Another reason why conservative Christianity pisses me off:Isn't being not straight against religion?Look for this thread in the Coming Out community. A 14-year-old girl wrote asking:"Does God hate us if we are gay or lesbian or bi? ... I don't know the religion as well as I would like, but I need to know if I will be exiled from another place I've grown to love just because of who I am."Fundamentalist bullshit is so much a part of North American culture that even a teen who hasn't been as indoctrinated as I have has absorbed the judgmental message that gay = get sent to hell. My heart breaks for this young woman... and my righteous indignation ratchets up SEVERAL notches.In my humble opinion it's not just the anti-gay ignorance and venom these people spout, it's the belief in original sin that is at the root. How can conservative Christianity expect anyone to develop a healthy sense of self-worth when one of the basic premises of the religion is that without divine intervention even our best is only worthy of hell? ("our righteousness is as filthy rags...") The gay taboo just compounds the damage.Damn them. Damn them for the hell of self-loathing THAT little bit of "wisdom" put me through - and it ANGERS me no end to see it happen again, as evidenced in the above-mentioned thread.I know, I know, not all Christians believe that way. The ones that brought me up did. I did, once upon a time. And I can not forgive them for it.
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Luckily even are most fundamentalist of churches here in the UK seem to be less rabid and less influential and I think there is not a lot of blatant homophobia here either. Probably due to different laws and innate British laziness. For a change I can see some advantages in my country!
I am in agreement with you here. In the US, Fundimentalism is the endemic religion. People whose faith tradition has no concept of \"being Born Again\" speak of \"becoming a Christian.\"
I think part of the problem is that the more tolerant religiouns don\'t make good television. Getting up there and yelling that \"you will be eternaly questioning your faith\" doesn\'t help to get people to tune in. Telling them that those \"no-goodnicks\" are going to hell and you are righteous and will live in eternity makes for viewers.
It saddens me that my own denomination does not do a better job of steming the stream of vitriol that comes from these fundimentalist mouths. We proclaim to work for justice but our own teens are growing up believing what comes from the mouths of those such as Ted Haggard and James Dobson.
I was under the general impression that the basic message of Jesus(and most other major faiths if you read the source works) was let us be kind to each other and not judge and refrain from doing horrid things. This seems lost in translation somewhere.
All bigots should be shot! (Joke!)
It\'s an interesting thot...the idea that even the belief in original sin might be harmful...inspired once again i think i will ramble just a bit in my journal... :o) Stay tuned...
Thank you all for your thoughts!
Hannah - yesterday I Amazoned two of the titles you sent me.
Benton - I would have called it the \"pandemic religion\" but then, I\'m more cynical! I think you\'re right about what makes for entertaining media.
Lari - I liked your last journal entry, will probably comment more there.
That makes me so sad. AND it\'s one of the reasons I am not relijious. So much hipocracy IMO!