Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Is the cause for mistreatment of Christians their theology or the actions of Christians?

While persecution of Christians does not happen on the scale some people claim, it is true that Christians are sometimes attacked for being Christian. It's difficult to discuss this because *some* Christians consider being called out for bad behavior or being told no an attack. For the confines of the question, lets ignore those unreasonable "everyone hates me" types.





While attacking anyone is abhorrent, what generates the lion's share of attacks upon Christians- behavior (either of the Christian being attacked or of other Christians) or their theology itself(being attacked for being "righteous")?





If it is the behavior, who is responsible for calling the Christians out on it, other Christians, non-Christians or just the Christian's community?|||The majority of bad opinions I have about modern Christianity is directed toward bad behavior. Many people use their beliefs and their theology as justification for unacceptable behavior. For example, evangelical fundamentalists feel justified in my town at standing on the corners with bullhorns, screaming at traffic as they drive by. Where I live, they feel justified at ignoring "No Soliciting" signs to come by and proselytize you at your home even after you have already declined. The justification is that they are doing the world of the Lord. The usual citation is from Peter in the Book of Acts: "We ought to obey God rather than men." Behavior is the cause of my criticism of fundamentalist evangelicals, but theology provides the scaffolding that the bad behavior hangs on.





While fundamentalist evangelicals often claim that they are persecuted for their beliefs, the majority of what I have seen has simply been a refusal of society to tolerate behavior that is militant, aggressive, and often hateful.





We as society have every right to call out bad behavior. To say that non-Christians have no business calling out the bad behavior of Christians is like saying that non-murderers have no right to call out the bad behavior of murderers, or that shareholders have no right to call an executive to task for bad business decisions. There is no secret code, qualification, or ethic that puts the behavior of fundamentalist evangelicals, or anyone else for that matter, above the scrutiny of society. This is especially true of western society, where there is supposed to be a measure of openness and egalitarianism.





Certainly, calling out bad behavior of Christians would be more meaningful if other Christians did it, but we are all accountable to each other because we are all part of the same society.|||Beliefs don't really bother me. Actions, however, do.





And other Christians are quick to play the No True Scotsman game, but not very good at actually talking to their community members about the problems they create|||It's usually theology, because it's rare to have the chance to call someone out whom you know is behaving badly. That sort of thing usually isn't disclosed.|||behavior, not belief|||I think it's most likely a combination of both. It's not an either/or type of question, because they behave they way they do because it's according to their beliefs. For every passage that says "love thy neighbor" I can find 5 that tell you to stone him to death.|||It is their actions. They are constantly attacking and criticizing other people for not being "Christian." It is only natural that others will resent this and occasionally fight back.|||It's hard to say, since I've never actually seen a hate-crime type attack on a Christian. But I would suspect it might be half an half, since our own experiences on R%26amp;S tell us that


1- there are both wonderful and horrible Christians out there


and


2- Bigotry, ignorance and fear can come from people of any background.|||While I wouldn't call it persecution there is a lot of hatred towards Christians.





Most people seem to resent Christianity due to the actions of prominent 'Christians' like Fred Phelps etc.|||Jews seem to have been attacked worse than Christians. There are so many Christians and I do not see much attacking of Christians today. The middle east seems to have more issues with attacking eachother and they are not Christians.





Attacking seems to be more location based than behavior or theology based.|||It's a 'chicken or the egg' question. Regardless of who started it, Christians keep complaining about everyone else and everyone else keeps complaining about Christians. If either group was serious about stopping the hate, they would learn to turn the other cheek and quit getting into each others' businesses.|||They attack each other over piddly differences in theology...notice the thousands of different denominations that believe 98% identically, but identify themselves by that 2% that is different.





They are "attacked" by outsiders because of the actions of a vocal few, who make them all look hateful, ignorant, or overly self-righteous.





Otherwise, Christians in America are NOT persecuted. It does happen in other places, but if you are living in America, you have it pretty good.|||It really has to do with behavior. Most of the "attacks" on Christians are retalliatory in nature, i.e. a non-Christian is told that they must do something to appease the religious beliefs of Christians, the non-Christian says "Heck no, get outta here with that nonsense." The Christians takes the actions it deems necessary to ensure compliance with their beliefs, the non-Christian takes the measures deemed necessary to ensure they are NOT forced to comply. This works both ways, where the majority usually tries to ensure compliance with whatever the common belief is, and those that don't hold those beliefs must either fake it to avoid confrontation, or they confront their attackers head on. Beliefs drive actions, but actions cause re-actions, so it isn't their beliefs they're being "attacked" for, it's what they do with those beliefs that causes the problems.|||Its the actions of the Christians that are the problem. It has to be the nonChristians that are responsible for calling the Christians out on it because the Christians think they're doing the right thing. They don't think they're doing anything wrong. But someone has to say it or the behavior continues.|||"Christians are supposed to by the standards set forth by


Jesus CHRIST himself, consider it to be a PURE JOY to


come under attack by both non-Christians and 'supposed to


be Christians' alike."





"Take myself for instance, I am always completely thrilled to


run into Good OL', North American, corruption, and GRAFT."





"I have been to war for this country, been court ruled as


bankrupt, starting collecting Social Security, then received


military honors that aren't earned, only strictly awarded, just


so I can keep running all over the United States month after


month, while the U.S. Government can deal with my Equal


Opportunity problems, instead of myself Losing my temper."





"Mistreatment, is always expected. No matter where I Live."|||The fact that people don't want to be condemned for their actions, and Christians bring up that issue. Our culture wants to pretend it's immortal, no matter what.|||OK - you'll have to excuse my total ignorance, but are we talking about ACTUAL attacks on Christians or say, verbal attacks like on Y/A?





If it's actual attacks out there in the world - I don't know of any so I can't speak to them.





If it's about verbal attacks here on Y/A, I would have to say it's both the behavior of SOME Christians (usually the fundamentalist and extremists) and the belief by SOME non-Christians that all Christians are alike.|||People are dying for the cause of Christ daily somewhere in this earth. Many are persecuted in China, Africa and other countries. The reason is the devil The devil hates Christians because we are Gods children and will get to live with Him forever. The devil lost his chance when he rebelled in heaven and was kicked out. The devil knows his eternal destination is the lake of fire, so he wants to take as many with him as he can.He is so jealous of Christians.

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