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Post by eckadimmock on Apr 21, 2009 9:04:27 GMT
I'm getting increasingly exasperated with the way the popular press uses the word "religion." It seems to be primarily a method of stereotyping the majority of the world's people into a single category, before condemning them en masse. The average churchgoer, however inoffensive, is thus lumped together with Osama Bin Laden. Every unpleasant act in history can be described as a function of religion, as long as someone who believed in anything had something to do with it (even if the act in question had nothing to do with that belief). Of course the same logic doesn't apply in reverse: atheists didn't persecute in Russia or China or Cambodia, communists did (or at a pinch, communism is a "secular religion" as I've also heard argued).
It's rather like saying that anyone who owns a motorcycle of any description is an honorary member and moral equivalent of Hell's Angels.
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Post by unkleE on Apr 21, 2009 10:46:40 GMT
I'm getting increasingly exasperated with the way the popular press uses the word "religion." It seems to be primarily a method of stereotyping the majority of the world's people into a single category, before condemning them en masse. The average churchgoer, however inoffensive, is thus lumped together with Osama Bin Laden. Every unpleasant act in history can be described as a function of religion, as long as someone who believed in anything had something to do with it (even if the act in question had nothing to do with that belief). Yep, but I think we just have to get used to it. I suggest the answer is for christians to try the radical idea of following Jesus and working hard to serve our fellow human beings and so be light and salt in our society. And so demonstrate that we are indeed different. The Salvation Army do it, and they are probably the only christian group in Australia to have a good reputation across the board. Yes, I know, the trouble is that will require us to get off our butts and do some positive stuff. And I'm just as lazy and comfortable as the next person. |
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Post by humphreyclarke on Apr 21, 2009 15:42:54 GMT
Yep, but I think we just have to get used to it. I suggest the answer is for christians to try the radical idea of following Jesus and working hard to serve our fellow human beings and so be light and salt in our society. Unfortunately the Zeitgeist amongst the intelligentsia here is that that is evil too, since it is merely 'a sinister ploy to promulgate superstition under the disguise of charity'. There is a need to get back to the basics but there is also a need to re-establish credibility. |
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Post by eckadimmock on Apr 21, 2009 20:20:45 GMT
I suspect Humphrey's right, Unklee. Something like 80% of charity work is Christian in Australia, yet it is done quietly and willingly so it is easily concealed by noisy denunciations of "religion". If Christianity makes the papers at all it's generally because of some sex scandal.
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