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 Evangelical Christians say they are the new victims of intolerance - they're persecuted for condemning homosexuality.
May 5th, 2013
06:00 AM ET
When Christians become a 'hated minority'By John Blake, CNN (CNN) - When Peter Sprigg speaks publicly about his opposition to homosexuality, something odd often happens. During his speeches, people raise their hands to challenge his assertions that the Bible condemns homosexuality, but no Christians speak out to defend him. “But after it is over, they will come over to talk to me and whisper in my ear, ‘I agree with everything you said,’" says Sprigg, a spokesman for The Family Research Council, a powerful, conservative Christian lobbying group. We’ve heard of the “down-low” gay person who keeps his or her sexual identity secret for fear of public scorn. But Sprigg and other evangelicals say changing attitudes toward homosexuality have created a new victim: closeted Christians who believe the Bible condemns homosexuality but will not say so publicly for fear of being labeled a hateful bigot. As proof, Sprigg points to the backlash that ESPN commentator Chris Broussard sparked recently. Broussard was called a bigot and a purveyor of hate speech when he said an NBA player who had come out as gay was living in “open rebellion to God.” Broussard said the player, Jason Collins, was “living in unrepentant sin” because the Bible condemns homosexuality. “In the current culture, it takes more courage for someone like Chris Broussard to speak out than for someone like Jason Collins to come out,” says Sprigg, a former pastor. “The media will hail someone who comes out of the closet as gay, but someone who simply expresses their personal religious views about homosexual conduct is attacked.” When is disagreement hate? Bryan Litfin, a theology professor at Moody Bible Institute in Illinois, says Christians should be able to publicly say that God designed sex to take place within a marriage between a man and a woman. “That isn’t so outrageous,” Litfin says. “Nobody is expressing hate toward homosexuals by saying that. Since when is disagreement the same as hate?” But quoting the Bible doesn't inoculate anyone from becoming a bigot or hater, some scholars say. There's a point at which a Christian's opposition to homosexuality can become bigotry, and even hate speech, they say. Crossing such a line has happened many times in history. A literal reading of the Bible was used to justify all sorts of hatred: slavery, the subjugation of women and anti-Semitism, scholars and pastors say. “Truly damaging speech cannot be excused just because it expresses genuine religious belief,” says Mark D. Jordan, author of “Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk about Homosexuality.” “Some religious beliefs, sincerely held, are detestable. They cannot be spoken without disrupting social peace,” says Jordan, a professor at the John Danforth Center on Religion & Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. The point where religious speech becomes hate speech is difficult to define, though, scholars and activists say. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama is a nonprofit civil rights group that combats and monitors hate groups. Three years ago, it designated the Family Research Council, the group that Sprigg represents, as a hate group - a characterization the group stridently rejects. Mark Potok, a center spokesman, says there’s no shared definition of what constitutes hate speech. “There is no legal meaning. It’s just a phrase,” Potok says. “Hate speech is in the ear of the beholder.” 'One of the most hated minorities?' Intolerance may be difficult to define, but some evangelicals say they have become victims of intolerance because of their reverence for the Bible. The conservative media culture is filled with stories about evangelicals being labeled as “extremists” for their belief that homosexuality is a sin. Their sense of persecution goes beyond their stance on homosexuality. There are stories circulating of evangelical students being suspended for opposing homosexuality, a teacher fired for giving a Bible to a curious student, and the rise of anti-Christian bigotry. A blogger at The American Dream asked in one essay: “Are evangelical Christians rapidly becoming one of the most hated minorities in America?” The reluctance of evangelicals to speak out against homosexuality is often cited as proof they are being forced into the closet. Joe Carter, editor for The Gospel Coalition, an online evangelical magazine, wrote a blog post entitled “Debatable: Is the Christian Church a ‘Hate Group’?" He warned that young people will abandon “orthodox” Christian churches that teach that homosexuality is a sin for fear of being called haters. “Faux civility, embarrassment, prudishness and a fear of expressing an unpopular opinion has caused many Christians to refrain from explaining how homosexual conduct destroys lives,” Carter wrote. Some Christians fear that opposing homosexuality could cause them to lose their jobs and “haunt them forever,” Carter says. “It’s easier to just go along,” says Carter, who is also author of “How to Argue Like Jesus.” “You