Christian-bashing
I'm not a Christian, nor have I ever been. I don't subscribe to that religion or any other. Also, I don't particularly consider myself a conservative, though some of my friends disagree. I'm certainly a social liberal, by anyone's measure.
I have noticed in my otherwise very tolerant friends a deep undercurrent of hatred and mistrust of Christians. And I have to draw the line there. Disliking conservative social ideals is one thing. But to simply hate an entire religion because of it is another entirely. And I see a lot of what I consider hate-speech related to Christians, spoken by allegedly tolerant liberals.
So here's an experiment I'd like you to do: Christians have a stereotype of being intolerant. Jews have a stereotype of being moneygrubbers. Neither is fair, neither is acceptable to apply.
Next time you see or hear someone complaining about Christians, mentally replace all references of "Christians" with "Jews", and replace all comments about intolerance with equivalent comments about moneygrubbing. Then ask yourself if it seems offensive to you.
If you bother to do all that, you will likely consider the statement about Jews to be highly offensive, but still consider the statement about Christians to be perfectly acceptable. In this case, I urge you to rethink your philosophy and ask yourself if you're falling into the trap of hate-philosophy.
-ATW
I have noticed in my otherwise very tolerant friends a deep undercurrent of hatred and mistrust of Christians. And I have to draw the line there. Disliking conservative social ideals is one thing. But to simply hate an entire religion because of it is another entirely. And I see a lot of what I consider hate-speech related to Christians, spoken by allegedly tolerant liberals.
So here's an experiment I'd like you to do: Christians have a stereotype of being intolerant. Jews have a stereotype of being moneygrubbers. Neither is fair, neither is acceptable to apply.
Next time you see or hear someone complaining about Christians, mentally replace all references of "Christians" with "Jews", and replace all comments about intolerance with equivalent comments about moneygrubbing. Then ask yourself if it seems offensive to you.
If you bother to do all that, you will likely consider the statement about Jews to be highly offensive, but still consider the statement about Christians to be perfectly acceptable. In this case, I urge you to rethink your philosophy and ask yourself if you're falling into the trap of hate-philosophy.
-ATW