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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/9/2005 7:12:55 PM | Christianity is one of the world's religions. Of that there is no question. It is no more and no less than any other world religion.
I was raised within Christianity, and always respected those of other religions by not forcing mine on them. I never accepted the currently popular premise that, in order to be a "real" Christian, one had to prove it by force-feeding Christianity on others.
I have had Christians come up to me and ask me if I am a Christian (with that look on their faces that tells you they're just ready to give me "the speech"). My response early on was, "yes, I am." That always resulted in their asking if I was REALLY REALLY a Christian. To which I usually responded with, "What do you mean by REALLY REALLY a Christian?" That, in turn, customarily got a whole explanation about THEIR method of arriving at their truth, and how theirs was the ONLY way possible: that is, the born again thing, the baptism thing, the having some relationship with Christ thing, etc. etc. etc.
After quite a few of those approaches by Christians, I began find it insulting that someone would ask me, a Christian, if I was a Christian. I never quite got to the point of saying, "It's none of your business", but perhaps I should've. 
It was these approaches by born-again Christians that eventually led me to investigate Christianity in depth and realize how dissatisfying Christianity was for me. Upon close look, Christianity began to sound very fairy-talish, so I began to explore other religions.
I found my path on my own. It's a blend of Buddhism/Judaism and more.
I guess in a way I'm grateful to all those Christians who wanted to force their brand of Christianity on me. It was they who set me on the path of searching. As a result I found my truth.
Sarah | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/9/2005 7:21:05 PM | Sarah,
That is quite inspiring. While you have explored, and found, a satisfying truth of your own, you are not particularly harsh on anyone. But some things can be really irritating, and the imposition of guilt on others has long been a controlling tool.
To me, it is of no one's concern what someone else's beliefs are. But for some there does seem to be that need to categorize, so as to fit people into neat little slots. Meanwhile, I wonder how tolerant Christians might be to Muslims, Budhists, Hindus etc. who might come pounding on their doors, insisting they have the only answers? | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 12:09:43 AM | wonder how tolerant Christians might be to Muslims, Budhists, Hindus etc. who might come pounding on their doors, insisting they have the only answers?
bravo, darlin'! i am not a christian. i usually don't get into discussions about religion or my personal beliefs because i don't want the headache. if someone wants to know what i think, i'll be happy to tell them, but it's never in an "i'm right and you are wrong" way. i will however, call people on their ignorance of historical fact. if you have never had someone try to convert you, you are probably a christian. i live in the deep south, and i usually get accosted at least once a week, by people who have no idea what my personal beliefs are, but are assuming that theirs are better than mine. to tell ANYONE that they are wrong for their beliefs to me is the height of arrogance. i can decide for myself because i have a brain, and i choose to use it. as a native american (cherokee/choctaw mostly), i very much resent this behavior.
i really hate talking about the bible. people always want to start quoting it at me, and to me it is not relevant. this book only pertains to one group of people, and has been altered so many times that, even if you can accept it as "the word of god"(i can't), there are hundreds of different versions. which one do you pick? especially before and during the middle ages, anyone who had any kind of political or religious power could make changes in the bible. king james made changes to justify his divorces, among other things. then there are the deliberate mistranslations. the word in the old testament most often translated as "god", singular masculine pronoun, is the sanskrit word "elohim", which is a plural noun that has no gender! it should be translated as "them", they, or "gods and goddesses" there are three words in the new testament that are translated as "virgin" (and if someone wants to get picky, i'll be happy to look them up), the definitions of which have nothing to do with physical chastity!
i get tired of all the talk about christianity being a religion of "love". this is a religion that is responsible for more deaths than all the wars in human history put together, for destroying many of the world native cultures, in the name of a person who if he actually existed, was very live and let live. if you examine the history of this religion, you don't see much else than rampant greed, preversion, and intolerance.
i am also heartily sick of the "founding fathers" arguement. my only post in the abortion forum has a few quotes in it that i am rather fond of. there's more, if you want it, where those came from. most of them were NOT christian, as you can see in their private writings, which are often very different from their public statements. thomas jefferson was quoted as calling the bible a "dungheap". you can not have a one-way wall that lets religion into government, but does not let it out. NO religion is capable of handling political power without becoming corrupted by it.
in my personal vision of a perfect world, people can discuss their personal beliefs without trying to force them on others, and everybody can just accept that some people aren't going to share their beliefs. i'm probably going to hear a lot of crap from some of the cristians on here who think i'm attacking their beliefs. not true. i really don't care what you believe, i am just tired of the assumption that your beliefs are the only "right" way. i am merely calling attention to a few misconceptions about history and documentation. i think it's terribly ironic that a religion that began by being so persecuted, has become the worst persecuter of other faiths. | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 4:14:02 AM | sidheanwwyn,
Thank you for your post.
Some people are narrow-minded. The universe is not. It is too diversified. Planet A does not think Planet X has no purpose or legitimate reason for being.
Only people would invent fairytales, then live by the principles implied in them. To suggest there is only one way to God is to deny that before someone's Messiah came here, there were already millions of years of history in the works.
At this time in history, we should have learned. We should have learned the the so-called Holy Crusades and the Inquisition were the works of religious fanatics, precisely the same kind we now point the finger at elsewhere.
You are Native American, so I do not in the least have to tell you what Christianity did to you and your people. Yet, on this board in the past week or so, someone commented on how commendable it was for American missionaries to risk life and limb going into the present-day jungle and save the souls of "savages."
I turned the TV on last night and saw a Christian preacher jumping up and down, with thousands of people worked into a frenzy. That is frightening. It is frightening for the very same reason it would be frightening if that were a Muslim Mullah doing it. Surely, if an American TV network showed a Mullah doing that, or heaven forbid, a Shaman, the Christian clergy would be up in arms, literally and figuratively.
There will be no peace on this planet until people in their diversity validate that diversity. And for those waiting for the return of Jesus to straighten out the mess, for 2000 years people have been waiting for that, and it won't happen. We created the mess, and we need to resolve it.
In 1952 Evangelist Billy Graham said the end was imminent in days. People cracked, with some committing suicide. I don't recall ever reading any explanations being given.
You can fool some of the people some of the time... | |
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Loukus
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Joined: 2/15/2004
Msg: 80 | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 5:18:03 PM | Hi Prince:
You said:
To me, it is of no one's concern what someone else's beliefs are. But for some there does seem to be that need to categorize, so as to fit people into neat little slots. Meanwhile, I wonder how tolerant Christians might be to Muslims, Budhists, Hindus etc. who might come pounding on their doors, insisting they have the only answers?
I'll bet Christians wouldn't be tolerant at all if people of other faiths proselytized to Christians, the way Christians do to people of other faiths. In fact, I'll bet it would take no time at all for Christians to ask their Republican pals in Congress to pass some laws to prohibit proselytizing.
In any case, I wish people would just be happy with their religious path, and let others be happy with theirs, rather than intrude into the religious paths of others.
Sarah | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 5:35:24 PM | | I haven't read all the post here but as to the original question I as a person that does not go to church but does beleive in God all I have to say is I never heard or saw any christian press or push or force their religion on anyone. Although I do see muslim's cutting the heads off of the infidel's as they call the non beleiver's or there religion. | |
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jimi77
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Joined: 7/13/2004
Msg: 84 | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 6:19:37 PM | JIMI77 sez (acting as if he were impressed by the pseudo-ethics and pseudo-innocence of the U.S.):
.Neither did the Kuwaiti’s or the gassed Iranians or the millions of Iraqis that disappeared
You mean these people didn't die as a result of WARS Iraq was involved in? Wars such as the ones the U.S. declares throughout the globe? For example, as in the war the U.S. declared against Iraq? (And I won't even go into torture and slow murder, and how well the U.S. did that to innocents at Abu Ghraib).