don’t want to be lumped in with the bigots. That’s a powerful word." Edward Johnson, a communication professor at Campbell University in North Carolina, says we are now living in a "postmodern" era where everything is relative and there is no universally accepted truth. It's an environment in which anyone who says "this is right" and "that is wrong" is labeled intolerant, he says. There was a time when a person could publicly say homosexuality was wrong and people could consider the statement without anger, he says. Today, people have reverted to an intellectual tribalism where they are only willing to consider the perspective of their own tribe. “They are incapable of comprehending that someone may have a view different than theirs,” Johnson says. “For them anyone who dares to question the dogma of the tribe can only be doing so out of hatred.” Sprigg, from the Family Research Council, says his condemnation of homosexual conduct does not spring from intolerance but a desire to protect gays from harmful conduct, he says. Sprigg, a senior fellow for policy studies at the council, wrote in a council pamphlet that homosexual men are more likely to engage in child sexual abuse than are straight men. He also wrote that gay men are also afflicted with a higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases and mental illness as well. Sprigg says he does not believe homosexuality is a choice and that “personal testimonies" and "clinical experience” show that some people “can and do change from gay to straight.” “Maybe we need to do a better job of showing that we are motivated by Christian love,” Sprigg says. “Love is wanting the best for someone, and acting to bring that about.” 'That's a lie' Potok, from the Southern Poverty Law Center, has little use for the love Sprigg talks about. He calls it hatred, and his voice rose in anger when he talked about the claims by Sprigg and other Christian groups that gay men are more predisposed to molest children and that homosexual behavior is inherently harmful. He says the Southern Poverty Law Center didn’t designate the Family Research Group a hate group because they view homosexuality as a sin or oppose same-sex marriage, Potok says. There are plenty of Christian groups who hold those beliefs but are not hate groups, he says. A group becomes a hate group when it attacks and maligns an entire class of people for their “immutable characteristics,” Potok says. The Family Research Council spreads known falsehoods about gays and lesbians, he says, such as the contention that gay men are predisposed to abuse children. “That’s a lie,” Potok says. “These guys are engaging in straight-up defamation of a very large group of people. There are not many things much worse than you can say in America about somebody than they are a child molester.” Potok scoffed at Spriggs’ claim that the council and other evangelical anti-gay groups are victims of intolerance. “That’s whining on the part of people who spend their days and nights attacking gay people and then some people criticize them and they don’t like it,” he says. “That’s pathetic. It reminds me of slave owners complaining that people are saying ugly things about them.” What the Bible says What about the popular evangelical claim, “We don’t hate the sinner, just the sin” – is that seen as intolerance or hate speech when it comes to homosexuality? There are those who say you can’t hate the sin and love the sinner because being gay or lesbian is defined by one’s sexual behavior; it’s who someone is. “Most people who identify as gay and lesbian would say that this is not an action I’m choosing to do; this is who I am,” says Timothy Beal, author of “The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book.” Beal, a religion professor at Case Western University in Ohio, says it should be difficult for any Christian to unequivocally declare that the Bible opposes homosexuality because the Bible doesn’t take a single position on the topic. It's an assertion that many scholars and mainline Protestant pastors would agree with. Some people cite Old Testament scriptures as condemning homosexuality, such as Leviticus 18:22 - “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.” But other Christians counter by saying they are not bound by the Old Testament. There are those who also cite New Testament scriptures like Romans 1:26-27 - “… Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men. …” Beal, however, says Jesus said little about sex. And the Apostle Paul, who wrote Romans, was probably referring to male prostitution and men having sexual relations with boys, a practice in the Greco-Roman world. “Paul does not understand genetics and sexual orientation the way we understand it now as something much more than a choice,” says Beal. Some evangelicals say Christians can’t change their view of biblical truth just because times change. But some scholars reply: Sure you can. Christians do it all the time. Denying a woman’s ability to preach in church was justified by scriptures like 1 Timothy 2:11-12 - “… I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” But many churches have abandoned that teaching - and some scholars say a woman preached the first Christian sermon, when Mary Magdalene proclaimed that Jesus had risen. Slaveholders in 19th century America justified slavery through a literal reading of the Bible, quoting Titus 2:9-10 – “Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything. …” And anti-Semitism was justified by the claims that Jews killed Jesus, such as Matthew 27: 25-26 - “Let his blood be on us and on our children.” Litfin, from Moody Bible Institute, acknowledged that the Bible once sanctioned slavery, but he said that practice was a “cultural expression” that changed over time. Evangelicals who oppose same-sex marriage by citing the Bible are on more solid ground, he says. “Marriage is a universal and timeless institution that God set up for maximum human flourishing. He set it up in the first book of the Bible with the story of Adam and Eve. It is consistent throughout the whole Bible. … Marriage is in a different category than those cultural things.” Public jousts over the Bible's stance on homosexuality rarely change people’s minds. What changes is when people get to know gay and lesbian people as friends and hear their story, says Beal, author of “The Rise and Fall of the Bible.” “If you open up to that other person genuinely, you basically come to a point where you have to sacrifice them to your ideology or crack open your ideology to make a hospitable place for them,” Beal says. One Christian pastor who is gay says the uproar over the ESPN commentator’s comments can actually be good, because debates help settle moral disputes. “What appears to us as antiquated and prejudicial now was once a disputed issue that required debate,” says the Rev. Richard McCarty, a minister in the United Church of Christ and a religious studies professor at Mercyhurst University in Pennsylvania. Until the debate over homosexuality is settled - if it ever is - there may be plenty of evangelical Christians who feel as if they are now being forced to stay in the closet. Carter, the evangelical blogger, says he foresees a day when any church that preaches against homosexuality will be marginalized. Just as many churches now accept divorce, they will accept sexual practices once considered sinful. “It’s getting to the point,” he says, “where churches are not going to say that any sexual activity is wrong.” soundoff (10,982 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 Next »
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This world has reject the Great Creator of the Universe, His Son, Jesus Christ, the Holy Bible AND all of God's Commandments, namely His Ten Commandments! Don't you people think that the Creator knows what's best for us? After all He DID create us and with His product, US,He gave us the manual for our care, if only we'd follow it! We claim to follow God. Everyone of us, but do we really? Just look around you and tell me that all faith are following the Great God of Israel! NOBODY IS! There is only ONE true church on Earth and that is the Philadelphia Church of God, as only they are preaching what God is doing in this "End-Time", only they are warning the world to repent. Only they are following every word of the Holy Bible they way it tell them to follow. Only they allow the Holy Bible to interpret itself instead of giving their own "private" interpretations! This world has turn the Great God of Israel into an enemy because of our immoral and sinful ways! Like Sodom and Gomorrah, so shall the House of Israel, which is the U.S.A., Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and any other Commonwealth Nations! We knew God because we are Israelites, read America and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong to see where the Israelites wound up and you'll see that we are them! Because we had a history with God and rejected Him and His ways, we have become His enemy, for anyone who is not with Him is against Him! Where do you think President Bush got the quote? God deals in absolutes, there is NO halfway, you are either with Him or you are against Him! You can't serve two masters, you either cling to the one and reject the other or you will Not be a part of Him if you do both!Repent!
Yeah, what does it matter that neither history nor modern genetics support Armstrong's wild theories....
time for your meds.
Your God is such an insecure wimp that he has to divide up the universe into "friends" and "enemies"?
Rope, you'd have gone over big in Plymouth, Mass in about 1650.
Let me just say one thing about the Catholic Church! They took on the mantle of Christianity after they kicked Christ of the Throne! The popes replaced Christ , a Divine Being for a mere man, namely all the Popes! They are NOT CHRISTIAN'S nor do they speak for Christ or the Heavenly Father! They are SATANIC and always have been, since the inception of the Catholic Church! Now they have raised the UnHoly Roman Empire and the Beast Power is about ready to take over the World. Right now the Beast Power is in the middle stages of completion and they WILL start World War Three they Germany after they Destroy the Kings of the South which is Radical Islam in Iran. The Beast Power WILL destroy Iran like a Whirl-wind! Check out the Key of David to see what I'm talking about!
