From: cdale@silly.techmonkeys.net
Date: Tue Sep 12 2000 - 14:38:41 PDT
I agree completely that Christianity itself is not bad. I consider myself
to be part Christian. (: However, I have not had just one experience
with one preacher, I was raised being told I was going to hell for every
possible thing I could do/think wrong. Most Christians I know and respect
for their insight and openmindedness do not go to church, or if they do,
they go to one where the leader of the church encourages people to think
for themselves.
I also agree that what some people call Christians and Christianity are
not really such. And this is another thing that causes problems: people
who, unlike you, think that they are perfect after being forgiven, and
like to point out others' "shortcomings," which is a stupid, vain way of
saying "What I believe is the real truth, and all the other truths be
damned."
I was not slamming Christianity. I was slamming organized religion as a
whole, in a very general way, as I believe it's an arm of the govt. blah
blah, you've heard this before. Like I said, I am sad for the millions
who sit and listen and believe everything someone else has decided is the
real truth. This is not real Christianity, it is lazy closed-mindedness.
Live and let live, yes indeed, but that particular movie is not one I'd
like to be in the cast of. (:
Oops, I said I'd shut up and get off this machine!
Cindy
"A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity."
-- Robert Frost
On Tue, 12 Sep 2000, John Klassa wrote:
>
> This always seems to happen when this topic comes up...
>
> When people say that organized religion is bad (and on and on), they
> generally cite an example (or several) from something they witnessed
> a Christian doing (or not doing) at some point in the past, and so
> Christianity is given a bad name.
>
> By that, I mean that I rarely see instances where somebody says,
> "organized religion is bad... I once saw a Muslim do thus and such".
> It always seems to come down to "some [Christian] preacher did this",
> or "some [Christian] person did that", with the implication that
> Christianity is flawed.
>
> Please bear in mind that what most of this country thinks of as
> Christianity, and what most of this country practices as Christianity,
> aren't really Christianity. Also bear in mind (this didn't come up, but
> it generally does as part of the whole flame fest) that Christianity
> isn't a western religion. It's an eastern religion. It started in
> middle-east, about, oh, two thousand years ago.
>
> And while I'm rambling :-)... Since the whole "so and so is a
> hypocrite because he calls himself a Christian drinks beer all day, so
> Christianity sucks" argument seems to appear just as regularly, let me
> also note that Christians aren't (and shouldn't claim to be) perfect.
> It's not about being perfect. I can very well have the belief that
> drinking beer all day is a bad thing, and still be an alcoholic who
> can't control my drinking. That doesn't make me a hypocrite... It
> makes me a person with a drinking problem.
>
> If you had a bad experience with "Christianity" while you were growing
> up, maybe you were exposed to something that wasn't really Christianity.
> May I humbly suggest that you give the real thing a try...
>
> [ Note that I don't have anybody in particular in mind with these comments.
> I mean them in general, since this particular thread always seems to spark
> the same sorts of arguments. :-) I just thought I'd get my reply in early
> this time. ]
>
> My $0.02.
>
> John
>
>
>
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