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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI used to believe a religious (Xian) person was automatically a good person.
I believed this as a kid, and even, Dog 🐕 forgive me , as a young adult. Thats how brainwashed I was.
My defense is that I was raised in the Bible Belt, in an area as red as a baboons ass. A time and place where going to Church was expected of nice people and there was no Internet where you could discuss things with like-minded people.
Sounds like the opening of an episode of the Twilight Zone, doesnt it?
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Then the whole Santa/Easter Bunny discovery happened, and it all began to fall apart.
wcmagumba
(2,871 posts)I'm a christian and I run for the door...
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)Now I am automatically more suspicious of someone who loudly brays about their faith.
Fortunately, nowadays, I know far more quietly religious people who just do their thing and don't feel the need to constantly let you know about how godly they are.
Even though I have now experienced more than just the hypocritical racist bigots of my youth, I'm still leery of businesses with that little fish on them.
Merlot
(9,696 posts)Gee, sounds a lot like someone helse we all know who doesn't pay contractors.
I won't call or work with any business that has the fish symbol on their information. I was looking for a property manager and found one that on their bios stressed that they were honest because they belonged to a certain church. If that's all they've got, it's not enough for me.
SharonAnn
(13,766 posts)Previously, I left a job because my boss, another self-promoting Christian, fiddled with the companys books because he deserved the bonus.
Told me all I need to know about self-promoting Christians. They just use that to justify bad behavior.
unblock
(51,974 posts)they believed that god gave them the ten commandments and all ethics and morals, so if you don't believe in jesus then there's nothing stopping you from killing and stealing and raping and whatever.
they were baffled when i told them i was jewish.
"but you're such a nice person! how can you be jewish!"
Merlot
(9,696 posts)They're taught that by their religion so that they 1. don't trust "outsiders" 2. can feel superior to everyone else, and 3. are therefore afraid of any other belief system outside of their own.
I had a nice woman ask me in all sincerity how I was able to tell right from wrong when I told her I wasn't religious.
unblock
(51,974 posts)Merlot
(9,696 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)be decent people and behave morally and ethically as their savior taught, or face eternal torture and damnation. We non believers must choose to do the decent thing. The reasons vary, but deep down doing the right thing makes us all feel good, and we are better people because of it.
unblock
(51,974 posts)if i choose to act out of consideration of others at the expense of myself because it's the right thing to do, i'm acting morally.
if a true believer does the same thing in order to go to heaven instead of hell, then they're acting out of selfishness.
ck4829
(34,974 posts)leftieNanner
(14,997 posts)And I still attend. Sing in the choir, served on the vestry, etc.
But my church is wildly progressive and we have wonderful outreach programs in the community. We host a November - April homeless shelter in the parish hall. We have open and strong support for all people.
That being said, I agree with your OP that so many Evangelicals (I don't call them Christians because they are nothing like Christ) are sanctimonious assholes who are often guilty of the sins they most despise.
Caliman73
(11,691 posts)I grew up Catholic and was always taught that you had to be an example by the way you lived and treated others, of God's love. I often failed, but I tried. I noticed how some of the priests and some of the sisters were always angry, carrying their faith like a burden and that lead me to question. Another thing was being at Mass when at the end, the priest would say, "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord" and people would pretty much run out and try to beat each other out of the parking lot, cutting each other off, and almost getting into collisions.
There are other obvious examples, but it was pretty obvious from a relatively early age that there were "religious" people who didn't actually understand, or care for the faith.
SWBTATTReg
(21,856 posts)I go to. Got to get that food asap! Pushy, and noses up in the air so high I'm surprised that they don't have nosebleeds.
WhiskeyWulf
(569 posts)Especially among evangelicals. I've been around people like that all my life, and I've never seen any evidence that most of them are sincerely trying to follow the example of Jesus. Quite the contrary, actually! And then they wonder why they have a bad reputation.
Mariana
(14,849 posts)teaches that salvation is based on faith alone, and that one's behavior has nothing whatsoever to do with one's eternal fate. They don't believe they're expected to follow the example of Jesus. They just need to ask for forgiveness and it's done.
WhiskeyWulf
(569 posts)Baptists are even worse because of the doctrine of "once saved, always saved." As long as you'd had a born-again moment at some point, you were good no matter what you did later. I was an annoyingly logical little kid who pointed out that, if that was true, there was no reason to go to church if you'd already gotten saved.
kimbutgar
(20,873 posts)I realized that to be a good Christian you dont have to go to church every Sunday but treat everyone with respect and dignity. I was raised as a sermon on the mount Christian.
stopbush
(24,376 posts)Someone says theyre a Christian, I assume the very, very worst.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I immediately assume they are all hiding some, if not many, very grave sins behind all their religious nonsense.
joshcryer
(62,265 posts)In my experience, synonymous with "lying two faced psychopathy."
