Sunday, August 18, 2013

Religious Persecution: Christianity’s just desserts?





"I don’t see how you can turn your back on the persecution of Christians in foreign countries simply because others who have held their same faith at another place and time in history were atrocious."

Above is a paraphrased comment from a Christian bemoaning the persecution of Christians and condemning me for my reference to Christianity perhaps receiving its long over due and just desserts.

All right thinking people oppose persecution for any reason: ethnicity, race, religion (or lack thereof), sexual orientation, etc.  I am no exception.  But the fact of the matter is when people embrace a world view that has been the cause of pain, suffering, genocide and simply bad manners for some 1700 years, don’t expect me to cry a river when “karma” bites  believers in their collective asses. 

Here’s my reply:

Your "faith" is washed in blood and has been since its inception by your cult’s founding fathers. That you prefer to ignore that fact is simply a function of typical religious denial...or lack of education.

The persecution and killing of those who held varied views of Jesus' divinity; 1700 years of Jewish persecution thanks to Christian doctrine; misogyny tantamount to the all out persecution of women; the eradication of indigenous peoples and their culture all over the planet; condemnation of the natural condition of homosexuality which relegates gays to 2nd class citizenship even today; US fundamentalist Xtian clergy who encourage African nations to eradicate gays - and African Xtian clergy who are supporting their killing while imprisonment of gays in other countries is endorsed by good Christians following their Lard's words.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

You dare cry "persecution" while you wash your hands of these Christian inspired and propagated acts as  though they are ...what … one offs?  Bullshit.

Call it "karma", or "what goes around comes around". Or "you reap what you sow" or "those who live by the sword - die by the sword." -  one doesn't have to believe in boogie men and dead man-gods to see the truth of those sayings and apply them to the faithful upon whom wrath has fallen.

”It’s unfair to hold a grudge,”  you might say “for the actions of others long ago.” But how different is it from the actions of your god who in your scripture condemned Jews for generations because of some Jews' supposed roll in your man-god’s death. Or your god’s condemning all humanity with an eternal curse, because of some supposed disobedience by the supposed first man and woman millions (Oh, that's right..thousands) of years ago. Talk about grudges.

I don’t endorse retribution by persecution. I deplore it.  But perhaps the anger and actions taken  against Christians are directly due to your perverse religion's bloody and unjust history.  Perhaps it is simply a matter of the offending culture taking proactive measures to prevent its resurgence. After all, history has a way of repeating itself.

4 comments:

David said...

I hear 1st world Christians crying out that they are being persecuted by gay marriage legislation and my sympathy wanes.

Gerard26 said...

In Egypt the faithful Islamist, are burning Coptic Christian churches, in the Balkans it was the faithful Christians, destroying Muslim mosques the religious can be counted on to destroy each others places of worship when their historical worldviews inevitably clash. It seems, to me, that "persecution" is an essential feature of their claim to martyrdom and being the one true faith. Now isn't that convenient!

sue said...

alot of "christians" must have forgotten the "count the cost" part. and yeah, i am a Christian who browses the athiest sites. some are heart-wrenching and others are just plain spastic.

Tina said...

So... Xtians believe God sent Jesus here to die for our sins, right? They celebrate the Crucifixion and Rebirth every year... Then why, oh why, do Xtians persecute the Jews, who's ancestors were selected for the holy duty of performing God's will (the Crucifixion).
Twisted logic, any way you spin it.