Growing Hostility towards Evangelical Christians on Atlas

[Hindsight was 2020]

I have been on this forum for one year and three months and the hostility towards Evangelical Christians I have noticed in recent weeks is not really anomalous compared to all the rest of my time here. While I dislike said hostility, I am not sure this post - which honestly sounds like you have a short memory - helps your case.

On another note, I cannot look at your "belief that Christianity is the only path to Salvation" without getting reminded of your history of equivocating as to whether Catholics - like myself - are Christian.

The answer is yes.

But the problem is that Jesus is clouded by all that other stuff in the church, a lot of which is actively harmful. Like how many LGBT people have been turned off to Christ by being raised Catholic? It's like if you're packing for a flight in a hurry but you don't need to carry a lot...but you pack a ton anyway, making it possible to overlook and more difficult to find the important thing you're trying to pack. Or as I heard one pastor put it "Catholicism is Jesus + works, we believe in Jesus + nothing."

Normally by this point I’d just pull up that South Park doll meme with caption “alright BRTD, show us here on the doll where the Catholic Church touched you” but considering my church’s history on that subject it’s probably best not to

[Hindsight was 2020]

...from God that applies to all sex

Oh please, oh please don't say hetero--

including heterosexual sex

Dammit!

[Hindsight was 2020]

     While Atlas hostility towards Evangelicals is very bad, the response from the left to this thread make it clear that this hostility is largely based in a secular liberal conviction that everything is political and that Evangelicals merely have the wrong politics. If that hostility is growing (which I am unsure of given my long-term experience on the forum), it is primarily because hostility in society as a whole is growing and a drive to be charitable to your opponents is decreasing.

Because “attacks on my religious freedom” like OP is going on about when pressed upon comes down to the political issues of gay rights and abortion. Whenever people in this country complain about Christianity and in particular evangelicals being under attack they aren’t talking about the right to go to church or worship god, they are talking about their perceived god given right to discriminate against gay people

[Hindsight was 2020]

    While Atlas hostility towards Evangelicals is very bad, the response from the left to this thread make it clear that this hostility is largely based in a secular liberal conviction that everything is political and that Evangelicals merely have the wrong politics. If that hostility is growing (which I am unsure of given my long-term experience on the forum), it is primarily because hostility in society as a whole is growing and a drive to be charitable to your opponents is decreasing.

Because “attacks on my religious freedom” like OP is going on about when pressed upon comes down to the political issues of gay rights and abortion. Whenever people in this country complain about Christianity and in particular evangelicals being under attack they aren’t talking about the right to go to church or worship god, they are talking about their perceived god given right to discriminate against gay people

     Funny how I remember being denied the ability to go to church for an extended period last year and Atlas lefties assuring me that I didn't really need to be there anyway. Guess that never happened.

Oh god grief PIT it was a public health crisis and evens churches were encouraging people not to physically come in over streaming.

Edit: Also that doesn’t change that fact that what OP is talking about and when people in general complain about their religious freedom being under attack they are talking about gay rights

[Hindsight was 2020]

    While Atlas hostility towards Evangelicals is very bad, the response from the left to this thread make it clear that this hostility is largely based in a secular liberal conviction that everything is political and that Evangelicals merely have the wrong politics. If that hostility is growing (which I am unsure of given my long-term experience on the forum), it is primarily because hostility in society as a whole is growing and a drive to be charitable to your opponents is decreasing.

Because “attacks on my religious freedom” like OP is going on about when pressed upon comes down to the political issues of gay rights and abortion. Whenever people in this country complain about Christianity and in particular evangelicals being under attack they aren’t talking about the right to go to church or worship god, they are talking about their perceived god given right to discriminate against gay people

     Funny how I remember being denied the ability to go to church for an extended period last year and Atlas lefties assuring me that I didn't really need to be there anyway. Guess that never happened.

Oh god grief PIT it was a public health crisis and evens churches were encouraging people not to physically come in over streaming.

