Flagged for being Christian.

[The Great Deku]

Kitakiy

Mortok

Whatever the "real" reason was, the official excuse was witches. "Witches", or rather, the idea of them, were being used as a scapegoat. So that still counts as witches being persecuted. Blaming someone for wrongdoing to distract from the real issue is an act of persecution.

AHA! that's the word I was looking for. Scapegoat.
Anywho - yes, the excuse that they were 'witches' is an act of discrimination against witches/pagans, whether or not the accused were actually witches/pagans, and whether or not there was a conspirital reason behind it.
What do they call that? Casualties of war. Ya.
Anywho.


I'm going to bed. I'm sore as hell from sitting like this for two hours and tired and I no longer have any stake in this debate ^_^
Not that I really did in the first place.

On a side note, why do people go page after page with comments, only to end with a comment suggesting in some way that they never cared about the discussion they were having?

[Twisted Rainbow Insanity]

Chartreusethewaterdemon

Twisted Rainbow Insanity

ice queen in a dark tower

Twisted Rainbow Insanity

ice queen in a dark tower

Twisted Rainbow Insanity

Obviously about what they follow. The bible teaches that it's ok to keep slaves but you don't see everyone accusing Christians of keeping slaves, because a very high percentage doesn't. xD It's more about interpretation of the bible and the understanding of the times it was written in. Some people take the bad things written in it more literally than others, but they shouldn't be spoken in for everyone. Considering that the bible has so many authors, it is likely that not all of them were "guided by god" when they wrote what they wrote, thus why not everything in the bible is considered a "Christian belief", such as keeping slaves or stoning a child to death for disobeying his parents. I think that the people are the ones who make the religion what it is, and because people interpret the religion differently and have different sects, they shouldn't all be grouped together because some of the beliefs of different sects are very different from one another.

from my knowledge of christianity, most of them are generally the same. all of them are pretty ridiculous
i dont consider a slightly different interpretation of a book that i find ridiculous to be a significant difference

In my original post I did say that most Christians had an ignorant or hateful belief. And I don't think Mormonism is a slightly different interpretation.

it's significant
ly more ridiculous

emotion_facepalm

Don't worry Rainbow, you obviously exhibit an extensively greater merit to society here. You win. 4laugh

Yay!

[Kitakiy]

mortok

And the bible states pretty clearly that "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". So if you aren't persecuting witches, then you aren't really doing your job as a Christian.

I'm fairly certain that those particular statements are the ones that you're supposed to ignore, or that were put in there by someone who wasn't being very nice.
This goes into the whole 'god didn't write the bible' vs 'the bible is law' debate and I'm not comfortable arguing that... seeing as I'm not even christian...

[Blackrose_Knight]

Mortok

Whatever the "real" reason was, the official excuse was witches. "Witches", or rather, the idea of them, were being used as a scapegoat. So that still counts as witches being persecuted. Blaming someone for wrongdoing to distract from the real issue is an act of persecution.

And the bible states pretty clearly that "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". So if you aren't persecuting witches, then you aren't really doing your job as a Christian.

Witches to the Puritans is not what you think it is now. A witch to a Puritan was a female in league with the devil. That could be any female of any faith, not following Puritan rules. While the common idea was witches were evil (again witches any woman in league with the Devil) it was a much much broader term. I am not saying that the current atmosphere was anti-witch, it was anti-everything-not-Purtain. That includes witches, other Christian sects, and Jews. It wasn't specifically "witches" targeted, but they would have been if present and not "passing".

To compare to your pokemon fan. The term "pokemon fan" was used as othering for everyone but in your ingroup. The guy with weird nose hair, a total pokemon fan. That b***h who stole your lunch money, a pokemon fan. That person who claims to love Sonic, plays pokemon behind closed doors; because his house is cooler than yours. That guy who is dating that one person you want, a pokemon fan to the bone. You, an in-group person, so not a "pokemon fan". An actual pokemon fan with an Orginal Red Version in his gameboy, a total pokemon fan.

Witch was simply a fear filled term for "other" in Puritan lexicon (not a detonating of practice of witchcraft as it is today). To compare today... "terrorist". Sure there is a stereotype linked in to that word, but it can include ANYBODY deemed not in the in-group.

The attack was on "The Other" and not specifically witches it was so much more than that, but simply took the name "witch" and labeled all Others. The huge fear of the Other was then hijacked and used to manipulate land gain for personal reasons.

[Desumo Aliud]

In regards to the hypocracy of peole hating Christians for hating them:

Let's use another group of people who have another set of beliefs. Is it alright to hate white supremacists because they hate and are against many groups of peoples? There are those who would say that it is wrong, but those are usually people who believe that hate itself is wrong. I use this example because there's very little argument that white supremacists are harmful and do bad things. But many people also say that they hate Christians for the same reasons: they're harmful and do bad things.

I know that white supremacists is an extreme example, but to simplify, I'm asking the basic question: Is it alright to hate someone that you feel is bad?

Some would argue no. That would mean it's alright for Christians to hate atheists, gays, etc. because they believe they are bad. Others would argue yes. There's no reason to feel bad about hating people who rape or murder.

Now, how you reconcile these is up the the individual, but my personal belief is that we should focus let on who and what to hate and more on why we hate. What should we consider bad? Personally, I know that even the nicest Christians I've met and even the ones that are in my life will and do teach their children to have the same beliefs. I consider this wrong and close to brain washing, and that people should aquire a belief system after they are old enough to make an informed decision.

In addition to that I ask: Is being hated by someone(s) a reason for hating them back? I ask because I feel much of the anti-christian hate stems from the feeling of being hated by Christians. Human psychology is deeply social and so we feel very strongly about situations where we feel excluded because we're deemed not good enough. Not many think very closely about the instintual reaction of disliking or hating someone who has shown that they dislike you.

