(explaining why he wasn't attacking christians on DU)
I Only Get Angry With Christians Who Try to Pretend Their Church Isn't a Haven of Bigotry.
And, of course, those (MANY) christians who practice bigotry overtly.
You have never seen - and never will see - an OP from me "attacking" religion out of the blue, for no other reason than to criticize and ridicule christians or other religious people. Nor will you see such an OP from the vast majority of non-religious people on DU. What you HAVE seen - and will continue to see - are responses to posts of the numerous atrocities of bigotry, hate, intolerance and just plain evil that are committed on a regular basis by the any number of religious institutions, whether it be Fred Phelps latest hateful protest, the pope's latest anti-homosexual, anti-abortion, anti-free thought rant, the horrific treatment of gay men in Iran and other Islamic countries by the upright religious people there, and so on. When one of these atrocities is posted - as they are on almost a daily basis - it is completely rational and QUITE appropriate for those people in the maligned group, whichever it may be, to respond with anger toward a belief system that at best encourages and a worst demands this barbarism.
Enter the self-righteous religious DUer, who is not so concerned about whatever atrocity has just been committed as he is in making sure that NO ONE is attacking his faith just because members of his faith have been, say, gluing the anuses of gay men shut and then forcing them to drink diuretics, or, perhaps, claiming that gay people represent a worse threat to the United States than terrorism. To the religious DUer, it is the faith under "attack" that deserves the defense, not the people who are victims of the outrageous religious atrocity. And they ALL say the same thing: "Those people aren't TRUE Christians/Catholics/Muslims/Mormons."
NEWSFLASH: if you contribute money to the Catholic church, you are supporting intolerance and hate, not mention pedophilia and misogyny. If you support your Christian church of choice monetarily, there's a good chance your money is going to fund efforts like Prop 8 and other anti-same sex-marriage agendas across the country, not to mention abstinence programs like the ones killing thousands of Africans every year and anti-abortion groups that breed doctor-killers. The mormon connection to Prop 8 has been well-established. The barbarism of the Islamic clerics is a matter of record.
There ARE no "TRUE" christians/catholics/muslims/mormons, just as there are no "FALSE" christians/catholics/muslims/mormons. There are only religious people and their victims.
The correct response to a thread attacking a particular religion for its latest outrage isn't to defend the religion. It's to express SHAME at being in any way associated with that religion, followed by a pledge to do everything you can to make sure those responsible for the outrage are punished.
You don't get to be outraged at people outraged at your religion's outrages. If you do, you deserve every bit of venom directed at you.
If I still smoked I'd have a cigarette after reading it. :smoke: