WWJB (What would Jesus Blog)?

[Amnesiac42]

oh, i wouldn't "tar them with the same brush" either. and while i don't think there is a unified fundamentalist movement, i do recognize that there is a certain culture of thought that is shared by many conservatives that in it's practice is harmful (in my opinion) to both society and christianity itself. i think if more people actually followed christ's teachings they would be more open minded and compassionate. i know many christians who are, in fact they go to Bob Jones, in the city where i live. Really nice people i've had great conversations with about religion. But there are those who use christianity to their own moral ends. and it isn't that they are evil or do it to cause harm, they think they are doing good. I guess to clarify this, check out Why I'm Not a Christian by Bertrand Russel. He may generalize a bit, but for the most part I agree with him.

Here's a example of what i mean: i was at work (sweeping, fun) and this guy comes up to me to talk about religion. everything i ask him he cannot answer. i'm not trying to trick him or argue with him, but he seems to want to trick me into telling him he's right and i'm wrong, and wants to argue with me about it. this is what i mean by engaging in polemics. he didn't care that i had a point of view, just that it wasn't his. he tried to tell me that eastern countries like india were in horrible economic and social shape because they weren't christian nations, that their religious beliefs were the sole cause of their problems. i suggested that they were political, not theological, then I asked him about south africa. he said i was missing the point, and that i was confused. i asked him if he were suggesting that america had been blessed by a divine touch (not sarcastically). he said yes, all problems in the world stem from sources that reject christ and that america is god's country and that gives us an obligation to go to war with the middle east. i asked him about the 500 years of genocide the west gave the native americans. he said that was political. i reminded him that nothing is politcal, it's all theological. he said i was missing the point, and i must be confused, and that war is just a fact of life. i asked him if he wanted to tell that to the native americans. he responded by telling me he fought in two wars and i have not fought in any, and that i'm not doing anything to make the world a better place and he is. furthermore, he didn't even know anything about eastern religions, to him (and he told me this) it's christianity and everything else. that's how it's organized.

it's people like that who give christianity a bad name. because none of the things he was telling me had anything to do with christianity. it's a perversion of christianity, and it is all over the place. the christians i know couldn't believe my conversation with that guy. i know he's an idiot, but he doesn't, and you can't tell him otherwise because he isn't interested in what you have to say, only what he has to say to you.

sorry, i sound like a crazy person. "all over the place" is a gross exaggeration. sorry. i should say, it's in some places, and i find it irritating.