What Nonreligious People Get Wrong About Religious People
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
With the media furiously obsessed over the supposed imminent end of the Trump presidency (spoiler alert: nope), the new conversation among the elite concerns the supposed evils of Vice President Mike Pence. Pence, our leftist thought leaders proclaim, is perhaps even more frightening than President Trump. Frank Bruni of The New York Times terms Pence a "holy terror waiting in the wings ... a bigot ... a liar ... cruel."
This is nothing new. Conan O'Brien says that "many members of Congress are preparing for a Mike Pence presidency. Yeah, they're preparing by binge-watching 'The Handmaid's Tale.'" Joy Behar called Pence's faith a "mental illness." John Oliver trolled Pence last year by mocking his daughter's children's book about a bunny rabbit -- in Oliver's parody book, the bunny rabbit is gay. Because, of course, Pence would hate a gay bunny.
Last year, the media went into a tizzy when they learned that Pence refuses to dine alone with women other than his wife (the same media have since been shocked to learn that Harvey Weinstein loved dining alone with women other than his wife). This policy made Pence a bigot. But that was just the beginning. Pence, said the media, supported "gay conversion therapy." This, of course, is false as well. But that didn't stop the media from feting gay 2018 Winter Olympian Adam Rippon, who proceeded to trot out that debunked chestnut.
What is so frightening about Pence? His status as a religious Christian. According to many on the left, Pence's religiosity means he's a theocrat. Never mind the fact that Pence is a limited-government conservative who isn't generally interested in imposing policy preferences from above; he believes in Jesus, and therefore, he must want to install himself at the head of the United Christian States of America.
But that isn't even what bothers those on the left. What bothers many on the left about Pence is the same thing that bothers them about religious Christians in general: They seem convinced that religious Americans are merely bigots hiding behind the Bible. The perspective is well-expressed by Greg Carey, professor of the New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary: "People either use religion to justify their bigotry or they refuse to give up their bigotry for the sake of maintaining false religious security." Or let's listen to Bruni again, this time from April 2015: "our debate about religious freedom should include a conversation about freeing religions and religious people from prejudices that they needn't cling to." Or Hillary Clinton in 2016: "deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed."
This view of religious belief is deeply demeaning. The suggestion seems to be that religious texts are utterly malleable, and that human beings twist them to fit their preconceived notions. But the suggestion is alien to most religious people, who believe that their religion dictates and they listen. This perception gap plagues our public discourse and helps explain why the left seems so unperturbed by violating the religious-practice rights of other Americans: They think those Americans are bad human beings using the Bible to shield themselves. Pence is merely the latest example.
The great irony, of course, is that religious people generally wish to be left alone. They're not seeking to impose "The Handmaid's Tale"; such compulsion is endemic to a left that insists we "bake the cake." Such psychological projection damages the public discourse and undermines cultural unity. If the left truly wants a more tolerant America, perhaps it should start by assuming that its opponents in the religious community aren't mere bigots cloaked in the vestments of God -- and perhaps it ought to think more deeply about whether the true bigotry lies within itself.
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A truly ironic comment from the seed which is utterly lacking in self-awareness.
If religious people like Pence and others wanted to be left alone then they wouldn't have 10 channels on cable TV and be trying to legislate their sky fairy insanity on the rest of us.
Their only goal is to make money for religious shysters. There is no god.
The "must carry" clause in the cable TV deregulation act goes down the tubes when cable does. Those satellite broadcast windows aren't cheap and it will be conservative CEO's that yank them away from the thumper scammers if they don't step up and pay a "great commission" when the money starts to get tight.
There must be a reason all the superstitious nuttery is confined to the free channels. Is it because the content is so crappy that no one wants to pay for it?
must carry forces the consumer to pay for jesus jabber channels they don't watch
Thumper channels belong at the bottom of the channel line up with the rest of the shopping channels.
Thumper channels should be pay-per-view. On my network, the thumper channels (37-42) are just below Fox News so the low-information MAGAites don't have to surf very far for their daily dose of propaganda.
Why should people who don't watch them be forced to pay for those religious channels? The people who like them and watch them should be forced to pay for their broadcast costs.
Why should I pay for the shopping channels or MTV or the foreign language channels or any of the other channels I don't watch?
I agree. I don't watch those channels either. I'd add ESPN, Fox News, children's programming, and the 10 different movie channels that I also don't want.
The great irony, of course, is that religious people generally wish to be left alone.
Good then hopefully they don't mind that I dont answer my door when they knock on it then.
In my neighborhood they just walk away if I don't answer the door (99.99% of the time it's Jehovah witness's). Barking Dogs help too. I like to be left "Alone" in my religious belief. I can't stand the ones that try and sway me away from my beliefs either (Those folks are holier than thou too). I'll open the door and let my dogs out for shit like that.
LOL... I've thought about it. But considering I house a pack of adult full blooded Chow Chows (5 total) I dont think that would be such a good idea.
You are correct though my pack does keep them on the move rather quickly. I don't have anyone hanging around ringing that damn bell more than once !!
I've got a Shepard and a Blue Tick Coonhound in my house. Best "Alarms" ever. They do behave though. If I invite someone in, they wont do anything until I tell them too. Shepard is usually really quiet with company, but for some reason, my Hound loves to talk with folks. No bark, but sounds like a Wookie if you talk to her. It's like she knows what your sayin'. Her light, light brown eyes lets you know she is definitely looking at you. It's kinda eerie.
The Castle Doctrine applies when it's a JW or a Mormon.
Ha.
