Category: the Rant Board
You know what I can't stand? Christians and conservatives who whine about how they're being persecuted and picked on here in America. What a load of crap! OK, so people are questioning your beliefs. That's not persecution. So teachers cannot lead the whole class, whoever they are, in a recited rote prayer every morning which will magically make them into better human beings. This is not persecution. So people have viewpoints that are opposite to yours and will not keep silent and will even state their views publicly. This is not persecution. And oh, for the record, just so you can know ahead of time, being wished Happy Holidays by a store clerk and not Merry Christmas is not persecution. If you want persecution we could always jail you, throw stones at you until you die, or just have you secretly executed. I'm told that happens in other parts of the world to Christians. You guys don't know how good you have it here. You have whole radio stations and TV networks devoted to your views. Christian bookstores and music are everywhere. I can't even think of anymore examples but there you go. So enjoy your status and cut out the whinging, because it's not very attractive. Just leave the rest of us heathens alone, will ya?
im a christian,well sorta..i believe in them veiws but i hate being in the same room with anybody who basically says they are hard done to becaue of being a christian,i would help if they didnt try and preach to everyonr yhry met in the street about god or complain when someone isnt listening to their beliefs .
mostly here in wales there not hard core christian,where i live at least,but still you still get the odd die-hard catholic coming to your door making out that you need jesus to forgive you .
most of the time you will listen to them politely because they are little old grannies ,but is there any need for it?
They do that? In america? The nation founded on the ferver of christian puritanism? Seriously! Of all the places in the world to cry persecution... Surely they can find something better to feel marginalised about?
Yep, it's true. Just yesterday on one of the e-mail lists I am on, a person who identifies as Christian, and not a young one at that, mentioned that his beliefs were being "bashed" merely because a few people had the nerve to disagree with his particular point of view. So all disagreement is bashing? Shall my heart bleed for the poor, deprived, persecuted majority?
Perhaps i can explain their viewpoint a bit better. The ones who feel they are under attack are those whose views are whetted to the bible so thoroughly that every action every decision must be grounded in scripture. It is foolish to live your life based on the precepts in one book, a very human one at that.I believe their intensions are good most of the time, however they miss the point. Anyone can claim persecution and they do simpply because as orthodox Christians they are very much in the minority. The ugly side to all this is they say that those who do not follow the bible in every area of life are not doing Gods will. They include other Christians in this. They believe their very church is crumbling because of humanism and feminism. Please understand I don't take their narrow way too seriously. I do think anyone would come under scrutiny who lived an extreme lifestyle. Fundamental Christianity is certainly extreme. Have you ever heard Christians use phrases like Quiverfull Courtship and Child training? What do these catchphrases make you think? Peace and blessings. Tiffany
I'd say you have a point. I think what it boils down to is we have a lot of folks who cannot seem to accept the idea that the only constant thing, for good or ill, is change. Now, I can't back this statement up, but my impression is that a society can't thrive if it's in a sort of social time bubble. These folks pine away for the Fifties, and the TV fifties at that, where women stayed home, bore children and made cookies, men owned and ran everything, kids and teenagers were always clean-cut and polite, and anyone who wasn't good-looking, able-bodied and white was pretty much invisible. You were assumed to be Christian and hold the same beliefs, and anyone who didn't was just not talked about because it was unpleasant dinner conversation, and we all worried about what the neighbors would think if we did anything out of line. What a life, eh?
The even more disturbing part of this is the abscence of reason. People like Doug Philips and his crowd teach their sons to hunt and kill for food because it said somewhere in the Bible that we were to eat meat. I think the idea of women staying home is sound but not at the expense of everything else. As far as I know the fifties were a ticking timebomb that went off in the 60's. Former hippies, now christian fundamentalists talk about the fifties in this way. The oppression and whitewashed lifestyle was something to be hacked to pieces or smashed with the biggest sledge hammer they could get their hands on. It worked, and we're still cleaning up the mess and figuring out what worked and what didn't from the decades when society had a clean face and different clothes. All points of view can be learned from whether we agree or not. The point is not to sneer too much. Sometimes they drop a feather or two that's worth picking up. If anyone wants a laugh www.visionforum.com also www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com happy browsing. Peace and blessings. Tiffany
Again, more good points. I think I might want to clarify my own point of view a little bit. See, I'm agnostic and I also call myself a realist. I try to observe things as they are in the here and now, not what I wish they were or thought they could have been. I try my best not to judge people for their own personal choices in beliefs, lifestyle, what have you. I like to use the old hippie saying of "Live and let live." But what I have a problem with is people who believe their way is the best way for everybody and who won't quit until they get their way, and this is what I find frightening about your more extreme religious groups. They're idealists, like I said, and I observe part of idealism, whether it looks at a great golden age or a shiny happy Jetsons future, is that you have to believe that current times have no redeeming qualities, but this or that pet philosophy will make everyone and everything all better, providing every last person jumps aboard the boat and goes along. Mindless conformity, manipulation, scare tactics, pressure, group think, and all that sort of stuff, that's what I'm against.
