paxetaurora said:
Melon, I know about your issues with the Church, and you have good reason for those issues. However, I thought you still considered yourself a Christian. If you don't, that is your business. But I think it is misleading and unfair to say that Christianity poses a problem for our country. Certain Christians, and people who purport to call themselves Christians, have some viewpoints that I think are problematic. But Christianity retains at its core a basic respect and love for all people and a moral code that is certainly good and reasonable to live by. I don't like the implication that ALL of Christendom is trying to make this country an insufferable, intolerant theocracy. That is not what Christianity means to me, and I doubt it means that to most Christians assembled here.
Please remember that in FYM we want to avoid making blanket statements about ANY group--religious, social, ethnic, racial, political, or otherwise.
So what am I supposed to say? I don't see one Christian religion that has truly spoken up against what I have written. Sure, you have your maverick clerics, but when push comes to shove, they all cower when the Religious Right starts to threaten to secede. You know what I say? Let them.
Perhaps it is semantical. I still believe in Christ and all that, but I have lost my faith in religion and that word, "Christianity," that labels it. It is in a similar vein that the swastika, which, for thousands of years, was a peace symbol, is now permanently a symbol for hatred. Now, despite my best judgment, I cannot help but look at "Christianity" and all the semantics that embody it to be nothing more than a symbol for oppression and reactionary beliefs
(for those looking for a fight, I'm not comparing Christianity to Nazism; but, rather, showing how a word or symbol's connotation can be changed over time).
The best thing I could have done, though, was separate Christ from "Christianity." Christ is no longer part of that entity, usurped by tradition and fear of change...
...I don't know. I feel nothing but betrayal at the hands of "Christianity." I have nothing but anger at the Religious Right, being nothing more than modern Pharisees, declaring a monopoly on God in the same manner as their 2000 year-old predecessors, and similar anger at the "Religious Left," which, if nothing else, is guilty of inaction and cowardice in the face of the Pharisees.
I would like to hope that things will change for the better, but, after seeing things get progressive worse since the election of Dubya in 2000 (and all the fanaticism that has surrounded him), I really have little hope.
Since this is mostly a rant of mine, rest assured, I agree with what you have written.
Melon