MooTipping said:
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, so sorry if this is the wrong place.
I'm writing a paper on how much controversy there is between religions. There has been wars because of religion (Including WWII, intollerance with Jews and etc.).
I'm not sure what to write about, except I want to show people why we should have tollerance and love for all people with different religions. I need your opinion. i'm not out to flame people or anything.
- Why do you think there are such controversies?
- What events have you personally been in that include a fight over religion?
- Any suggestions?
- Websites?
Thanks
hello moo tipping!
well one reason i think religions have become such a big thing to cause wars and such is because people believe they are right and everyone else has to be like them. so in essence, if it goes to far, people have started wars and killed each other of differences of religions and doctrines. it just seems to always start out with one side believeing they are the Way and everyone must conform to them. but maybe the problem has been that people get arrogant in their religioius convictions. as a Christian myself, i believe Jesus is the Way to God, but I am for sure not arrogant about it (not anymore that is), and i would never kill anyone over it. i think religiouis tolerance is something that is more needed. and i don't even being tolerant of other religions is saying that maybe they are right kind of thing. it is just showing love to human beings and honoring their God-given choice of free-will. i think people have also manipulated religion to start wars. Create a following, deem it God's Will and thus you have a group ready for battle. i think that has been a big problem too, manipulated religion for power, control and things of the nature of war.
as for the last fight over religion, well, honestly i haven't had a fight over different religions since highschool. that was 4 going on 5 years now. but my last religious argument that got pretty heated from the other side, i can give you that one, and you take from it as you want.
at my last job, i was coming in for overtime that day. i used to work at a hospital in Enviromental Services (fancy term for janitor) and i was the floor care guy, buffing, scrubbing, waxing floors, cleaning carpets, all that good jazz. well i was coming in that night to help get things in order for something the next day for the hospital. we had a bunch of stuff that need to be moved, because ceilings and tiles were being changed in the cafeteria. well my nickname on here gets to this argument i was sadly part of with this individiual. i have tattoos and ear rings (but my ear rings are pretty good size, not huge, but just on the smaller size of big if that makes sense.) so at this job, i had to cover up my tattoos and take my ear rings out. so i asked my boss if i had to take out my ear rings and cover up my tattoos. he said, take out your ear rings to make people happy, but don't worry about your covering up your tattoos. your only in here helping move things.
so i walk in and wearing my glassjaw shirt, (a screamo band) and my tattoos showing. so i'm with one maintenance guy and the guy that did the painting in the hospital. this town is basically conservative, so this gives you a picture of it some more. we're going to the elevator, and all of a sudden, the painter guy basically asks me why do i get tattoos? (his exact words i think were, why do you mess up the body God gave you?) well people knew in there that i am a Christian. and before i could speak up with my views on it, the maintenance guy speaks up and says, "He got those before he started going to church." and so i said, "well actually, *slight smile on my face*, i got them after." they both looked at me puzzled.
so the initial starter of this topic, really didn't have much to say after that for some reason. but the maintenace guy, he wouldn't let it go. i kept silence most of the time, but a few times i spoke up and asked questions about his views and such. but he wouldn't let up. and then it got to the point of him getting in my face and saying the devil is in me because i get tattoos and kept asking me to take into consideration what he was saying. it eventually ending on him saying that because of his age he knows it all and me saying so because your this age, that means you know everything, and he said yea. then it went to him joking, saying that he see demonic eyes coming out of my tattoo, and i just played a long with it by saying, "Yea you probably see them red demon eyes, and you probably see a red upside down cross, and yes i love lamb meat." the lamb meat thing was a pretty pathetic way of me going into sacrifce things and playing along with the joke, and somehow the whole thing got turned over to the old testament times and eating the sacrificed meat or something. kind of interesting how a joke got everything calmed down.
i guess for me this fight or argument of whatever just shows how people can be so arrogant about their own convictions. i mean it could been worse. i could have lost my cool with him. i could have judged him right back as he was judging me. i could have even say, "screw this religious stuff, i'm done." sadly enough people do that when they are criticized by religious people who don't know a thing about them. that guy could have been ten times worse tho. who knows? but my point is, even with such a small moment as this was, this stuff and even bigger moments of religious intolerancy, or arguing over theories or doctrines can really push people away from a belief.
my suggestions are that we need to hear the other side first. and as Chrstians to keep in mind the only set fact that we have is that Jesus is the Way. everything else, we need to hear the other side to its fullest extent to really be able to make a judgement or statement about it. i mean we cannot judge what we don't know or even understand. and if we still don't agree with that person, just agree to disagree and call it a day, so unrighteous anger doesn't come in, and attacks and judging doesn't come along. the same goes with religious tolerance. coming from a Christian point of view, we as people can't change one person. our convictions and testimonies only go so far and only work with certain individuals. only God can change a person. so i think for a Christian to be religious tolerant means we have to not be arrogant about ourselves. it just means we state our beliefs when asked, and if we are not asked, then we show them love and grace, and be their friend. let the person ask about our faith, not ask the other side if they want what we have when nine times out of ten they dont' have a clue what your talking about. or maybe they do, and they've been pushed away by it, so you need to propose it differently and maybe more purely. being religious tolerant is also repsecting someone's personal barrier. let's say someone has had issues with the church due to a bad time in their life, or maybe something bad pushed them away, do we want to revive them old demons? of course not, we just need to propose it differently. but at the same time, we must not forsake our own views. there is a middle ground to it. we cannot give up our beliefs, but yet we cannot condemn others and we must love others that are different than us. but it first starts off admitting that we can't always change the world. at least that's my thoughts/suggestions.
as for websites, i don't know any personall. well sorry for such a long thread here Moo Tipping, i just have a lot of views on this. hopefully your patient enough to read this long post
God Bless you! <><