     Good grief, indeed. We did not close our doors until the governor forced us to. Two months in, when the restrictions were first loosened ever so slightly, my parish re-opened while negotiating the various rules put into place, because my priest understood that nothing is more important for the faithful than being in church and receiving the Eucharist. When that happened, new people started attending from other parts of the Bay Area, where the local authorities were ensuring that churches remained closed for public health reasons, so they could also worship and partake of the Eucharist.

     Point being, our right to go to church was very much under attack last year. That it was justified in your eyes does not change the fact that millions of Christians understood it as a threat to our free exercise of religion. If anything, it merely proves my point that secular leftists attack Christian conservatives from a place of misunderstanding. If you don't wish to understand, that's your business. You certainly are not alone in that regard.

No I get that people were upset about churches being closed and felt why it shouldn’t of been regardless of COVID. But to try and act like that is what OP is referring to you run into the trouble of OP’s posting history pointing to the fact he is more likely than not referring to homosexual rights and the fact these concepts and terms were being pushed long before COVID

[Hindsight was 2020]

Xing's post is good.

Religion should not be immune from criticism, and obviously if you express religious-based beliefs that homosexuality is bad, expect as sharp a rebuke on an LGBT-heavy forum as you would if your homophobia was secular-based.  This applies to any religion.  Disliking a religion is not the same thing as say, racism.

Why is criticizing religion good, but criticizing any aspect of homosexuality automatically a "phobia" ?

Because you can ultimately choose your religion but not your sexuality

[Hindsight was 2020]

Xing's post is good.

Religion should not be immune from criticism, and obviously if you express religious-based beliefs that homosexuality is bad, expect as sharp a rebuke on an LGBT-heavy forum as you would if your homophobia was secular-based.  This applies to any religion.  Disliking a religion is not the same thing as say, racism.

Why is criticizing religion good, but criticizing any aspect of homosexuality automatically a "phobia" ?

Because you can ultimately choose your religion but not your sexuality

Is it okay to criticize or question this belief?

Depends on the context of what you mean by that

[Hindsight was 2020]

Xing's post is good.

Religion should not be immune from criticism, and obviously if you express religious-based beliefs that homosexuality is bad, expect as sharp a rebuke on an LGBT-heavy forum as you would if your homophobia was secular-based.  This applies to any religion.  Disliking a religion is not the same thing as say, racism.

Why is criticizing religion good, but criticizing any aspect of homosexuality automatically a "phobia" ?

Homosexuality is not an ideology or belief system.

It's use as a core identity category with specific ethical and social implications absolutely is.

Would you say the same about race?

Yes, of course - to the extent that people believe that their race says something important about them, or what they should do, or be allowed to do.  And if no one ever did, then race would not have developed as a relevant social category.

So you think that criticizing someone for the political ideology they choose and criticizing someone for the sexuality they were born with is on the same morality level?

[Hindsight was 2020]

Xing's post is good.

Religion should not be immune from criticism, and obviously if you express religious-based beliefs that homosexuality is bad, expect as sharp a rebuke on an LGBT-heavy forum as you would if your homophobia was secular-based.  This applies to any religion.  Disliking a religion is not the same thing as say, racism.

Why is criticizing religion good, but criticizing any aspect of homosexuality automatically a "phobia" ?

Homosexuality is not an ideology or belief system.

It's use as a core identity category with specific ethical and social implications absolutely is.

Would you say the same about race?

Yes, of course - to the extent that people believe that their race says something important about them, or what they should do, or be allowed to do.  And if no one ever did, then race would not have developed as a relevant social category.

So you think that criticizing someone for the political ideology they choose and criticizing someone for the sexuality they were born with is on the same morality level?

I don't know if criticizing people over politics vs. sexuality is the same morality, but I do think *concepts and actions* should be open to criticism in each case.  

It's also not clear at all that people are born with a sexual orientation in a way that isn't also the case for political orientation.  Studies in behavioral genetics give both similar heritability estimates - about 0.3 - meaning significant genetic influence, but quite a bit less than obesity or IQ (for example).  So if there's a difference in whether each should be subject to criticism, it needs to be for other reasons besides being "born with" one but not the other.

Umm yes it is, that is like arguing that it’s not clear if your taste in music is different than your eye color