I don't blame you. I just want religious freedom. Something I thought we had in this country. If you don't like a church, don't go or go back. I was really addressing many of the comments in response to your post. I don't condemn anyone. My Faith is about love, forgiveness, kindness, and service. The stuff Jesus did. I don't hate Muslims, Jews, Hindu's, Gays, Republicans, or Democrats. I just want the freedom to believe what I want to believe and practice a religion of love and reconciliation. If others disagree, I respect that, but all ask is to respect my right to practice what I believe. To the contrary, there is a real tangible anger toward specifically Christian ideas in the general culture and on this board. That is disturbing.
I think what's pretty clear from this thread is everyone respects your right to practice what you believe, but not everyone necessarily respects what you believe. That's fair enough, and applies to virtually everyone. Everyone's faith is allegedly the correct one and about love, forgiveness, kindness and service. There is nothing unique in that other than however you interpret it, and there are people in all belief systems who interpret their catch phrases in good and bad ways. If, like members of other religions as well, the practice of your religion involves other people, then you can't possibly expect respect and smiles back all the time. That would require a very specific situation which I promise you don't want: one where you are free to practice what you believe, and others are not.
Really? "Tangible anger" in the general culture? Please do show me any empirical evidence that this is even remotely true. I find it hard to believe that a country as Christian as the US is generally hostile toward Christianity. Like it or not, American Christianity is a majority religion that often serves an exclusion (at best) or persecution (at worst) function. There are the good points (like the love/forgiveness stuff), but there are also a lot of bad points. You can't expect non-Christians to only see the good and ignore the bad regardless of how you yourself act as a Christian.
You want Christians and other religious folks to "admit" that their beliefs are made up b.s.? Do you not see the fallacy in that?
Gotcha. I agree with most of what you said, and also wish people would leave others alone to practice/believe whatever they want. The problem, specifically with Christianity in this country, is that it is so popular that many of its supporters think it should bleed over into laws that impact everyone. For example, many Christians feel that Gay marriage should be illegal for no other reason other than because they bible says it's wrong. I think people would have the same "anger" towards any other religion that tried to push policy on the masses based on their particular beliefs....I don't think this is anything unique to Christianity.
I think its because people always go back to the "fore fathers" argument and how we were built on Christian principles so it rubs people the wrong way when we go away from that, right or wrong. As a Christian, I could care less what you believe in or what your sexual preference is, like solid said, I will treat you with the same love and respect I do to my fellow believers. It does irk me to hear other christians force people into beliefs or condemn them bc that is not the correct way to approach the situation and like this thread states it turns people off. I do find it somewhat alarming that as a society we are becoming more and more acceptable to any sort of social practice, stretching that line to what is and isnt ok further and further. And if you happen to be the one to express that you disagree with something, your cast away and shunned because your not accepting to anything and evrything.
Nobody is saying that. This is what folks are saying... Religion is like a penis. It's fine to have one, it's fine to be proud of it and you can even play with it in the privacy of your own home. But please don't whip it out in public and start waving it around... and PLEASE don't try to shove it down anybody's throat.
Depends on the "Christian ideas". Devil's in the details. Gay rights and marriage in particular for instance will draw an emotional debate. So would creationism to a lessor degree. Contraception policy in the third world is also a big one for the worldly minded. The finer details of abortion could be intermingled with religion but I think that's an outlier. All of these tangents affect social policy so they're understandably attacked with the intention of discourse. What devolves out of emotion doesn't usually end up with discourse. Other matters in Christianity do get attacked. Like for instance, when people claim the US is a Christian nation destined by God to do God's will such as matters in the Middle East. That's beyond the scope of what Christianity teaches and into something far more dangerous that needs to be confronted and deliberately attacked. But for things like "I don't believe in fairy tales" or other aggressively atheist ideas, I would totally agree with you that common courtesy and respect should be given in social settings. Much like how I don't want to hear any prosthelytizing after the second no...or the first no for that matter.
Political Christianity is like a giant **** stain on the face of the United States. It's an embarrassment.