The U.S. has been occupying, overthrowing, paying for assassinations, stealing natural resources, putting in puppet leaders, and outright murdering people in the countless countries from 1823 to the present, for no other reason other than to f**k with them, take their wealth and give it to mega-rich Americans, and keep the (attacked) nation's citizens as cheap labor: Mexico (murder, torture, puppet leader, cheap labor, and stole almost all the land), Nicaragua (murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), El Salvador (murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), Honduras (murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), Guam (murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), Puerto Rico (stole it & cheap labor), Philipines (murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), Hawaii (murder, torture, puppet leader, & cheap labor & U.S. stole it), Cuba (murder, torture, puppet leader, & cheap labor & stole Guantanamo), Panama (murder, torture, puppet leader, & cheap labor & stole the Canal), Dominican Republic (murder, torture, puppet leader, & cheap labor), Nicaragua (murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), Guatemala (murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), Argentina (paid for murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), Grenada (murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), Colombia (murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), Venezuela (murder, torture, puppet leader & cheap labor), then started all over again, and again, and again, and again f*cking with them.
BUT HEY! WAIT A MINUTE! I've missed the entire Middle East! Can I go into that in my next post? I've got a whole list of countries the U.S. has been f*cking with in that area. Shall I go into those?
Sarah | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 6:24:37 PM | Hi Sarah,
That is quite a list!
If that list pertained to Russia or China, now, I bet the American take on things would be some kind of response, eh!
With over 200 incursions into sovereign lands in one century, how dare the U.S. call itself the land of the free, the leader of the free world, or the bastion of anything sacred, such as what the Christian right would promote it to be!
People are lied to long enough, they become the lie, even if lies are not very becoming! | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 6:40:49 PM | soull says:
Saritamiami
I know there are some people who feel like you and they feel confused because if some preaching that is here and there, not that I'm the one to judge. But you have to go into your heart, deep down and you will hear that nice beautiful voice speaking to you.
I am just asking becuase I had the need for Him 2 years ago, I have found new meaning in life and it is a great experiance.
God Bless You
Really! You know there are people who feel like me? Tell me, are you psychic? ROFLMAO!
Actually, dahlin', nobody is confused here. Everyone believes their own beliefs. You still haven't arrived at a point where you understand that everyone has a different path. Some people must begin their journey at the most simplistic, lowest forms of faith, such as Christianity, before they can advance to higher forms of understanding of the universe.
If Christianity does it for you, great! Enjoy it. Feel it. Love it. Get into it. Don't tell me to get into your religion. However, if you'd like, I could proselytize to you right back!
Take care and keep your religion to yourself.
Thanks for listening.
Sarah  | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 6:52:26 PM | soulll:
Tell me
What are some " higher forms of understanding the universe" ?
Understanding, for example, that good and evil are intertwined aspects of all things which make up and complete the "whole", not some completely separate entities. I shall illustrate by employing some of your beliefs:
IF God is the creator of ALL THINGS. Then God is the creator of ALL THINGS. Correct?
IF ALL THINGS are truly ALL THINGS, then that includes ALL things, not just the ones you like.
ALL THINGS includes the POTENTIAL and EXISTENCE of pain, suffering, agony, death, destruction, devastation, and all things which we (using very simplistic religious terms) consider "bad" or "evil" things.
Therefore, using these very simplistic terms, "bad" and "evil", we can say that "bad" and "evil" are created by God, because God is the creator of ALL THINGS, including the potentiality and existence of all things bad and evil.
Over and out.
Sarah | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 7:15:56 PM | Sarah,
Consider yourself told, young lady. Go to your local preacher, preferably the ones that offer drive-through service, and repent.
On the other hand, if you think that having your own mind entitles you to think for yourself, then by all means continue on your path...
I am walking on my own path. I have since I became able to think for myself and you know what, all the trees in the forest don't go by the same name. Some grow best on hills, others in hollows, others in deep dark swamps. But, you know what, Sarah, you lost soul, they're all trees...