Same old stories, different millennia.
Let's talk about Horus from Egypt in 3000 BC (Jesus is a copy of Horus), or Attis from Greece in 1500 BC (Jesus is a copy of Attis), or Mithra from Persia in 1200BC (Jesus is a copy of Mithra), or Krishna from India in 900BC (Jesus is a copy of Krishna), or Dionysus from Greece in 500 BC (Jesus is a copy of Dionysus) .... or any of the DOZENS of other gods predating the bronze age book character Jesus who were born of a virgin on Dec 25, traveled as a teacher, had 12 disciples, performed miracles, was killed and lay dead for 3 days and was resurrected.
You Christians are not even original! What a joke!
You need some serious help with your writing skills. Especially punctuation and capitalization. You're at about the fifth-grade level now, so there's plenty of room for improvement.
Gramar is Dippy's favorite straw man, but in his favor he never says a word about content.
Christianity is really Paulism. Paul, who never even met Jesus, hijacked his message and created a church Jesus would never have approved of. 2000 years later, Christianity has no relation to Jesus. He would be kicking over tables in all the churches, and he'd either be dead or in prison. Divine teachers are followed by mundane humans.
These Christians are confusing criticism with persecution. Odd, since they have engaged in name-calling for decades. Now that the shoe is on the other foot they're whining. Too bad; when you stand in the way of societal progress don't be surprised if you get run over by a wave of vocal opposition.
true. I'm all for being able to have your opinon, but limiting a group of people from marriage becasue of your opinion is just stupid. there are many religions, many beliefs, why should yours dictate the law?
Somebody call the WAAAAAHmbulance. Christians have a LONG way to go to be a minority and any hatred directed toward them is usually due to their bigotry. Just because you have a belief system doesn't mean it can't or won't be criticized in America. We are not a theocracy – our country's founders went out of their way to ensure this, like it or not. I do not have to be tolerant of your beliefs. I can respect you as a person, but if you believe something that's contrary to facts, etc., you deserve to be challenged. When there are churches on every corner in much of this country, to claim you are oppressed is simply ridiculous.
Why alwayes Richard Cranium and science are ready 24/7 to reply? Are these instructions for you to do like that to inhibit any light may appears to people? Or to destroy their faith?
I'm not religious but when I see atheists hating Christians and Christians talking about how it was prophesized and "of course they do it's the end of the world"...it gives me the creeps. The whole thing right and left scares me.
Every human on earth seems to have an opinion that doesn't match on one topic and I don't know why.
I don't hate Christians. I am just really tired of them and their bigotry and hate. So you believe something. Big deal. I believe the opposite. Big deal. Live and let live. They do not have a monopoly on values, ethics, or morals. Facts get in the way of their beliefs, so hate all who are rational thinkers. but the most appalling tactic of late is the attempt to get creationism taught right next to science. Unbelievable ignorance going on there. There should not be those with limited uneducated visions writing our laws and keeping their finger on the button. keep your beliefs to yourselves. Warp your kids if you want to, but leave mine alone.
@mique I don't hate Christians either. I may be a Christian. I'm not sure what the word means anymore. I was raised Catholic and have some kind of non denominational, non-papal thing going on. I just find Evangelical Christians hard to take serious and I do not like that they have usurped and blasphemed the word Christian as applying only to them. WWJD? Love his neighbor.
Jesus spoke more about hell than about heaven. He warned sinners to repent and that "except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."
I don't hate people of any religion, but I feel the same way about them as I would about a grown man still believing in the Easter Bunny. If you told me your virgin neighbor got pregnant and a few years later her child walked on water, I would ask for the proof of that. Why is asking for proof 2,000 years later considered "insulting" to Christians?
We might be a minority but will not back down and everybody will hate for that. Liberals explain to me how 20 percent of gay men be infected with HIV government data and then tell me that its a coincidence .
Cossack,
58% of Sub Saharan African women are infected with HIV. HIV is in no way specific to gay people. HIV is spread by body fluids and it has happened to babies and blood donors. It is caused by a virus much like a cold. It is not caused due to punishment.
Also being gay is a trait caused by psychology, areas in the brain decide what orientation someone will have.
