h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

People can be aggravating sometimes. Especially those who think that Christians are never discriminated against.

Fairly common myth out there, it seems that I wish I could dispel: I'm not quite old enough to have personally caused the Inquisition. Crusades either, but people never mention that one. I must not look the extra few hundred years that that one would require.

However, it's nice to meet the people who are misinformed, yet still open minded.

So why do you hate pro-choice people?

Well, I don't, I said.

But aren't you Christian?

Yes.

Conservative?

A lot of the time. Sometimes not, but a lot of the time.

Pro-Life? (This is the dangerous one to answer honestly a lot of the time, regardless of how you feel on the issue.)

Yes. (Fortunately for me, my response...)

So...you don't "hate" pro-choice people? Or institutions?

No, I just disagree. (People can lose you here. "Us or them" mentality.)

Aren't you supposed to hate people like that?

No, I'm not supposed to hate anyone. Ever.

Oh. Sorry.

No problem.

But what about ____________? (An honest question that feels more tense than it actually is when it comes up)

We're not supposed to act like that. People can't judge, only God can. (People take offense to that last statement, but it's the important one. But again, fortunately for me...)

Oh. Cool.

And there it ends. No shouting, no threats, no insults. Nice person. Offered to buy me lunch.

I'm grateful, really. I needed a break from the tiring ones.

Still. Doesn't change the fact that a lot of people claiming to be Christians judge others when they shouldn't...man, what I wouldn't give to be able to send direct messages to people like that...

As homeschooling parents, we run into a lot of capital-C Christians. People who homeschool because they want to give their kids a grounding in their version of christianity. My wife and I have noticed a few tendencies in these people. First, they tend to have a lot of kids. Secondly, they tend to be very intolerant of anyone different from themselves. Thirdly, they tend to exhibit very few of the classic christian values (love, kindness, tolerance, um, goodness) - less than any other group I know.

Unfortunately, in many people, religion serves as a means to feeling superior and it is tailor made for narrow minds. You see the same thing in your country with your Religious Right. They seem to be able to justify all sorts of mean-spirited, inhumane views and would be very comfortable with an inquisition, or a crusade against muslims.

Of course, I know that you are not like that at all. But, generally, people who wear their christianity on their sleaves, tend NOT to practice what they preach. They give christianity a bad name and are responsible for those pre-concieved notions that you are fighting against.

My father - an Episcopal priest, which probably explains more about me than anyone here ever wanted to know - used to say, "I don't care what you believe, as long as you believe." That attitude has always been the way I've tried to live my life.

My whole view of Christians, and I'm speaking from the point of view of a heathen, is that it's an entire political and social system made from the misguided idolatry of one very interesting fellow, and as such has little to do with him or to any higher power than themselves. I'm sure that the Jehovah's Witnesses that regularly berate me on my existence after 500 years of resistance to missionaries, conquistadors, puritans, evangelicals, and whatever George Bush considers his faith, if they were actually to come across another Jesus, they'd try to convert him, too.

I don't really come across people who became smart, giving and good because they were Christian. I'm more likely to find people who were smart, giving and good and who also *happened to be* Christian, or who chose Christianity because they agreed with those particular precepts. Not the other way around.

So, speaking as a heathen, so turn the other cheek! Christians have been some right sh*ts for quite some time and still are, so if there's any vitriol headed their way, it's not as if you can't see where it's coming from!

I'm not saying that I'm caught off guard by the negativity that's aimed at Christians (I mean, between the evil people claiming to be Christians and the people who just can't stand any religion that would dare to say "It's safer over here..." it's to be expected anyway).

I'm just saying that I was surprised to find a reasonable...can't think of the right word. "Challenger" doesn't fit right, it's too negative. "Inquirer" doesn't seem to fit either....

I was surprised to find someone who came into an argument with one view of a reality who was reasonable enough to change that view on the fly when new information presented itself.

Not so much a religious thing as a "Debate-Mindset" thing, though I could've been clearer about that being my story. Of course, I've never been one for speaking clearly anyway, have I? Guess that's why I tossed in the Tim O'Brien reference...

Oh, and GL: you left out self-control and a few of the ending fruits of the spirit that no one lets grow these days.

But as to all that's been said since I posted last, yeah. Lots of people who think that they're Christians just wind up missing the point entirely.

I will say, though, in response to NYC, that while I doubt that I'd be a horrid person if I wasn't a Christian, I doubt that I'd be as energetic about being giving and good, as you put it. I'd constantly be looking out for number 1.

But regardless of all of that, I think that I can learn some things from the conversation. I've gotten into a habit of ruthlessly holding onto my positions in arguments, frequently in the face of absolute proof that I'm wrong. Generally this is just a comic routine between myself and friends, ("But Descartes never WORKED with a C drive!"-actual quote) but I should probably look into changing that before it spreads to more serious issues.

Ah, hypocracy! You are pleasantly surprised by someone "who came into an argument with one view of a reality who was reasonable enough to change that view on the fly when new information presented itself" and yet you have "a habit of ruthlessly holding onto my positions in arguments, frequently in the face of absolute proof that I'm wrong". Perhaps you have something to learn from that person.

Um...yeah. Was the last half of my last sentence not saying that?