Ah the mystery... | |
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jimi77
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Joined: 7/13/2004
Msg: 91 | |
| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 7:25:58 PM | Sarah
you know the US is the only country that does this? as for cheep labor.. are the people working to support there familys now? i supose russia never did it , or any of the anceint peoples that use to destroy everything in there path loot the place and walk off with the skilled workers.. it is not just a US thing.it is still going on today.. if your so againt is.. stop buying anything from china..you know they have human right violations and use slave labor as well.. i bet you have many things in your house made in china and another thing.. the US out gives any other nation on earth. I have a friend from Guam he loves america and dosent think his country is been taken over. I have a friend form Puerto Rico he feels the same way. Hawaii cheep labor? what do they make? pine apples? there tourist based..cuba? we own them? what kind of cheep labor do we get from them? we set castro in office? Colombia i have a friend from there as well.. guess what.. he left because there was a price on his head becasue his father would not deal.. i am sure the US set that up? (rolls his eyes) why dont you tour some of the midwest and see all the beat up citys that have gotten so rich off these counrtys? i can tell you they lost thousands of jobs. if were so greedy and evil why is there a line to get in the door? | |
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jimi77
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Joined: 7/13/2004
Msg: 92 | |
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jimi77
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Joined: 7/13/2004
Msg: 95 | |
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jimi77
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Joined: 7/13/2004
Msg: 96 | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/10/2005 8:14:08 PM | PoeticPrince:
Sarah,
Consider yourself told, young lady. Go to your local preacher, preferably the ones that offer drive-through service, and repent.
On the other hand, if you think that having your own mind entitles you to think for yourself, then by all means continue on your path...
I am walking on my own path. I have since I became able to think for myself and you know what, all the trees in the forest don't go by the same name. Some grow best on hills, others in hollows, others in deep dark swamps. But, you know what, Sarah, you lost soul, they're all trees...
I'm repenting! I'm repenting!
Sarah  | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/11/2005 6:07:12 AM | I'm repenting! I'm repenting!
i'm not. i am, however, savoring the irony of people who choose to preach in a forum with this title. i noticed that none of these people addressed the question about how christians would react to those who believe differently trying to convert THEM. to those who don't, like georgieleopard, a huge "thank you". ancient druid saying: all religions are paths to the same center. another one: noone has the right to judge the state of another person's soul.
if you assume that you have that right, you are putting yourself on the same level as the gods, and this is arrogance in it's most extreme form. i have my own path, and i am very happy with it. if you are happy with yours, goody for you, and i will never tell you that you are wrong. extend me the same consideration, and we will get along just fine. if you are incapable of that, be ready for the backlash. i am more than willing to protect my RIGHT to form my own opinions. | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/11/2005 7:10:05 AM | sidheanwwyn
You know of course that I was having fun with Sarah, whose mind is just a wonder to me, much like yours is.
When I was a little boy I would go for walks in the woods. I would look at different birds and animals and plants, and it struck me that each had its place in the scheme of things. On the other hand, I went to church and heard how only Catholics went to heaven, or only they had Saints etc.
I watched priests show disrespect for the poor. I saw nuns beat on innocent little children. I even had one nun tell me she was better than my mother before God, as she was "married" to Jesus. We were forbidden to talk to Protestant children, let alone to Muslims, Hindus, Budhists etc.
In time I studied comparative religions, and I found beauty in all of them. In many of them, also, I found horrific biases and destructive elements. I chose to walk the middle road. I believe that we are all equals, at least before the God of my understanding. Observing nature has helped me as much, if not more, than reading any books. Indians of old were like that. They had no books but a whole lot of wisdom. It's funny about that, though, how some will say that there's only one way, or one Book. By insisting on this, of course, all kinds of insanity has prevailed, right down to "holy wars." | |
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| Why do Christians feel the need to press their religous belief's on people?
Posted: 1/12/2005 1:32:30 AM | | all i see in relgion is people stiring up hatred towards eachother.. like its bad to be rascist.. but its perfectly fine for religons to talk sh*t about other religions.. im told i am an evil person.. cause i dont believe in god.. and that i am going to burn in hell.. well that really doesnt sound like a very nice thing to say.. i would never bring up anything about there religion.. but the fact that im not the same as them.. that the feel they have the right to put me down.. all relgion does is bring seperatism and hatred towards those that dont agree.. | |
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