[Kitakiy]

AllThingsNew101

Kitakiy

Mortok

Whatever the "real" reason was, the official excuse was witches. "Witches", or rather, the idea of them, were being used as a scapegoat. So that still counts as witches being persecuted. Blaming someone for wrongdoing to distract from the real issue is an act of persecution.

AHA! that's the word I was looking for. Scapegoat.
Anywho - yes, the excuse that they were 'witches' is an act of discrimination against witches/pagans, whether or not the accused were actually witches/pagans, and whether or not there was a conspirital reason behind it.
What do they call that? Casualties of war. Ya.
Anywho.


I'm going to bed. I'm sore as hell from sitting like this for two hours and tired and I no longer have any stake in this debate ^_^
Not that I really did in the first place.

On a side note, why do people go page after page with comments, only to end with a comment suggesting in some way that they never cared about the discussion they were having?

Because it's cool to not care - duh ^_^
I didn't say I didn't care - It IS important to me that everyone start treating eachother nicely and respectfully - but the fact is, I'll never be able to convince EVERYBODY of that, or even one person. I just wanted to get my word in, and I was genuinely interested in some of the things being said - but, did I expect to actually gain anything from this other than maybe another person's point of view, or the satisfaction of having someone agree with me? No, not really. ^_^
Perhaps I worded it wrong sweatdrop

[anonumos]

It sounds like you're just trying to feel better about being Christian.
If you're going to label yourself as part of a group, be prepared to be seen as such.

[blueberry red bull]

THAT'S WHAT YOU GET, JESUS.

[Rear Admiral SixtyNine]

******** good.

It's utterly disgraceful that religion still exists in this day and age.


We as a species ought to be better than this.

If we could only be rid of the cancerous tumour that is religion altogether

[Slinkenhofer]

It probably wasn't the best thing to post this on LD, what with the trolls, flamers, and people who immediately reject any talk about religion/faith the moment it's brought up.

But as far as your post, I get that a lot too. Especially from people who fancy themselves educated. I'm Christian (though somewhat of an angrier sort), and most of the time when I bring up God or some issue of morality, people automatically think I'm a bible-thumping moron.

Just ignore them. People misrepresent my beliefs all the time, so I've gotten used to just letting them rage about them. Quite honestly it's easier than spending 1-2 hours explaining to them how wrong they are, and how stupid it is to assume a person believes a certain way.

[~Sweet_Darknesz~]

GUISE. Guise. gonk
Have you not learnt by now? This has been going on for more than a year emotion_0A0

[Kaldelar]

Out of curiosity, OP, how did the 16-year old girl deduce that you were a Christian? I assume you haven't changed your signature and that she hadn't checked your profile.

[CapCrack]

I Shall Grant You NoMercy

Christrens are hyprocrties, because their Relgion teaches them to be loving. So if a bat-s**t insane Christens gose on a butthurt rampage about how much they hate homosexuals and woman having free will over their bodies, then there hyprocrties, because they arnt following their Relgion that they constantly shove down everyones throats. Well... most anyway.
COMPRENDO?

Their religion also teaches them that everyone is a hypocrite, no matter what religion you belong to. Christian hypocrites do not mean that Christianity doesn't change lives and help people.

[CapCrack]

Rear Admiral SixtyNine

******** good.

It's utterly disgraceful that religion still exists in this day and age.


We as a species ought to be better than this.

If we could only be rid of the cancerous tumour that is religion altogether

The belief that religion is a tumor is also based off of a metaphysical idea that religion is in itself bad and that there is a higher ideal for a species that religion doesn't offer.
In simpler terms, we will never leave the realm of higher ideas, as long as we are conscious creatures we will seek out the metaphysical. We are not shaking religion soon.

[stefan1921]

AllThingsNew101

I have been on Gaia for quite some time, and I have noticed one thing. Discrimination, and hate speech of any kind is usually openlly frowned upon...

...that is, unless it is directed at religion or religious people.

I am a Christian, and one day I was posting in a thead about how this one girl hated her parents because they would not let her wear tight clothing. I commented that the girl (who was 16) should probably just wait until got out of her parents house before wearing tight clothes, and that fighting her parents on such a trivial topic would cause more harm than good. I developed a following in the thread of people who agreed.

Then I got a PM from the OP of the thread, saying the worst things. Calling me a pig headed, backwards Christian legalist, and how she hates me for being Christian (I am not making this up). Needless to say, I was a little more than offended.

And this is one of many examples.

All across the forums, whenever Religion is being talked about, for the most part, it is in an offensive manner. People hate when Christians use hate speech concerning people of different life styles (homosexuals, pro-life supporters and the like) but its ok when the focus of the hate is religion. Is that not hypocritical?

I am one to respect those of different faiths, belifes and life styles, and to be honest, most of the people I know who do the same are religious people. I only begin to hear hate language when I am talking to a non religious person about religion. Now granted, I knwo thats biased and isolated, but the fact remains, religious people are not ALL hateful, and non-religious people are not ALL open and affirming...

Thoughts?

Hey bro, I would first like to state that who ever sent you that pm is probably a b***h. Second, I am athiest. There alot of religous people I would like to puch at the school i go to. There are almost the same number of athiests. (less athiests) Whatever my views on religion and what it does to people, I treat people with respect they deserve. I have two really great turkish friends, and they are muslim! They aren't hateful, like everyone says. They are my bros. Just wanted to say, don't take things personnally. There will always be people who take the low path, no matter race, background, party, religion, etc. I can't say I always do, but I know to strive to be the bigger man.