I'd Like to Ask a Question or A Few Questions

[ChristineES]

I am hoping that no one is offended or irritated with my question. It used to be said all the time "I don't hate Christians, I just hate their faith". But lately, not with everyone but with a few people I am wondering this "Do you dislike only the Christian faith or do you also dislike Christians as well?" As I said, there are plenty of people who just don't like the Christian faith, but lately I get the feeling that there may be a few who dislike, even hate, Christians, as well. Not only that, think that all Christians are alike- all fundamentalist, all take the Bible 100% literal, etc.

I hope I am wrong about it, really. There are a lot of good things about the Christian faith. There are a lot of Good people who follow the Christian faith. I am not going to say that just because someone is a Christian means that they are good people. I wouldn't say that anymore than I would say that atheists are bad just because they are atheists. I dislike generalizations and stereotypes.

 

[jarofthoughts]

So...
What is/are your question(s)?

Is it "Do you hate Christians?"
Then the answer is "no".

I have friends and colleagues who are Christians (and Muslim and Hindu and...) so that is not an issue.

I make an effort to separate people and ideas, and people may well be good and deserving of respect even if I don't think the ideas they have/support/advocate are.

 

[Madhuri]

The world is full of people who generalise and form prejudice due to ignorance. And there are people who try not to generalise so much (everyone does to some extent) and try to minimise their prejudices by educating themselves about the subject.

So there are plenty of people who hate 'christians' and there are also people who merely (like myself) have an aversion to certain Christian ideas and mentality. I do not think that I have ever disliked someone simply because of their racial, religious or political (etc) positions.

 

[ChristineES]

So...
What is/are your question(s)?

Is it "Do you hate Christians?"
Then the answer is "no".

I have friends and colleagues who are Christians (and Muslim and Hindu and...) so that is not an issue.

I make an effort to separate people and ideas, and people may well be good and deserving of respect even if I don't think the ideas they have/support/advocate are.

I suppose the major question is do a few people generalize all Christians as fundamentalist bigots?

 

[Kathryn]

I suppose the major question is do a few people generalize all Christians as fundamentalist bigots?

I doubt you're going to be able to get many, if any, people to admit that, but I think it's a growing prejudice.

And one that's accepted more openly as well.

 

[jarofthoughts]

I suppose the major question is do a few people generalize all Christians as fundamentalist bigots?

I'm sure such people exist.
Then again, you can usually find a few people signing up for just about anything under the sun, so I don't think that means much.

 

[jarofthoughts]

I doubt you're going to be able to get many, if any, people to admit that, but I think it's a growing prejudice.

Obviously, I can only speak from my own experience, but then again, I live in Norway where some 70% of the population are atheist or non-religious and less than 20% consider religion to be an important part of their lives.
So here religion is not that much of an issue, and it's not really a public issue.
Most Norwegians agree that politics and religion do not mix, and (for instance) a politician who proclaimed to be, say, a Creationist would be unelectable.
In fact, his or her political career would be over at that very moment.
If I may speculate a little, considering the exposure that Christianity in particular gets in the US, I wouldn't be surprised if a growing number of people were fed up with it.

 

[Me Myself]

I think a lot of "christian" doctrines that are divulged are outright and offending blasphemy against humanity and God.

I am aware that most christians that believe in heartless things like Hell and the "god" that allows it almost all of them habve far more compassion in their hearts than the alleged "God" they pray to.

I was a catholic christian for many years, and hell was something I always struggled about my faith. Finaly I decided that it wasn´t important what humans said about God. If he is to be superior to us, he MUST be SUPERIOR to us, and eternal torture was not moraly superior.

I do find the thought that it is an acceptable thing for a moraly superior being to be poison of the worst kind to any kind of actually good and sincere morality. I do take it in me to say this as much as the subject arises in front of me, because I know when you have a heart, hell as a concept hurts, and when you don´t, even more you need to understand what a good morality ACTUALLY is. So I say what needs to be said.

Now naturaly bigotry exists in anything. Yes, there are atheists/buddhists/agnostics/whateverist that think that mainstream or all christianity is allways bigotry or followed by bigots.

I just see some concepts as diseseases, that do need to be erradicated or at least one must TRY to treat them as one sees it. Acting otherwise is unmerciful IMHO.

 

[kerravon]

I suppose the major question is do a few people generalize all Christians as fundamentalist bigots?

Christians are very diverse, and where I live (Australia) most are non-practising and it's just a label that they were brought up with. In Australia (unlike the US) they are rarely bigots and our 3rd-longest serving Prime Minister was an atheist, and I never heard a single person who cited that as a reason to not vote for him.

