afo@pucc-k (Flidais) (11/17/84)
( hmmm, one minute, fifty seven seconds: we'll have to try again)
Isn't it amazing how a group of people who have history (according
to them, anyway) of tolerance should be such a bunch of intolerant,
pushing,threatening bigots. Obviously not of the order of the Arab
jihad on Persia (after all, we, unlike the zoroastrians, have not
been forced to flee to caves), but give them a chance, and I'm sure
they'll try it. After all, they have "god" on their side, a
necessary ingredient for all massacres, jihads, and witch hunts.
Especially amazing, is that although christians have moaned and
complained of being persecuted, the minute they get to a place or a
situation wherein they are not persecuted, they immediately attempt
to quash all opposition to their own way (our friends the
puritans).
Powerless, spineless members of human society are always
attracted to the dominant religion of the day (check to see how many
people kept changing their system of beliefs during the protestant
reformation in Britain). If there isn't a dominant religious power
on hand, a political power will do nicely (our friends the nazis).
After all, it's much easier to feel better about yourself if you
have a deity on your side. You can be nasty and rude to people who
are better off than you, either intellectually or monetarily, and
get away with it if there is a strong religious (political) force
(read: bunch of bullies) behind you. The nice person who tried to
'convert' you (or harass you, as the case may be) probably had his
neck stretched at Nuremburg in a past life.
--
Laurie Sefton
{harpo,ihnp4,allegra,decvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h!afo
I am the sword, the spear, the arrow. You are the flower, the tree,
the vine! Never will I, or anyone force you to be other than what
you are -Never Again!agz@pucc-k (Andrew Banta) (11/27/84)
[Why do we continually add these stupid little lines?]
I've noticed a fair amount about religious intolerance on this net
lately, and something I saw last week which really irked me seemed as
though it'd be relevant.
Walking thru the (pretty much) central building on campus here, I
stopped off at a table along the hall that was trying to raise money for
the construction being done on the Statue of Liberty. i stopped and
talked to these folks for a while, and noticed that there was a table
next to it that had literature on the Islamic religion. There was a
person (who I know slightly and will get to later) standing there trying
to prove to these people they were wrong for being Islamic and paging
thru the literature picking it apart, item by item. The two people at
the table (who i would guess have not lived in the US all their lives)
seemed to be somewhat annoyed, but didn't really push him too much to
leave. Now, these two people weren7t looking for a mojor debate on
religions, but simply wanted to hand out this literature, and I assume
give the Islamic community here at Purdue information on where meetings
and the like were held.
I fail to see why, when some "other" non-Christian religion tries to
hand out information on themselves for members and non-members of their
own faith, they immediately are swarmed upon by people telling them why
they are wrong. there is some organization (I don't remember which one)
who has a showcase in the same building that takes some pretty healthy
cuts at the Mormons. I haven't seen or heard of any big uproar about
that, but I would ventrue a guess that if it was the Mormons using the
same tactics against "other" Christian sects, this place would be
humming with complaints,letters to the editor, and possibly a broken
showcase (if these three can be related in this sense). Christianity
seems to think (truthfully, to a certain extent) that it has immunity in
this country, that in this country, it is irrefutably right. Why? I know
those two lines are set up perfectly for some fundamentalist to pull out
(out of context) and say "Because it is!" The problem is that, while it
may be right for you, what is right for you is not necessarily right for
everyone else on this earth.
This brings me up to these points. Why do you feel that you have a
obligation to tell me I'm wrong, and continue to tell me I'm wrong until
I "break" and agree with you? Sorry, it ain't gonna happen. I won't
even agree with you just to get rid of you. This person I saw at the
table pestering the Islamics and I had had a run in last semester. I
was calmly sitting on the front steps of my apartment drinking a beer
(oh no, not that!) when he wandered up and handed me a little brochure
on why I should believe in Christ. (Just in case you were wondering, my
front steps are right next to a major road/sidewalk, so he wasn't really
goin out of his way.) I flipped thru it and set it down on the steps,
and went back to minding my own business.
Well, this person obviously wasn't happy that I hadn't read the entire
thing, all the way thru, word by word. He began to ask me questions
about what I believed, whether I had read the Bible, whether I went to
church every week, etc, etc, etc. I didn't have any obligation to
answer him, but answered a few of his questions anyway. Upon getting
my answers, he immediately layed into me for not giving the answer he
wanted. It got to the point where I would say something, and for lack of
anything better, he'd quote me a Bible verse that was only slightly
related to what we were talking about. I began pointing this out to
him, and he immediately told me that I didn't know what I was talking
about. At that point, I got up, and went in toget something more to
drink and put on some more music (which was playing out the window (not
at obnoxious levels, either)). When I came out was immediately
lambasted for being a "drunkard" and was surely going to hell for
listening to "evil rock-n-roll music" (I never thought Pink Floyd was
that evil :-). This kind of thing continued for quite some time, until
it began to start raining. It really bothered me that this guy wouldn't
leave me alone on myown front steps, but when it started to rain, he
asked if he could come in and we could continue to talk. I hadn't
really considered thai a talk, but rather him insulting me in the name
of some God, and me arguing with him that any God thathad any sense
would use that type of technique to get someone to believe him.
Anyway, I could probably go on with things likethis I have seen, but
I'm simply laying out the questions why do people feel that because they
are "Christians", the havea right to attack other faiths or lack of
faiths, but it is unthinkable to atack Christianity in this country?
Why do people think that it is ok to harrass someone because they don't
believe the same things these people do? Whyc an't I relax on my porch
without having someone rub "I'm a Christiain, you're not. I'm right,
you're not."? Why is there so much intolerance of non-Christians by
"Christians" in this country?
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Andy Banta {decvax!allegra!ihnp4}!pur-ee!pucc-k!agz
Dept. of Mental Instability, Purdue University --- "I'm OK, You're a CS Major"
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