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The Fundie preacher just kept saying that people who didn't believe like he did were going to Hell, and he basically came across as a rigid, bigoted, close-minded, angry prick.' ok this is what schrafinator said aginst a preacher , but a true christian is not bigoted (not a great example but she is harsh on christians)
"A 'true' christian isn't bigoted."
But isn't that what is always said to excuse the actions of a Christian (or a member of any group) whose views are not currently popular?
I mean, when you look back at the Crusades today, it seems inconceivable that Christians would have had the arrogance and gall to decide that the rest of the known world should believe as they do and should be forced to convert at the point of a sword, doesn't it? Yet the knights of the Crusades were considered Christian heroes.
Today, I hear people saying that these people weren't "real Christians", but why aren't they? Plenty of Christian people supported slavery in America, often using the Bible to justify it, yet we can hardly imagine how they could have justified
owning human beings. Were they not "true Christians" either? Why not?
So, I don't buy the "they aren't true Christians/Muslims/Whatevers if they are bigots/racists/murderers, etc." That is just a way to excuse the kind of behavior that ALL people everywhere, nearly regardless of religious bent, sometimes engage in.
Christianity has not, historically, been a "live and let live" kind of religion, however. Christianity has been a religion bent on converting as many to the cause as possible, so I would classify it as a particularly aggressive religion. It's not enough for them to be Christian; they arrogantly believe that they are correct and everyone else is wrong, therefore everyone must be converted to their belief.
(This is not true of all sects; the Mormons are aggressive, but the Amish are not)
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also evos seem so eager and trigger happy when it comes to christians calling us superstitious and 'hypocrites'. blimey do i really have to try and love enemies as myself God , she makes it very hard.she must think all christians are the taliban , lol
Well, many of the Christians I have debated on these types of forums
are hypocrites. Mainly my complaint has been with so-called Biblical literalists or otherwise fringe, radical fundamentalists who would rather feel right in their ignorance than learn something.
It's also true that the loudest self righteous moralists always seem to be overcompensating. Sen. Bill Bennett, the Christian Republican moralist who was recently discovered to have huge gambling debts, comes to mind. Rev. Jim Bakker, the famous conservative Christian televangelist who liked to buy prostitutes, is another. President Reagan had a Christian minister as head of his task force against pornography who was later forced to step down because he was caught soliciting young male prostitutes for sex. The list is very long.
I am not saying that all Christians are bad people, or even hypocrites.
What I am saying is that conservative Christianity seems to breed a certain type of hypocritical self-deception. The very people who love to condemn and attack others for what they judge as flaws in moral character often turn out to be just as human
and imperfect as the rest of us.
There is very little compassion or kindness in Conservative Christianity these days. Very little introspection; it is all about other people's lifstyles, bodies, or bedrooms. It seems to mostly be about power.
No, I would never say that all Christians are like the Taliban. Quite a few are, though, and I am grateful to live in America where we have some kind of separation of church and state in our constitution.
There are plenty of people who would like to make this nation a Christian one, meaning a Theocracy. And then, as a woman, I would be in a very unfortunate place, indeed.
A good work of fiction that explores what might happen if the religious right got ahold of the country is called "The Handmaids Tale" by Margarel Atwood. It is scary how close the book's scenario seems to be sometimes.
[This message has been edited by schrafinator, 06-16-2003]
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