Look at what i found on the internet written by a
Christian:
Imagine that you are Christian, from a moderate, mainline denomination... say Presbyterian. You wake up one morning and suddenly find that you are in a tiny religious minority. Almost everyone around you shares a faith different from yours, and you are suddenly distinct.
You surf the web a bit, and find strange and bizarre websites that talk about the "threat" of Christianity. These sites talk about the massacres in Rwanda, the Inquisition, Soviet Communism, the World Wars and Jonestown. As you try to wrap your head around the websites, they get even more bizarre... they quote the harsh punishments in Exodus and Leviticus and try to portray Christianity as a death cult, focused on the drinking of blood and cannibalism.
The sites list odd, seemingly unconnected events and present them as all being manifestations of the "plague" of Christianity. Essentially every bad event or problem that occurred somewhere, sometime in some remote corner of Christendom is presented... and Christianity itself, as well as Christians as individuals are blamed. Some are downright crazy... Soviet Communism? They were atheists for crying out loud! The website says that while that's true, the Russian Orthodox Church didn't speak out sufficiently against it to stop it, making them complicit, and in any case the Communists emanated from a demonstrably Christian culture.
Shaking your head, you go outside and start your day. You note the stares and odd glances that you receive. Smiling, you shrug them off and go about your business. You don't get far before someone asks you, out of the blue, why "you people" dance with poisonous snakes. You start to tell them that your denomination has never... but before you can answer, you're asked what you're going to do about Filipino Christians who sell their children into the sex trade. You've never heard that one before, but acknowledge that it might be true...you're about to ask why they are asking you about this when suddenly you're told that a straight answer can't be expected from the likes of you anyway, because afterall, you're probably a pedophile who burns witches.
Convinced that you've encountered someone with a severe mental illness, you get away fast. But not long afterward, the guys at work tell you how "lucky" you are, because as a Christian, everyone knows that you practice polygamy. You tell them no, I am Presbyterian, we don't do that... maybe your thinking of an obscure sect of Mormons. They reply that that can't be true, because it's clearly stated in the Bible that it's allowed. You defer to your Bible scholar colleagues, not wanting to create further trouble, and then you're asked to explain why, if Christianity isn't a death cult, that "you guys" start so many wars, and kill so many civilians? And what about those Christian-sponsored massacres in Guatemala where whole villages got wiped out? And why do you guys do that weird thing with the pig's head on your holiest day (Anglicans)? What's wrong with you people, you know Christians have the highest suicide rate in the world (Sweden), and why does the Bible say to abuse your children?
I think you get the drift...
Demonization
Scapegoating
Conspiracism
Collective guilt
These things are wrong."
:rollseyes
ffended:
