I read your comment and was sympathetic at first…then realized that many Christians have made themselves easy targets, and cries of discrimination fall largely on deaf ears (since it’s difficult for the majority to be discriminated against). Not, it’s definitely not all Christians. And of course you’re not all robotic mutants.

Here’s my take on it. I have a problem with organized religion in general. I think that it’s total bullshit. These problems manifest themselves across all organized religions, but for me they’re most apparent in Christianity simply because in my country (USA), Christians enjoy a majority.

Now, when it comes to organized religions, the belief is in a divine spirit, but the organizations are run by mortal men (and by men, I mean people with penises, not humans). These men have long records of using the vast power that they hold in order to control women, to control sexuality in general, to push their dogmatic ideals on people (or kill them trying), and to push their moralistic views on others who do not share their beliefs.

Part of my problem is the belief in an afterlife. Our life here is short, and according to most Abrahamic folks, it’s relatively meaningless except for the importance of the worship of Gods who tend to be angry and vengeful God (at least, in the recorded Abrahamic religions respective books or worship). So all that’s important in this life is worshipping gods. The really important part is the afterlife, which is eternal where the religious get to be with their Gods. If all that’s important in this life is worshipping Gods and converting people to the respective belief. What of the people who don’t believe in any gods? Since this life is not important, and it’s an established view that they will burn in hell, are non-believers’ lives essentially meaningless? So if my life is meaningless to most religious folk, isn’t some disdain for the attitude warranted? (Yeah, Jesus would probably freak out if he heard that his message has been so widely distorted, but again — this is part of the problem with organized religion).

The churches have been used to promote all kinds hateful and discriminatory views toward all sorts of people, most recently those people are homosexuals. I believe that the prevelant homophobia in this country is deeply rooted in Abrahamic ideals, and perpetuated by the majority of churches. Moreover, most churches tend to shun anyone who asks provocative questions, or independantly interepets the faith. Again, the theme of a disturbing aspect of control is prevelant. Of course there are exceptions, with human behavior, there always are exceptions.

Now, with this all said, I don’t have a problem with Christians themselves. I have quite a few Christian friends, whose beliefs range from ‘reform’ (for lack of a better term), all the way to insane extremist. Furthermore, I think that Jesus’ message was honorable, and is still pertinent today. However, the institution has blurred that message beyond comprehension.

My criticism is not limited to Christians. Like I said, they’re just the majority here, and since I have more exposure to them than others, I can draw better conclusions regarding the institution of Christianity than other religions…but the problems do not center around Christianity – they can be related to Hinduism, Judiasm, Islam, or most any other organized religion.

I sympathize with your problem…but I’m wondering if you’re able to symapthize with the problem of non-believers. We’re a minority, and the majority of the majority (aka most Christians) seem to have a problem with us existing as non-believers. Even former president George Bush said, during his successful campaign for president, that “No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.” (FWIW, that was added to the Pledge of Allegience in the 50′s…it’s new). With comments like that by our leadership, elected by a majority, don’t you think that the situation calls for some criticism? Perhaps the individual assholes who make statements like that should be held more accountable, but the view seems pretty common.

Back to the water stain, well — those people are really easy targets for criticism. Pardon my insensitivity, but that’s just fucking retarded.

-Ethan P, TBPoSotE

I apologize to the extent I come off as being bigoted against Christians. I spend a lot of time (too much time, I’m sure) stewing about the religious right, and their use by people like Karl Rove to advance a political agenda that I believe to be fundamentally incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. But I realize that not all Christians are like that. Also, to the extent I fail to disambiguate between sinner and sin when complaining about those who are like that, I’m sorry. I’ll work on not doing that in the future.

A little understanding of some degree of differentiation when it comes to Christians would go a long way toward a healthier, realistic view of Christian faith. Not unlike the passioned arguments made about how some people’s view of Muslims tends to lump them all as terrorists.

I have an old pair of boxer shorts with a shit stain that closely resembles Jesus on the cross. We’ll start the bidding at $100.00 dollars.

I would normally ask for jpg’s, but in your case, Rise Against, I’ll have to take your word for it.

I fear that these are the same kind of people who would throw us into the water and drown us to prove that we’re not witches (and if we can swim, we’re definitely witches and must be burned).

All I can think is that those people all deserve a royal bitchlapping, starting with this woman.

However, this is kinda nuts. Thats a really shitty image (the stain, not the photo). I mean that could be the BVM or it could be Cousin It or a relative of Chewbacca. If it had some little points on top, it could be Batman. I think thats what makes this specific incident nutty to me. Faith is one thing, but attempting to manufacture miracles out of a stain underneath a bridge is completely nuts. In a way I feel bad for the religous. Part of the entire thing was based on this really bitchin’ miracles like bringing the dead back to life, really spectacular Jerry Bruckheimer type stuff. Now they get stains under bridges.