These are good questions for a doctor. The bible is not a science book.
"Judge not lest ye be judged"...is a good phrase from it however.
lol??
Look at the pile of debt a child born today inherits from the commie mommie gubmint. What's he gonna have to pay for a car? 3 mil?????????
Oh, dry up, you dullard. You don't have anything at all to say and you say it all so stupidly. Knock it off with the "gubmint" crap already. It wasn't funny the first time. Neither is the "commie mommie" sh!t.
lolly is a pointless rambling fool who has nothing to offer. This probably explains why he/she has nothing better to do but spam nonsense all day.
lol??
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
FREE WILL
You have enough to be saved.That's an eternal perspective. Short term dog-man perspective is party, bully, rule, have feel gud debates, be a mediator like the Most High, and on and on for a season. Claiming God made you a certain way is a cop out and not acknowledging the truth of receiving your inheritance from Adam. They reproduced after "his" kind.......
Case study:
John: Thinks Jesus will come to him when he dies
Terry: Thinks she will reincarnate
Sam: Thinks nothing will happen
Olivia: Thinks her ancestors will come for her
They all pretty much have to live their lives ((around)) their respective opinions. Everybody has an opinion and you can't stop people from having opinions.
Reblogged this on roxannity and commented:
This is what the world has come to..
Don't worry it's going to get alot worse, I promise.
Actually, life is generally better now than it has ever been. Doomsayers are always trying to claim otherwise, but really, humankind has never had it so good as it has been for the past 20 years or so.
However, the Christian beliefs are flat out wrong. Dealing with that reality is something that current believers can either come to terms with or not. Hate really isn't the issue. Facing reality is.
"However, the Christian beliefs are flat out wrong. Dealing with that reality is something that current believers can either come to terms with or not. Hate really isn’t the issue. Facing reality is."
I rest my case!!!
"However, the Christian beliefs are flat out wrong. Dealing with that reality is something that current believers can either come to terms with or not. Hate really isn’t the issue. Facing reality is." I am not facing reality? I am flat out wrong? ONLY TIME WILL TELL.
Topher
I don't really know much about Franklin. What is your problem with him?
--------------
Dont you think you should do your research on him before asking this question?
Early Christians (Bishop Cyril), are credited with sacking the Library of Alexandria and putting the Human Race's collected wisdom and learning backwards nearly a thousand years, especially in Medicine and General Science, thus helping cause the Dark Ages and all the human suffering that resulted.
....Melendez!
(made you look)
I love santa!
QUESTION CNN: Is there any way to view ALL comments in a single view?
Every human being on the face of the earth will face the question by Christ Himself:
"WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?'On their answer depends their Eternal destiny.
Christ Jesus is the Living Word of God of whom the Spirit of Truth testifies
Blessed are those who are not offended in Him and who take their stand with Him, in spite of persecution.
The days are coming when God's people will be outcasts, and they will hunt God's people down, thinking they are doing humanity a favor by killing Chrisians.
Indeed, another holocaust is coming.... This time will not be only Jews, but Christians and Jews that they will exterminate. It was prophesied long ago, and the stage is being set.
Hitler and his godless henchmen were only an example to this generation, a testimony, warning of what is man capable of dioing, and what is to come....
Let time pass, and many of those living today will see it.
But we who know the LORD, know what's coming afterwards also... Yetm, godless world does not!
It's fun to use your imagination, isn't it?
Has it ever bothered you that at the heart of Christianity is a terrorist threat? Obey Jesus or he will get very violent? That's the mindset and tactic of people like bin Laden.
Prism, you'd go over well in Boston. If it were about 1650.
Hey, Platypus, why don't you try entering a highway on wrong exit and see what happens to you then! Laws are given to us not to be broken, but to guide us and protect us. Disobeying those laws has its consequences..... But you already know that.
Jesus Christ came to convict the world (people in it) of SIN RIGHTEOUSNES AND JUDGMENT.
The fact that man(kind) is rebellious and wants no part of Him, is only the reflection of what is in human heart. He expands little more about the subject in John 3:16-21. Do you see yourself in it?