i'm so glad to see this topic, cuz it's something that really gets to me. i can't stand that some people get so caught up in the fact that there way's the right one, that they're not even willing to see or accept others beliefs.
I think that you have to look at this from one perspective. We all have differing opinions on some subject matter or another. When you put your opinion out there, expect to be criticized at some level, because we all have our differences. If you can't stand having to argue your point or to be criticized, than just sit in your little corner and keep your opinions to yourself. It reminds me of when people come on here and expect sympathy from everyone and then complain when they get bashed for their problems. Well, that's what can happen when you open yourself up to so many people.
This is true. And in general terms, not just pertaining to this board system, I feel the majority is just as much deserving of criticism than anyone else, and perhaps, since majority groups tend to throw their weight around, they are more deserving of it, just to make sure they don't start thinking they're above being human and all that.
I'd go so far as to say that the majority are more deserving of criticism, that those who yearn for the better American way of old are bound by their country's own ethos to stand up for the rights of the minority groups, and be suspicious of majority power in all it's forms. A total outsider's opinion here, but I think one of the most beautiful, inately American concepts in your history is the deep mistrust of governmental power, especially the tendency of executive power to intrude on the personal freedoms of the citizens. Your founding fathers may have been raving, puritanical christians, but they sure believed in every man's right to choose for himself. I know this got a bit ranty and off-topic, but some yanks have been telling me all about what's "unamerican" recently, and it seems so contrary to what your political and social history suggests is unamerican, and, it baffles.
Actually, I'm told the founding fathers weren't that time's equivalent of Pat Robertson's crowd, but had a variety of beliefs and non-beliefs. Sure wish I could point you toward a website that would point such things out, but I haven't got one on hand. I'm told that these days our liberties are being taken away from us bit by bit and I guess we're allowing it because of that pesky war on terrorism thing. Mind you, not a war on terror, but terrorism, as you can't fight terror itself, can you? Or can you? Hahahahahaha!
If the world were the same, it'd be a rather boring place.....
This is very true, but I think when people are idealists and also hunger and thirst and lust for power, it doesn't matter to them that the world will be a bland place to be. What we call blandness is what such folk might, I speculate, call morally pure. To them, there will be no media to corrupt the minds of youth, all information and education will be under strict control in the name of keeping the souls of all Americans safe from Satanic corruption from outside influences and such awful concepts as free will, independent thought, and individuality.
Yep, it would seem y, that christianity is moving away from god's vision very far and quickly I mean did god really write the bible? I mean yes I am a christian of sorts i believe christ died on the cross for me and i believe in god but as far as the bible is concerned it was written by man and i doubt god had much to do with what it said.
The really sucky thing is that we may never know the answer to who wrote and inspired the Bible, whether it was some kind of god or just mankind playing power politics.
I like the ladies against feminism site. I am against feminism--rather, I'm against man haters and women who do nothing but whine about how we're not equal to men and blah blah blah.
Ms. Ezria or I suppose if you are in opposition to feminism you might rather prefer a “Miss” or “Mrs.” Title..??
Well, I'm not really sure how I stand on the feminism thing. It's not consistent. First of all, I do think the occasional winge is OK because although we've come a long way, I do think women are still not necessarily equal to men in some respects and that men still think they can get away with some things that they shouldn't. I suppose since I'm a man, I should not be all that fond of women who hate men, but on the other hand, I am not one who likes men or trusts them all that much, even though I'm a man. I think men do a lot of things to women that warrant the hatred of women. Men are still brought up to believe, for example, that a woman is only good for having sex with and nothing more. Just one tiny example, mind you.