Christian Bias

[Skidmore]

85. You know, I read this thread last night before I turned in for the night and wanted to respond but

Last edited Thu May 8, 2014, 07:44 AM - Edit history (3)

decided to sleep on it first because I had a very visceral reaction in the moment.

First, let me state that I was raised in a fundamentalist church and lived for an extended period of time in a fundamentalist Islamic nation. I left the religion of my youth for some of the very same reasons that, as I have matured in life, have gelled into my view of religions, particularly the monotheistic traditions, over the years.

I watched the rank hypocrisy from the pulpit and in the pews during my formative years. I watched judgmental people who were barely in control of their own lives point fingers at others and condemn loudly. We see this amplified mightily in society in our times. I see intolerance, bigotry, and hatred of the other practiced under a creed based on a political document created over millennia. I also see religion being used to subjugate and persecute those of other religious traditions and those who don't adhere to religions. I watch the fundmentalists being given assent through silence to run roughshod over the greater of society. This exists in all of the "Big Three." Believe me when I tell you that there is very little difference between zealots once you look beyond the surface features of these theologies. I reject the insult that religion is to humanity.

I have learned that moral and good people exist everywhere and do not need to confine themselves to the chains offered by narrow theologies. Morality and goodness is more tied to the ability of a person to empathize and sympathize with others. I think it would serve the Christian community to adopt a more enlightened view toward others. No one has denied Christians the right to practice their religion. I think most of us would like it out of the public square. Keep it in the churches and the home, as Christians expect adherents of other religions to do. What is hypocritical about expecting respect and tolerance for all by a community which appears to be so dead set on setting up a theocratic state here as well? I find it hypocritical when Christians in this nation so bitterly engage in culture wars with other faiths while nursing a viper that would destroy the separation of church and state in this nation. I will continue to condemn radical and fundamentalist theology because the flock is unwilling to step up for the greater good. I have drawn my line firmly and have no use for fundmentalism of any stripe and the harm it does to the peoples of the world and the planet itself. It is too bad that so many choose to sit in silence and allow the few to terrorize a world.