Christianity must be attacked...

[kalooki45]

you seem to have confused Christianity with the Catholic Church through history--don't.
They aren't the same thing at all.

[goldcowboy]

If there's one thing I can't tolerate, its intolerance.

[kevyk]

There are two things I hate in this world: people who have no respect for other cultures, and the Dutch.

[PseudoPserious]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you hate me because I am a Christian?

No, I don't think so. I think what you really hate are the bible-thumping, sin convicting, self-centered you know whats that preach on college campuses and go door to door telling you how much Jesus loves you, all the while telling you how much of a bad person you are for all the bad things you do.


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't hate many people, except for this one guy I play soccer against who throws knees and elbows and grabbed me by the throat last season. Why did my post make you think I hated Christians?

Mostly I was trying to make a link, however tenuous, between the original post and poker. I still don't see how the original post is poker-related.

PP

[jimdmcevoy]

You're treading a slippery slope kalookie, what are the exact requirements for a religion to be 'christian'?

I ask this because there are many factions on 'christians' in the world today.

[kalooki45]

Not so slippery.
I did NOT say that 'Catholics aren't Christians'. There are MANY wonderful Christians within the Catholic Church.

However, as I'm sure you learned in Western Civ., the Catholic Church as an INSTITUTION is a different kettle of fish altogether!

That's why I say not to confuse them. On the one hand you have a religion--with Christ as its central object of worship.
On the other, you have a gigantic bureaucracy, ruled by Popes who behaved no better (and many times worse)than any other secular ruler. They wielded an authority and power unimaginable today.

In EVERY way, the institution functioned as a world power.
I just get tired of people condemning Christianity, and Christians, because of that.

I doubt if most Catholics approve of everything that has been and is being done in the name of the Church. However, they are justifiably hesitant to throw out the baby with the bath water! lol

[coffeecrazy1]

Actually, to be perfectly accurate, this country was not founded on Christian values. It was actually founded on Deist values, as many members of the Continental Congress were Deists, including Thomas Jefferson. Furthermore, Deism rejects the Bible as evidence of God's existence and would not ascribe to so-called "Christian" values.

Secondly, what has made this country great is our ability to attack these values if we feel that they do not work. Jefferson said the same thing about governments, actually. That was the whole point of breaking away from the King of England. Similarly, although we are a nation under God, it seems silly to attribute any particular belief system to a country that includes freedom of religion in its Constitution.

Finally, I would like to say that I am a Christian and will be one until the day I die. I understand the rage of this entire thread by non-believers...I quit being involved in organized religion until recently due to those very same issues. The zealots of which you speak don't just come after you...they come after other Christians, too. I got so fed up with people trying to offer me salvation when my salvation is already(mostly) taken care of. I only recently began attending church again, this time in a Methodist Church that seems very committed to not bugging the crap out of everyone.

Incidentally, Men the Master, this Methodist church that I attend enjoined us to lay aside our religious beliefs when making our political decisions. George Bush is not the protector of Christian values in this country; he is the President. If you want your leader to be the protector of Christian values, I suggest you move elsewhere.

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]
Actually, to be perfectly accurate, this country was not founded on Christian values.

[/ QUOTE ]


I cringe at the state of public education in this country.

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com

[jimdmcevoy]

I understand what you mean now, and it makes sense. However I am tired of christians claiming that so and so in history is a christian in hindsight. It's as if they get to pick and choose. For example suppose person A and person B who lived in the past both called themselves christians and believed they were too, christians today might say person A was a christian while person B was not. Then they (well, some christians say) say that christians are better people that non-christians, just look at history. Well of course they will be better if they get to weed out the bad ones calling them non-chrisians, whith arguments like "How could he have been a chrisian, he did (insert very bad thing)?"

Do you see what I am saying?

[jimdmcevoy]

So do I, but for what reason do you cringe?