Hmmm.... When people get upset about posts or memes or statements on social media, specifically Facebook, criticizing Christianity...
"It's offensive!" They cry.
"Show respect to my beliefs!" They shout.
"Don't post that where I can see it!" They demand.
What's really offensive to me is the number of adults who go around driving cars, owning guns, raising kids and being allowed to conduct business, who act as if any of that stuff is real and get butt-hurt when anyone contradicts their little "world view".
Non-Christians get their noses rubbed in Christian propaganda every day, and the rest of us are just automatically expected to "show respect" to the inane whims of alleged adults who never grew up and still have invisible friends... and expect everyone else to kow-tow to their fantasies.
Christians have killed millions of people in the name of "god" in world history, exterminated whole civilizations and cultures and religions - and subjugated and even persecuted them and their followers - but get offended and their feelings bruised every time someone dares to criticize, speak out, or share a satirical public post on Facebook... That says a lot.
Why?
Because every time some bible-toting Christian figure, "pastor" or "priest" or "youth leader" gets caught with their hands down some underage kids' underwear, or profits from separating children from their parents and selling them into for-profit orphanages, or advocates and receives praise for tear-gassing refugees and their children at the border, or credited for giving KKK signals or Nazi salutes, or discriminating against LGBT people, other races and religions, against women, and against the poor - the same people who cry out that their religion is being "persecuted" seem curiously silent about that. Even more disturbing, these days seem to be actually loudly voicing their approval of these abusers - and their abuses.
The Roman Catholic Church still perpetually covers up allegations of pedophilia and child sex-abuse in its ranks as it has for many generations, and even the new pope - as appealing as he comes across to those who want to believe the RCC is becoming more humane - is as guilty of protecting these rapacious predators posing as "men and women of god". Instead, they pass the blame on others, creating scapegoats in the time-honored tradition. While on one side appealing for tolerance and acceptance for LGBT people, on the other, the RCC and their pope also blame failings of the church on the gays and the transgender people. Anyone or anything, it seems, but the pedo-clergy.
I have to marvel at the sort of mind that can watch CHILDREN getting teargassed by American border guards to prevent them and their parents from reaching the border post in order to LEGALLY apply for asylum - and then loudly approve of it, praise the border guards and their insane president for these heinous and unequivocally illegal and criminal acts - and then blame the caravan of refugees who fled persecution in their home countries and walked a huge distance in the hope of finding a better life, for being there in the first place - all while completely missing the irony, the paradox and monstrous injustice of it all.
Religion you see - at least in the case of rabid evangelicalist Christianity - has crossed the line from contentment in simple belief in their own "salvation" into an aggressively nationalistic race-based ideology of war and conquest that cannot stop itself from lashing out at those it unites against. In that "crusader" mindset, no act of cruelty, barbarity, or debasement is inexcusable. In war, anything goes.
Come Sunday morning, most if not all of these same hypocrites will take a pew in a chapel, church, tabernacle or ministry, and pretend that having innocent blood on their hands is perfectly normal, even admirable and just and in line with "god's will" - and something to strive to achieve. They heap praise and adoration upon their leaders, who while wearing the mantle of "good Christians" violate every tenet of the example set by a compassionate Christ and make a mockery of their entire faith. They do this themselves.
But it's not okay when someone else criticizes the absurdity of it all?
These people think they're justified. They're so wrapped up in their indoctrinated understanding of the world that think they know better than anyone else. They think they're in the right. They think their "god" agrees with them and supports their every word and action - and will even reward them for it. They think they're untouchable.
I don't care what background you're from - that's just scary. No, it's downright terrifying.
Go on, tell me how dangerous Islamic terrorists are, how "Europe is being overrun with them". Tell me how fanatical these people are, that they're willing to kill those who offend their beliefs, or to die in the act as martyrs in the name of their beliefs - tell me how fanatical and extreme Muslims are supposed to be. Tell me how the Saudis butcher women and apostates and atheists and witches. Tell me how "persecuted" Christians are in Muslim-run countries. Tell me how the Iranians murder gays by hanging them from cranes and how Iraqis handed 100 of their own children over to be killed by religious death squads in 2012. Reminds me of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris a couple of years ago - when a group of criminally insane Islamic fanatics planned and executed a terrorist attack on a news outlet because they drew a cartoon of Mohammed and some people who couldn't tell reality and fantasy apart took issue with that. That's right - they murdered a group of people over a fucking comic strip.
Now go look in the mirror.
See anything familiar?
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.
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