 

[839311]

Do you dislike only the Christian faith

I dislike Islam just as much. If it wasn't for the idea that God is a merciless eternal torturer I would care much less. Even if it wasn't for the concept of hell, there are many other bad ideas to challenge - like the idea that God rejects people based on one lifetime of experience as a human.

The fact that these two religions have as many followers as they do is another important reason why they are challenged on a regular basis. You won't see me challenging zoroastrianism very often, although I think I have challenged one of the ideas once.

or do you also dislike Christians as well?"

Sure, those that are jerks. Some Christians take their religion too far and become very dislikable because of it.

In my experience, many Christians don't really care about their religion. I know many that havnt even read the bible, or don't go to church. Football might be far more important to them, or American Idol. For such people theres really no reason to dislike them because of their Christianity, because it barely comes through in their life.

Some are also pretty good people because of their Christianity. On balance I like these folks, even though Id like for them to become atheists/agnostics.

As I said, there are plenty of people who just don't like the Christian faith, but lately I get the feeling that there may be a few who dislike, even hate, Christians, as well. Not only that, think that all Christians are alike- all fundamentalist, all take the Bible 100% literal, etc.

I havn't noticed, myself.

 

[Madhuri]

Christine, I've noticed that you've posted a couple of threads over time that seem concerned with misconceptions or dislike by people regarding Christianity.

Let me assure you that your concerns are mirrored by just about every group. In fact, my life would have been easier if I'd been brought up as a Christian as it was mainly Christians who made some times in my life very stressful.

 

[Copernicus]

I am hoping that no one is offended or irritated with my question. It used to be said all the time "I don't hate Christians, I just hate their faith". But lately, not with everyone but with a few people I am wondering this "Do you dislike only the Christian faith or do you also dislike Christians as well?" As I said, there are plenty of people who just don't like the Christian faith, but lately I get the feeling that there may be a few who dislike, even hate, Christians, as well. Not only that, think that all Christians are alike- all fundamentalist, all take the Bible 100% literal, etc.

Christine, why are you asking this question? There are people of all faiths and lack of faith who hate Christians for being Christian. There are Christians who hate you for not being the kind of Christian that they are. How can this come as a shock or surprise to you? There is no group that can claim to be free of bigotry.

I hope I am wrong about it, really. There are a lot of good things about the Christian faith. There are a lot of Good people who follow the Christian faith. I am not going to say that just because someone is a Christian means that they are good people. I wouldn't say that anymore than I would say that atheists are bad just because they are atheists. I dislike generalizations and stereotypes.

What surprises me is that you seem to be addressing just atheists, when there are clearly Christians, Jews, and Muslims who hate you for religious reasons. Are you expecting atheists to be uniformly fair-minded? That sounds like the kind of stereotyping that you were critical of.

 

[ChristineES]

In my experience, many Christians don't really care about their religion. I know many that havnt even read the bible, or don't go to church. Football might be far more important to them, or American Idol. For such people theres really no reason to dislike them because of their Christianity, because it barely comes through in their life.

Some are also pretty good people because of their Christianity. On balance I like these folks, even though Id like for them to become atheists/agnostics.



I havn't noticed, myself.

I doubt there are very many people who hate someone because of his or her faith. And even if they did, who would admit to it as Kathryn pointed out And it is true that a lot of people who call themselves Christians only do because they were raised that way and don't really think about the faith very much.

 

[outhouse]

I am hoping that no one is offended or irritated with my question. It used to be said all the time "I don't hate Christians, I just hate their faith". But lately, not with everyone but with a few people I am wondering this "Do you dislike only the Christian faith or do you also dislike Christians as well?" As I said, there are plenty of people who just don't like the Christian faith, but lately I get the feeling that there may be a few who dislike, even hate, Christians, as well. Not only that, think that all Christians are alike- all fundamentalist, all take the Bible 100% literal, etc.

I hope I am wrong about it, really. There are a lot of good things about the Christian faith. There are a lot of Good people who follow the Christian faith. I am not going to say that just because someone is a Christian means that they are good people. I wouldn't say that anymore than I would say that atheists are bad just because they are atheists. I dislike generalizations and stereotypes.

I hope your not overthinking this.

you still have the numbers on your side globally.

I wouldnt pay attention to religious forums where opinions come and go in waves.



For me everyone gets a fair shake and treated on a individual basis, theist or non theist.

 

[Shermana]

I am hoping that no one is offended or irritated with my question. It used to be said all the time "I don't hate Christians, I just hate their faith". But lately, not with everyone but with a few people I am wondering this "Do you dislike only the Christian faith or do you also dislike Christians as well?" As I said, there are plenty of people who just don't like the Christian faith, but lately I get the feeling that there may be a few who dislike, even hate, Christians, as well. Not only that, think that all Christians are alike- all fundamentalist, all take the Bible 100% literal, etc.

