantic relationship with one, mainly because I'd mortally offend them every thirty seconds. It would be a tense, fraught experience. I think I used to be much more racist than I am now - mostly unwittingly. My father is very racist toward African-Americans and so are most of his family. It wasn't until I got older that I began to question his opinions. And since the Maori part of my mother's family married white and 'passed' as white for most of the twentieth century, it's only recently that we've rediscovered that part of our heritage. I'm quite ashamed of my opinions before I was, say, fifteen or so, and I truly don't think that way any more. I hope. I don't think I've ever been very sexist or homophobic, though. At least, I try not to be. I've even been in a gay pride parade! Great fun...
After reading this thread I am left with one question. When, precisely, did subscribing to a Christian faith and attending regularly make you a fanatic and an extremist? There is a difference...one which many people fail to realize. In the course of discussing numerous topics I have had people tell me something along the lines of: "You're just saying that because you're Catholic." WTF???!!! It couldn't be that I actually thought through the issues? These were issues which are not even discussed in the Catholic church. I know because I've gone there my entire life. Interestingly enough...many of the people making this comment have never even seen the inside of a Catholic curch...much less know anything about the core beliefs and doctrines. Once somebody puts a person into a neat little conceptual box and labels them and ALL of their opinions as Catholic or Buddist or whatever...then they have nothing really to add and don't understand the issues to a sufficient degree. That way they use an inflammatory religious comment to deflect attention away from their lack of understanding the issues at hand.
It doesn't, necessarily. That's just what my mother thinks. I don't know if you're referring to me, Refman, but here's the thing: I unwittingly take the Lord's name in vain constantly, usually in combination with an obscenity. Unless you're a very unusual Christian, I am *not* the person to hang out with on a regular basis. It's not you, it's me.