Hey, Prissy, where's Samuel Barber's "soul" now? You do know that he was gay, don't you? And you know what you think the bible says about gays, right? So how could someone that you think is so sinful write such gorgeous, heavenly music?
Says much about YOUR judgment, doesn't it?
Not so, Athy, dear!...... It is up to us to preach the salvation of the Lord in His son Jesus Christ. But it is HE who will execute Justice: mercy to those who humble themselves before him, and condemnation to those who in pride refuse Him. Wouldn't you agree that man has free will and choice to make?
You could go and jump before the speeding car, but you KNOW the consequences... So, what's the difference? The principle is the same....Whether you believe the outcome or not, it is still the same!
LOL!......Science-dude, you sound like a blind fool, not knowing that the path you're on is taking you to the edge of the cliff! You are a lost little creature and you're pitiful!
But I do wish you a pleasant day. Don't labor to hard friend...You'll need much strength for what's ahead!
As yet another delusional moron threatens those of us who don't believe in hell, with going to hell.
Fail!
PRISM 1234,
Your face is gonna freeze like that if you keep this up.
There is no verified evidence that your alleged "consequences" ever did nor ever will occur.
@Prism
Stalin does not send anyone to the Gulag.
It is those who have hardened their hearts against him who send themselves to the Gulag through their bourgoise atti/tudes and counter-revolutionary actions.
This was not Stalin's plan at all. He truly wants everyone to go to the Worker's Paradise and it grieves him that so many harden their hearts against him.
But he will not force anyone into the Worker's Paradise against their wishes. He respects their free will.
If you don't want to go to the Gulag, just open your heart to the love of Stalin.
Sound familiar at all?
hear this: how will prissy feel godly if he cannot threaten people?
PRISM 1234, why should anyone believe your god stories? Honestly, your god sounds like quite the jerk off. All the threats if you don't roll his way. I'd rather keep my freedom even if your god jerk burns me afterward.
Each time I come here I see this has become a forum where fools gather. If anyone writes anything worthwhile, the fools attack it and tear it to pieces.
Enjoy your dinner, idiots!
Did your science-god teach you to be so uncivilized?
You people are not under attack. There are still more of you than any other belief.
But if you want to insist in your paranoid fantasies, there are pills you can take that will help...
Demon ization results in constant sus picion and blame, a systematic disregard of positive events, pressure to erad icate the putat ive negative persons or forces, and a growing readiness to engage in escalating conflict.
Ted Turner's war on Western Civilization continues.
Difference between Ted Turner and God? God doesn't think he is Ted Turner.
"...a minister in the United Church of Christ ...'
About say sit all. Kinda like Flip Wilson's "Church of Whuz Happenin' Now"
Science, please, oh please give us a break from your incessant posts!
God has a good reason for everything in the bible even though atheists don't think so....Atheists have small minds.....
Anger, frustration and hatred fill their minds...They don't want to accept God because they cant accept an absolute authority over them.....They are rebels and have made themselves their god...lol ...... very sad indeed......
White Warrior,
"They don't want to accept God because they cant accept an absolute authority over them..."
Perhaps that would be YOUR reason for not believing - it is not mine (nor any other atheists/agnostics with whom I have interacted).
Time to come on out of that closet, stormfag.
That may be the reason I don't believe in god, but why don't I believe in unicorns or leprechauns?
Actually, the reason I don't believe in these things, is because there is no evidence that they exist.
Cheers!
White Warriior – Quit parroting all the talking points you've been told about atheists and start using your own senses and brain.
My religion is Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect for all human beings, no matter what. Period.
My religion does not judge others, it accepts them for who they are as a person. My religion does not hinder the advancement of science and technology to bring about a better quality of life for all human beings.My religion does not need to validate itself by constantly trying to convince others to believe as I do. My religion does not mock other religions just for believing something different. My religion does not persuade me to vote one way or another in an election just because one candidate says god and freedom more than the other. Any religion that hurts, hinders, or condemns another human being deserves no place in our society. Instead, religion should strive to help others and make them happier, that's what Jesus taught. The ultimate law above all else is love, not hate and fear. I suggest you re-read your bible and learn something from it.
Signed,
A godless atheist heathen raver boy hippie filled with love and compassion