I call security on door to door thumpers and meet the cops in the parking lot entrance next to the new No Soliciting sign. The old sign was removed by some missionaries last month, who were then charged with trespassing and theft. Bwah ha ha
Last time I let my 140 lbs Rottweiler answer the door. Now keep in mind, this dog loves people, he'll stand on his back legs, put his front feet on your shoulder and lick the hell out of you. But even he did not like these white shirted, black tied, bible thumpers.
LOL... I keep my ponies out side. But I let my 60lbs Chows in.
OMG WTF does that thing eat ? cattle ?
Well... considering any mormons that have come to my home have always been men if you are a man too No wonder they flee. Try offering them a beer instead, if you're ever in the mood to chat.
lol
Of course they ran away, they didn't see any underage girls at your house. They've been in the habit of locking their bikes together in my town for almost 50 years. Probably no need for me to elaborate why except to say that mormon track stars seem to be a rarity. ahhhh, my youth. nostalgic *sniff*
I've never had a gay person try to convert me to being a lesbian, but more than 3 times a month I get some idiot thumper pounding on the door to try to convert me to their sky fairy of choice, so who is actually pushing their lifestyle on others?
Democrats.
Seriously. These people keep coming to my house. Usually they claim to be looking for my 19 year old son, attempting to delude the young and gullible into their religion. Little do they realize, he is FAR more conservative than I am.
50 pounds of dog food every 3 - 4 weeks. And of course his favorite healthy snack every day, a cucumber.
Post a No Soliciting and/or No Trespassing sign. Once they cross it, call the police. Short their next collection plate by $100.
Ouch! My wolf hybrids are about 100 lbs or so but only eat 3 cups each per day. They like cucumbers too but their favorite is tomatoes. It's hard to have a garden with big dogs.
a cucumber? WTH ? Weird
Are you a cucumber farmer by chance ? lol
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I'll definitely trade ya dog food bills though, my pack of monsters go thru bags of dog food (IAMS) to the tune of about a hundred bucks a month.... plus the little frickin monsters get a little chicken thrown into the blender with water and mixed into their food... each day.
Healthy as horses, says my vet. No wonder, my pet food bill is like feeding a damn pony...lol
300 lbs of monster, 210 teeth, 100 claws, Yeah ! .. "come all e faithful !!!"
Yep it seems the church people leave their pamphlets and beat feet pretty quickly soon after pushin on that damn little bell !! ( I even have to pick the pamphlets up off the ground from time to time) lol
(It probably helps that there is a nice big picture window with "the dog" couch under it right by the front door that the monsters get to "greet" visitors from)
HELLO !!! .. Ding ..Dong... Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff !!!!!
bye---Bye !!
........................
I love my babies !!
You are correct HA and my apology for my part in it. Unwittingly I think I tend to help do that kinda often. I really dont mean to I just see something that I'd like to respond to and do.
Maybe I still have some of the old nv floating around in me somewhere...lol
Thanks for so nicely pointing this out to me. I am sorry.
Didn't the founding fathers address that in some way already, if not I'm kind of surprised, they seemed to think in so much detail of so much.
For myself I really do pretty much try to ignore any and all radical groups or people. I would think with all the laws we already have the violence against church members could probably be addressed as well.
When we had all those abortion doctors killings and torching of abortion facilities if I'm not mistaken that violence was taken care of using laws already on the books as well.
Also, organized religion and politics seems like a fairy slipper slope, perhaps the current laws should be examined to see what is applicable before making a bunch of more new laws.
Just my opinion.
Or you could just move to a theocracy like Saudi Arabia which supports your sect's sharia laws. Plus they don't have an Establishment clause there which would prevent laws which grant special rights to the superstitious.
I had a Doberman that would pull a few tomatoes but I plant too many anyway, one now eats wild horseradish leaves
Meh. Age will bring wisdom, and with it, moderation.
How exactly are the Democrats a religion? How is being a democrat a lifestyle?
I thought so too, but he starts salivating when I start slicing it up for a snack. I imagine that their taste buds are different than ours, I was told that carrots are very sweet to a dog. He wasn't thrilled with them though.
Never even thought of a tomato, don't like them myself. I've tried him on about everything that was safe, cucumbers to pineapples, apples to bananas, carrots to cantalope. He really likes those banana's, but he gets diarrhea from them. I'll have to pick up a tomato from the store this weekend and see if he likes it.
Supposedly large quantities of green tomatoes and the other parts of the plant are potentially bad for dogs but ripe tomatoes are fine. My dogs always got to them a few days before I would have picked them.....grrrr.
Yes, I looked it up. Red = okay, green = bad.
well that's why they are constantly recruiting, knocking on your door and trying to bully you to attend their favorite house of worship. that's why they stand on street corners and scream that everyone who doesn't lockstep with their beliefs are going to "Hell", trying to bully others to think as they do. that's why they are trying to pass laws to legally discriminate against people they find "icky". that's why they were trying to expand government influence into people's personal lives by having the government regulate the combination of genders allowed on a secular legal Marriage certificate - all because they want to be left alone ? do you really believe that nonsense that they want to be left alone ?
I loved the use of the phrase "great irony" in that context.
Lookee here. The 'non religious' do not get anything wrong about the 'so called religious.' The religious have only one 'hole card' and that is their desire to persecute.
The 'seed' is bassakwards. The only folk getting anything wrong are 'the alleged religious' about their 'religion.'
No, what bothers me about them is the same thing that bothers me about every other major religion, when they amass too much power, the streets run red with blood. Christians in particular have proven this time and again. When properly kept in check they are fine, sure some are insufferable, but they aren't very dangerous. Hence the need to keep the most ardent believers from monopolizing power.
What bothers me is these religious people believe is that they think the rest of us care about or want to be part of their religion