Reply #34: good for you [View All]

[RPM]

I am glad you are proud of your faith - and you sound like the kind of person who backs up their advertisement of faith with your actions.

To answer your questions:
Yes, I wear shirts with my college on them - and i do my best to represent the school both professionally and personally.

As to my affiliations with activist or political organizations, I don't flash stickers or wear logo'ed Tee shirts. I don't need to to demonstrate my commitment to the causes for which I work - they are readily apparent by my words and actions.

I didn't answer no to all of your questions, but I'll go at the next one anyway: No - I feel anyone who holds themself out as something through a sticker, logo, cause, or religion had better back up their assertion through their actions I am sick and tired of persons displaying a logo and thinking it makes them something that their actions militate against - in short wearing a cross yet following doctrine doesn't make one a Christian. Unfortunately, the religious right has managed to co-opt the symbols of Christianity and make them (at least to me) a manifestation of an attitude that is excessively or hypocritically pious - the epitome of "holier-than-thou"

I am glad that you are as proud of your faith as you are of being on DU - I am sure that both are positive powers in your life. I hope your actions back up the way you are outwardly identifying yourself - I would be willing to bet that they do.

But I will not back off of viewing the fish on ones car with suspicion. You have chosen to identify yourself to others through a logo (or two) on your car. I don't know your particular motives, but many do it so that others say "hey, he is one of the good guys"; others do it to annoy others; others do it to identify themself. Anyway you cut it however, you are making a signal to others of what your beliefs and interests. It's the essence of brand marketing - associate a logo and name with qualities of a product. By doing so you open yourself to persons thinking "hey, i don't like that product". But you can't have it both ways - you cant identify yourself as something and not expect others to attach an association to your identification.

For example, I don't like the Curves Brand (for the owner's anti-choice stance) and must admit (somewhat shamefully) that I have a more negative view of people who give their money to that company. If you choose to hold yourself out as a member of a group, you become accountable, in part, for the behavior and acts of the group.

I have generally found religion to be suspect. As of late I am particularly turned off by Christianity's false moralism - the hypocritical advancing of certain 'values' followed by a total failure to live up to those ideals has left me repulsed by the state of modern Christianity. If you don't want to be held accountable for the acts of others you _choose_ to affiliate yourself with, don't hold yourself out as part of the group. (note: this statement doesn't hold true to race or sex, as pigment and sex are immutable qualities, given at birth).

Sorry if this offends you - you seem like a good person. But I can not help but have negative feelings toward Christianity, considering both its long, bloody history and the current state of the religion. I hope that Christianity can get its act together and that the condition of the practice doesn't repulse me. But in the meantime, i find it to be a flawed institution, I have a negative view of it and its practitioners who have let it come to such a pass.