How do you define religious intolerance? Any real world examples or how it has impacted you personally?

I'm a Christian writing a Bible Study for Christians, and am looking for how you define Christian religious intolerance. I'd like to share specific examples of how we act intolerant to help Christians clearly see the negative impact is causes to those around us. Thanks for anything you can share on is topic.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Stacey-Holmes on June 7, 2012 at 8:38am

I know that when I was Christian I struggled with condemning all the other folks that believed in other gods.  I wondered how so many people could have it wrong and I felt so sorry that all the people who didn't know jesus would suffer in hell.  Then I got a clue!

Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on June 10, 2012 at 7:01pm

Well, one could start with gay marriage - for which there is no coherent objection other than religious objection (which is not very coherent).  The anti-bullying legislation finally making its way through state legislatures keeps getting caveats inserted to protect "sincerely held religious convictions" which is just a wordy way of saying "but we can't stop Christians from bullying gay kids."

You could mention the first President Bush saying that Atheists were not patriots and how he didn't consider them true citizens of the United States.  Oh, and all this religious opposition to stem-cell research that leaves millions of disabled people waiting even longer for the sorts of solutions that Christians claim only Jesus should provide.

What else?  Hmm, how about religious opposition to teaching facts in schools and all the anit-evolution legislation currently passing in various states.  Then there are all your Christian kids going around telling non-Christian kids that they'll burn alive if they don't convert to your cult.

Let's not forget about all the oaths sworn on holy books - which Atheists don't have.  Supposedly the U.S. has separation of church and state but apparently an Atheist can't be sworn in as president.  Several branches of the military have been caught persecuting Atheists as well - although that is slowly getting better.

Abortion, abortion, abortion - it's sickening to see Christians going against their own book in order to establish more rights for a fetus than for the woman carrying it.  I think the abortion doctors who have been killed by Christians feel felt rather oppressed.

I'll leave it at that for now - how am I doing?

Permalink Reply by Lewal on June 13, 2012 at 11:54am
10/10
Permalink Reply by KaraC on June 13, 2012 at 12:10pm

Heather, you perfectly summed up the points I was going to make. In short, when Christians seek to impose their beliefes on others by using the law to enforce them, or to discriminate against other groups, or to use "religious liberty" as an excuse to refuse to provide medical services, to permit bullying, and so forth, then that is Christian religious intolerance. Or the "American Taliban".

Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on June 13, 2012 at 12:23pm

Yeah, Kara - and then when you tell them that their fairy tales do not constitute science they scream and cry that THEY are the persecuted group.

Permalink Reply by John Major on June 13, 2012 at 5:15pm
@Heather. 'how am I doing?'

Not bad although you are wrong about objections to gay marriage. There are many gays that argue against the institution and do so on secular grounds.
Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on June 13, 2012 at 6:10pm

@John Major

Please provide their arguments.

Permalink Reply by matt.clerke on June 13, 2012 at 7:16pm

The only argument I have heard so far is that the definition of the word marriage specifically states "man and woman". So it's basically arguing the semantics. I would love to hear any and all other secular arguments though.

Permalink Reply by Unseen on June 13, 2012 at 10:03pm

Like the anti-gay Christians say, "It was Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve."

Permalink Reply by Ward Cressin on June 15, 2012 at 9:36pm

Since god didn't make Eve from new genetic material, instead making her from Adam's rib that makes her his clone - as we'd say today. Sure, he gave her a female form but that still means her DNA was male so, yes, it was Adam and Steve genetically.    :D

archaeopteryxPermalink Reply by archaeopteryx on June 15, 2012 at 11:11pm

In High School, I still held vestiges of my Christian upbringing, and I recall vividly, an incident in Biology class, when my teacher asked how many ribs humans have. My hand shot up (yeah, I was one of those), and I told him, 24, except that men had only 23, because god took one to make Eve. I will never forget (but now understand) the bemused look on his face , as he gazed down on my naive innocence, and gently informed me that both sexes had 12 pairs of ribs.

Permalink Reply by John Major on June 14, 2012 at 12:55pm
@Heather. It was you who made the claim but nonetheless, you will find details in these links. The are lots more and I have personal knowledge too.

http://www.google.com/search?q=gays%20against%20marriage

http://nogaymarriage.wordpress.com/

http://gaysagainstmarriage.com/

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/gay-life-against-marriage/

http://voices.yahoo.com/gays-against-gay-marriage-11112030.html

I let you read through to get the arguments from the gay community that are many and varied and of which you seem ignorent. Since it is you that made the claim that there is no coherent objection but one based on religion, please provide your evidence.

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