People are easily disposed, even family if they aren't "the right way." How many young LGBT people are simply disowned by these "loving southern types"?
stopbush
(24,376 posts)on the total make believe of religion.
SDJay
(1,089 posts)staunchly Catholic home. I was sent to Catholic schools, including an all-boys high school where most of the teachers were priests.
I was told that priests were never to be questioned. That didn't work, because I'm a questioner by nature. That always bothered me, because wearing that collar didn't give someone superpowers. They were still just people.
I had no idea that all of this sexual abuse was happening around me at the time, as I was not affected by it. There are still stories/allegations/legal processed coming out of the area where I grew up, even now.
It's led me to believe that some of the worst people are those who are most religious, as they use this 'assume I'm good' or, in the case of priests, 'assume I'm infallible' shield to perpetrate true evil on targets, including children.
Religion needs to be governed like anything else. That doesn't infringe on their freedom, but their freedom should be limited to conforming to the laws of a democratic society.
I agree with many above - now when I hear someone is super religious, I become suspicious.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)But if a rightwing evangelical get in my face with his or her piety, I am consistently letting them have it.
I think that they are the worst form of garbage. What kind of person demands that every child be born and immediately ABANDON the mother and child after the child is born, not only abandon, try to punish them. What kind of a person joyously push guns when the result of an encounter between two people, even harmless ones results in death to one of them. What kind of person worries more about getting even richer when the community around them is falling apart.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Growing up in a southern baptist, bible-belt home as well, the closest our church got to any form of teaching (or 'brain-washing' for the mind which choose melodrama over accuracy) close to that was "you shall know them by their works..."
Mariana
(14,849 posts)There are lots of flavors of Christianity. At least 1000 denominations, and countless "non-denominational" and "independent" churches, plus plenty of variety among different churches within the denominations. I don't know why you would consider it odd that some of them teach different things than your church did.
demigoddess
(6,640 posts)"beat up or maybe kill" an old lady because they "thought" she was an atheist. Such is Christianity. At 19 attended a church that said they should prevent people from trying to take their children away from their church but it was okay to do it to other people's children.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)... and on their business vehicles, or on their shopfront windows and doors. The implicit message is "trust us, we're Christians".
Or, it could be understood as "Christians Only. All others stay away."
GoCubsGo
(32,061 posts)The message they're trying to put out is the first one you mentioned, because the general attitude here in the Buybull Belt is that if you are a Christian, you are good and honest. But, if you have to advertise that you're honest and trustworthy, odds are, you are one of the biggest shysters on the planet.
malaise
(267,800 posts)but every Friday she made a huge pot of soup and freshly baked home-made bread for the poor. She was irreverent, anti- colonial, hilarious and generous. She had a profound influence on my life.
bobbieinok
(12,858 posts)I heard this often when I was in college in TX in the late 50s.
Not sure if Lewis actually said this, but he was always claimed as their defender.
dembotoz
(16,737 posts)a quiet feed the poor heal the sick faith....
it infected me deeply.
the god and jesus thing didn't really take but the ethics of helping others did
would have loved to be a missionary to help and feed but i knew i could never swing the testimony part that always comes into it.
learned early that professed faith really has not correlation to ethics.
this came as a shock to me.
i am now wiser but now sadder.
i also keep my hand on my wallet when someone goes all god on me....
too many "godly" folks are like trump....con men and swindlers
Mariana
(14,849 posts)As I mentioned upthread, lots of churches teach that all it takes to go to heaven is to believe. There's no requirement to behave a certain way, although they usually encourage people to do good. Although we must remember that "doing good" is defined by the church. Plenty of them teach that it's good to oppress women, LGBT individuals, and non-Christians, for example.
Anyway, it has ever been so - the person who is known to cheat and lie and steal six days a week, and is a different person altogether on Sunday morning is a stereotype that has been around forever.
dembotoz
(16,737 posts)If ur church is contrary to that ya better stop and look around
vlyons
(10,252 posts)and most of the kids I knew were Baptists, Church of Christ. Real fundamentalists. Now I am a Buddhist in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Many Christians, who masquerade as good and honorable people, have dirty little secrets in the closet and not much compassion. As a Buddhist, I know more about the compassionate teachings of Jesus than some of those charlatans. We already have everything we need to become happy and live a productive life. We have a human body and a human mind and are perfectly able to figure things out and use discriminating wisdom. In short, we already have Buddha nature. Once we become free of confusion and delusions, our Buddha nature will just naturally shine forth.
I recently came across Buddha's Kalama sutra, which I have found quite helpful. I hope you find it helpful too.
Do not believe anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after observation and analysis, when you find anything that agrees with reason and is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
WhiteTara
(29,676 posts)My view of the world has never been the same since. I'm so glad.
crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)And then some of my friends started waiting tables and worked the Sunday brunch shifts.
A good judge of character (job interview, date, etc) is to watch how someone treats the server (barista, bartender, cashier, etc).