Previously I had posted a position in support of Christians' rights to worship and celebrate in a public forum. It seems to be in vogue to Christian bash and Christian hate. I try not to hate, but two weeks ago I experienced an example of how Christians can be hated.
The weekend after the tsunami disaster I was listening to a multi-faith talk show hosted by a rabbi, a Priest, and a Minister. The topic was "Why does God Allow Disasters to Happen?" I was stunned to hear in 45 minutes several callers state that God sent the tsunami to punish the godless sinners (at least the non-Christian god sinners). These people actually believed that Christ punished the thousands of people because their form of worship. I find these types of Christians very distasteful and can see why the more militant may even hate these Christians.
It is very arrogant to believe that Christ would intervene in matters of faith in such a way. It is also very arrogant to believe that one is a member of the one true faith or church ( of course that excludes your faith or church as it really is the one true faith or church-- of course).
Their is a macrocosmic universality to all faiths. The virgin mother and sacrificed son mythos was around a good 1200 years before JC hit the ground. Krishna, Osiris, Thoth, Isis and others were involved in some form of a "Passion" mystery. To believe that only your god is the only entity that died and arose again may be a sign of faith but is very narrow minded in the grand scheme of things (of course this does not apply to your god who is the one true god unlike all the others--of course).
The Christians that believe that the tsunami was God's vengeful wrath may be right, but how many times have you been miffed or insulted by a know-it-all who is always right. This type of Christian makes it easy to be a target of hate and in fact, the vengeful wrath concept is rather hateful itself. With all the hatred that is occurring in the world we don't need more gas thrown on the proverbial ecumenical fire (of course you are allowed to hate as you believe in the one true God and his vengeful wrath is a matter of your faith--of course).
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In the April 2005 issue of reason, Cathy Young wrote, "My own agnostic view is that if there is a deity, He, She, or It probably isn't a hands-on manager of the world's day-to-day's operations. . ." Well, in the Genesis story mankind first hid from God. Adam and Eve had just eaten the forbidden fruit and discovered they were naked. They made themselves clothes out of fig leaves and then hid themselves. When God came calling, their excuse for hiding themselves was that they were naked. So if God isn't a hands-on manager of this world's day-to-day operations, that's the way mankind wants it.
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