Christian Criticism
There's a big difference between having a right to your beliefs, and having the right to expect other people not to comment on them. People like myself criticize Christianity for a variety of reasons. If you think the criticisms are mistaken in some regard, the answer is simple - point out why they're wrong, or ignore them. If they sting because they're right, maybe you need to rethink your beliefs. Trying to enforce a code of silence under the euphemism of "respect" is no answer.
I think you can make a case that a matter which is truly personal, like say your taste in music, is one on which other people should keep their mouths shut. Most religious belief systems, however, are painfully not personal. If your religion tells you that it's right or wrong for other people to do this that or the other thing, and that you have the right or duty to enforce those standards of behavior upon them by voting, etc., then your beliefs are affecting other people, plain and simple. Even if the only way you hold those beliefs out against the world is to tell people that they are (wrong / evil / sinners / destined for eternal torture), you can hardly throw up your hands in shock and defense when they repay you with a similarly vitriolic attitude.
Maybe if you could convince a certain subset of your fellow Christians to stop being unbearable asses to everyone who's not in the club, things would calm down a bit. Or divorce yourself from their position in unequivocal terms by identifying an actual difference of belief, not just with zero-content hand waving about "extremism" that leaves us with no discernable way to distinguish you from other people using the same label.
Here, let me demonstrate the point:
Leviticus 20:13. If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
In case you're wondering, the speaker is YHWH. So assuming this character exists, basically we have five options:
1) Your god is (or at least was) a monster, and you worship him anyway (congratulations, you're a monster)
2) Say your god is not a monster, because the Bible is right - we should put gay people to death (congratulations, you're a monster).
3) Abolish sense and meaning with inane, postmodernist and/or hyperlegalistic apologetics that would make C.S. Lewis blush (my favorite: it's okay to be gay, it's only bisexuals we should put to death).
4) Claim your god never said any such thing, and the Bible contains at least one critical material error.
5) Acknowledge that the god of the Bible is a monster, and stop worshipping him.
Options 4 and 5 are the only way to go for a person who is both honest and has a shred of humanity, but you know what? I have never been personal witness to any Christian taking either of those approaches. Not once. This is another one of my open challenges. Any Christian reading this, please do pleasantly surprise me.
1 and 2 are alarmingly common, but not nearly as common as 3. 3 isn't nearly as dangerous, but it's intensely frustrating. The simple truth is that even "moderate" Christians have never cleaned the garbage out of their closet, even though they have long since left behind lighting people on fire and all that. Some part of them is still humping this authoritarian model of social relations in which we get an owner's manual to life from a magical sky daddy, and we never have to nor indeed are allowed to question it. Though they have gone a long way toward thinking for themselves, they can't dredge up the guts to take that last step and actually openly espouse a mature model of morality.
Put it this way: come out and say, point blank, that you value your own moral intuitions and philosophy and those of your fellow real, existing fellows (i.e. humans) over what's written in the Bible, and that even if the Bible does or did state in plain language that we should put gay people to death, you would still reject that openly and proudly. If you can do that, you extinguish 85% of the ire I have toward you as a Christian.
If you can't, your beliefs are still dangerous. They should be criticized, and as long as I'm around, they will be.
I think you can make a case that a matter which is truly personal, like say your taste in music, is one on which other people should keep their mouths shut. Most religious belief systems, however, are painfully not personal. If your religion tells you that it's right or wrong for other people to do this that or the other thing, and that you have the right or duty to enforce those standards of behavior upon them by voting, etc., then your beliefs are affecting other people, plain and simple. Even if the only way you hold those beliefs out against the world is to tell people that they are (wrong / evil / sinners / destined for eternal torture), you can hardly throw up your hands in shock and defense when they repay you with a similarly vitriolic attitude.
Maybe if you could convince a certain subset of your fellow Christians to stop being unbearable asses to everyone who's not in the club, things would calm down a bit. Or divorce yourself from their position in unequivocal terms by identifying an actual difference of belief, not just with zero-content hand waving about "extremism" that leaves us with no discernable way to distinguish you from other people using the same label.
Here, let me demonstrate the point:
Leviticus 20:13. If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
In case you're wondering, the speaker is YHWH. So assuming this character exists, basically we have five options:
1) Your god is (or at least was) a monster, and you worship him anyway (congratulations, you're a monster)
2) Say your god is not a monster, because the Bible is right - we should put gay people to death (congratulations, you're a monster).
3) Abolish sense and meaning with inane, postmodernist and/or hyperlegalistic apologetics that would make C.S. Lewis blush (my favorite: it's okay to be gay, it's only bisexuals we should put to death).
4) Claim your god never said any such thing, and the Bible contains at least one critical material error.
5) Acknowledge that the god of the Bible is a monster, and stop worshipping him.
Options 4 and 5 are the only way to go for a person who is both honest and has a shred of humanity, but you know what? I have never been personal witness to any Christian taking either of those approaches. Not once. This is another one of my open challenges. Any Christian reading this, please do pleasantly surprise me.
1 and 2 are alarmingly common, but not nearly as common as 3. 3 isn't nearly as dangerous, but it's intensely frustrating. The simple truth is that even "moderate" Christians have never cleaned the garbage out of their closet, even though they have long since left behind lighting people on fire and all that. Some part of them is still humping this authoritarian model of social relations in which we get an owner's manual to life from a magical sky daddy, and we never have to nor indeed are allowed to question it. Though they have gone a long way toward thinking for themselves, they can't dredge up the guts to take that last step and actually openly espouse a mature model of morality.
Put it this way: come out and say, point blank, that you value your own moral intuitions and philosophy and those of your fellow real, existing fellows (i.e. humans) over what's written in the Bible, and that even if the Bible does or did state in plain language that we should put gay people to death, you would still reject that openly and proudly. If you can do that, you extinguish 85% of the ire I have toward you as a Christian.
If you can't, your beliefs are still dangerous. They should be criticized, and as long as I'm around, they will be.