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The things we hate in others are the things we hate in ourselves.
The things we love in others are the things we love in ourselves.
Hate intolerance and clearly you engage in intolerance, becoming the thing you hate.
Love those who accept differences, and tolerate those with whom you disagree, and you will become the thing you love.
Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.
To echo Dez, I think a lot of pagans who claim to hate Christianity have themselves been Christian at some point. They are struggling to find peace with a religion that made them feel unhappy, silenced, sinful or whatever it may be, and part of that process is to experience a period of hatred. Most of them grow past it, I hope, but there are always going to be people who see Christianity as 'the enemy'.
The things we hate in others are the things we hate in ourselves.
The things we love in others are the things we love in ourselves.
I've tried this out w/Scientology, and it just doesn't fit. I mean, my religion/spiritual world-view has some whackjobiness in it, but basing my entire religion around space aliens? Seriously?
The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.
In my opinion, I think tolerance on any level about everything in general is a good thing. "Patience is a virtue." kinda thing. I grew up in a pentecostal family, and my mother is very anti-ANY-OTHER-religion. She hates everyone, and that bothers me. I try not to hate, but when it comes to people like her, who bash other people for believing how they choose, I can't help but get irritated at it. And I know many people like her, since she tends to hand around such scum. ERM, I mean, kind citizens. :P
That was my point -- beliefs and behavior are difficult to separate. It is pretty muched summed up by the Thomas Theorem: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."
"No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical." -- Niels Bohr
That was my point -- beliefs and behavior are difficult to separate. It is pretty muched summed up by the Thomas Theorem: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."
Curious... Does that also mean:
If men define situations as unreal, they are unreal in their consequences.
If so, we just solved all the worlds problems - define them as unreal, and they will no longer have real consequences...
Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.
I try not to hate anyone. I don't always succeed. I'm sickened by our (USA) current politics, being trapped between Socialism and Theocracy.
The Bible-Thumping, shove it down everyone's throats style Christians have been on my radar since I was old enough to understand what they are. That was many years ago, and all they've done is get stronger and more blatant as time goes on. These people must be stopped at all costs.
OTOH, I know some very nice Christians who are a credit to their faith. Unfortunately, a Christian or other monotheist must prove themselves to me. If they're one of the kind who shouts it from the rooftops, I'm instantly on guard. People should keep their religions to themselves unless asked - its a very personal thing to me.
-Zorba
"The Veiled Male"
http://www.doubleveil.net
I think modern so-called "paganism" does offer a certain flexibility when accepting other religious views. Many Christians today don't have that. If you read the Bible, it does come off as a very rigid book with little room for negotiation. The Christians who are tolerant are the ones who accept the imperfection of man-made texts. Such people often do practice a peaceful, enlightened religion. The problem is that when most people in the U.S. say "Chrisitanity", that's not the kind of Christianity they mean.
If you want to be thought intelligent, just agree with everyone.
I don't see the logic in the "if your NOT Christian you should be anti-Christian".
I don't follow my faith as some reaction or statement on Christianity. If there were no such thing as Christianity, I'd still be a Pantheist.
I believe and shared my belief with my children that it's better to promote and get behind something you believe in, than it is to put the same energy into HATING something you don't believe in.
I do believe that it is necessary to speak up against what we find wrong, and to act out to amend it. We should not sit back while wrong, persecution, and injustice march on past us, but standing on the sidelines screaming "Hate" accomplishes nothing but perhaps making the hater feel self righteous. Picking on Christians won't solve a single problem that I can think of. I think it's a straw man.
I did used to hate other religions, some where down the road I realized there was nothing I could do about it. I say live and let live. If you want to live that way than go ahead and live that way. But when you want to change my life based upon your beliefs then that is a different story. Such as the U.S government ban on gay marriage (I am so hopeful for the supreme court ruling), it is banded because of what the right hand path text have to say about sexual orientation and the meaning of marriage. I used to think that anger would only solve issues such as that, in this case I think anger and love would bring some forth change. So in other words, if it is not bothering me or my loved ones I say its ok.
I understand where you're coming from, and where your friend is coming from, OP.
I don't think that hatred towards christians is okay. That's like beating a kid because their parents are jerks... er, hello. The kid knows no better, and most christians mean very well. As individuals, many/most of them are just typical people.
Now, that being said, I can say that the christian religion, specifically the bible, contains a great deal of evil.
I don't think that means it's necessary to hate it, however. But I do say that silence is consent, and I do not consent to the evils in the religion itself. If confronted with it, I will speak.
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