Getting laughed at for being Christian

[MorkandMindy]

Well I read on the Internet that one problem we have these days is with cars and telephones and facebook we don't have to put up with the irritating people around us and that allows us to fail to develop our people skills.

I have to sympathise because it is very painful, but I don't think this is suffering that kills, rather I'm hoping it is something we all grow from (though it certainly doesn't seem so at the time).

 

[MorkandMindy]

I'm really clutching at straws here but I'm wondering if the attack on Christianity may have been produced by the US election that had only just ended with the results the previous day.



Looking at it from a non-Christian's perspective we have another Christian-backed candidate who appears to be even keener on starting wars than G W Bush was, and so you could ask if that level of human suffering doesn't have a higher priority than the politeness that you don't challenge anyone's religious beliefs.



I accept that rule when I welcome Jehovah's Witnesses. They are acting from kindness because it is their belief that I will roast forever in a nasty place if I don't hold their beliefs and so they offer me the opportunity to escape eternal punishment. So I feel that over rides the rule that a person's personal religious beliefs should be unquestioned.



Equally it could be said that attacking Christianity is the lessor of two evils when the alternative is getting hundreds of thousands of people in yet another country killed or maimed.


But I really don't approve of the way they appear to have handled it; politeness and truth should not be incompatible.

 

[Gadarene]

I'm really clutching at straws here but I'm wondering if the attack on Christianity may have been produced by the US election that had only just ended with the results the previous day.



Looking at it from a non-Christian's perspective we have another Christian-backed candidate who appears to be even keener on starting wars than G W Bush was, and so you could ask if that level of human suffering doesn't have a higher priority than the politeness that you don't challenge anyone's religious beliefs.



I accept that rule when I welcome Jehovah's Witnesses. They are acting from kindness because it is their belief that I will roast forever in a nasty place if I don't hold their beliefs and so they offer me the opportunity to escape eternal punishment. So I feel that over rides the rule that a person's personal religious beliefs should be unquestioned.



Equally it could be said that attacking Christianity is the lessor of two evils when the alternative is getting hundreds of thousands of people in yet another country killed or maimed.


But I really don't approve of the way they appear to have handled it; politeness and truth should not be incompatible.

Which attack on Christianity? The OP's experience?

 

[MorkandMindy]

Which attack on Christianity? The OP's experience?

Yes, the OP's experience.

What I'm suggesting is the attack was not designed for the OP but might be a reaction mainly to the US elections which had just finished.

My reasoning is that in the main over here a person's religion is their own private business.


But


in the US the Bible-believing Christians now total about 30% of the number of voters and religious adherence is a very public affair with religious leaders invariably backing the worst candidate.

With 30% of the vote gone to the top war-monger that leaves 70% of which 50% has to go to the sane guy, and that really isn't easy with the abysmal levels of school education over there.

 

[Robban]

Well I read on the Internet that one problem we have these days is with cars and telephones and facebook we don't have to put up with the irritating people around us and that allows us to fail to develop our people skills.

I have to sympathise because it is very painful, but I don't think this is suffering that kills, rather I'm hoping it is something we all grow from (though it certainly doesn't seem so at the time).

It,s about pushing the right button.
In the OP,s example, they pushed the wrong button.
This applies to much, religion, politics and even simple everyday matters.

Re suffering that kills.
Psalms chapter 120 rebukes slanderers, it describes how the deadly effect of slander reaches even further than weapons.

 

[Gadarene]

Yes, the OP's experience.

What I'm suggesting is the attack was not designed for the OP but might be a reaction mainly to the US elections which had just finished.

My reasoning is that in the main over here a person's religion is their own private business.

But

in the US the Bible-believing Christians now total about 30% of the number of voters and religious adherence is a very public affair with religious leaders invariably backing the worst candidate.

With 30% of the vote gone to the top war-monger that leaves 70% of which 50% has to go to the sane guy, and that really isn't easy with the abysmal levels of school education over there.

That's a tad ridiculous. While there is certainly some level of US-Christianity meddling over here, most Christians I've encountered here are nowhere near that bad, and that sure doesn't justify having a go at someone completely unconnected purely because they are Christian. That is little better than prejudice.

 

[MorkandMindy]

I know that US fundamentalist Christianity is on the opposite side of the fence from British Christianity.

When I mentioned to British Christians that the main supporters of G W Bush and his wars and gun owners are the Evangelical Alliance etc. they were surprised.

It's just that coming immediately after the US elections I thought there might be a connection and not everyone is fully aware how very deep the divisions in Christianity actually go.

 

[Gadarene]

I know that US fundamentalist Christianity is on the opposite side of the fence from British Christianity.

When I mentioned to British Christians that the main supporters of G W Bush and his wars and gun owners are the Evangelical Alliance etc. they were surprised.

It's just that coming immediately after the US elections I thought there might be a connection and not everyone is fully aware how very deep the divisions in Christianity actually go.

Right, so if they're unaware of the connection (which they have no reason to be, just like I'm not responsible for or required to be aware of every prat move made by every atheist ever) then it just makes the assault on their beliefs "because some US Christians are crap" even more unexpected and egregious.

Also - anyone with half a lick of common sense would have seen where that election was going easily up to a week and a half ahead of the vote. To then go and chew out a Christian an ocean away after WINNING against the evangelical-dominant side? Does not compute.

 

[MorkandMindy]

I know it is a possibility because my mother attempted to sell TEARCRAFT things in her local church up in North and the leading ladies refused to buy anything because they thought it was the same as TEA in the USA which backed G W Bush and all kinds of nasties.

I'm not saying that is the reason, only that it could explain why they appeared to attack Miser in person and possibly were thinking more about something else because I do find it a bit hard to believe that Miser on her own would normally produce that kind of response.


But feel free to continue to say 'its a tad ridiculous' because I won't be back.