I hope I am wrong about it, really. There are a lot of good things about the Christian faith. There are a lot of Good people who follow the Christian faith. I am not going to say that just because someone is a Christian means that they are good people. I wouldn't say that anymore than I would say that atheists are bad just because they are atheists. I dislike generalizations and stereotypes.

As a member of the broad-title known as "Messianic Judaism", I dislike 90% of "Messianic Judaism", BECAUSE it is most similar to 99.999% of most "Christianity", so therefore I dislike practically all that is called "Christianity" and consider it to be antithetical and heretical to the original intent, but mostly due to Doctrinal and interpretation reasons. As for the Christians themselves, I find that most of them absolutely refuse to question or research beyond the bounds of what they're taught and will take an "orthodox" (i.e. Antinomian and Trinitarian and traditional Canon) stance on practically every issue, generally aggressively unwilling to examine the actual facts and history, and I also hate most "Liberal Christianity" which is essentially "Revisionism" plain and simple, and find most proponents of such to be just as dogmatic and unwilling to question their own revisionist version of the facts. Technically, I think both orthodox AND Liberal christianities are Revisionist, the orthodox just has been revising the historical view for longer.

So yes, in essence I dislike most Christianity AND most Christians who dogmatically hold water for said "traditionalist" doctrines, and I'm not ashamed (or afraid) to say so, and I enjoy debating against them and their views.

However, for those who are willing to question their dogmas and canons and come to the understanding of what the original teachings were intended to be and the true historicity, I have nothing but respect for.

 

[ChristineES]

Christine, why are you asking this question? There are people of all faiths and lack of faith who hate Christians for being Christian. There are Christians who hate you for not being the kind of Christian that they are. How can this come as a shock or surprise to you? There is no group that can claim to be free of bigotry.

What surprises me is that you seem to be addressing just atheists, when there are clearly Christians, Jews, and Muslims who hate you for religious reasons. Are you expecting atheists to be uniformly fair-minded? That sounds like the kind of stereotyping that you were critical of.

I had a whole spiel written by deleted it. Some points: I know very well that almost all atheists on the RF DO NOT dislike me. I also know that there are people of other faiths that hate my faith or me (and others) just for following (which is even more distressing).
Suffice it to say that I am feeling irritable today because there is one person who seems to think I hate him or her- not in so many words- because of a verse he/she read in the Bible and other reasons. And there is another who constantly attacks every post I make- makes fun of everything I post. And a third who posts hysterical laughing smilies at some of the theists' posts here, including mine, and that is really humiliating (I shouldn't be humiliated, but I guess I can't help it).

One last point: Just because I am a Christian doesn't mean that I hate any atheist or any person of any other faith or religion that is different than mine.

 

[lunamoth]

I had a whole spiel written by deleted it. Some points: I know very well that almost all atheists on the RF DO NOT dislike me. I also know that there are people of other faiths that hate my faith or me (and others) just for following (which is even more distressing).
Suffice it to say that I am feeling irritable today because there is one person who seems to think I hate him or her- not in so many words- because of a verse he/she read in the Bible and other reasons. And there is another who constantly attacks every post I make- makes fun of everything I post. And a third who posts hysterical laughing smilies at some of the theists' posts here, including mine, and that is really humiliating (I shouldn't be humiliated, but I guess I can't help it).

One last point: Just because I am a Christian doesn't mean that I hate any atheist or any person of any other faith or religion that is different than mine.

Don't let them get you down Christine. You are a very good and considerate person.

 

[ChristineES]

Christine, I've noticed that you've posted a couple of threads over time that seem concerned with misconceptions or dislike by people regarding Christianity.

Let me assure you that your concerns are mirrored by just about every group. In fact, my life would have been easier if I'd been brought up as a Christian as it was mainly Christians who made some times in my life very stressful.

Yep. People are disliked for many silly reasons. I wasn't brought up Christian at all. I am not a fundamentalist and I am not a liberal Christian. Other Christians are my biggest critics.

I don't like it when any person hates another because of their ethnic group, their faith or lack of faith, their gender, etc. It concerns me because I used to be the kind of person who was so idealistic that people made fun of it- including my husband who said that I look at the world in rose-colored glasses.

 

[Kathryn]

Don't let them get you down Christine. You are a very good and considerate person.

I second that emotion!

 

[Me Myself]

Third the emotion!

i may be passionate when I debate and denounce, but I like you ChristineES