Religious Intolerance

[StickMan]

OK so I'm Roman Catholic and I've learned that there are a lot of people who really don't like Catholics all that much, don't think much of us, or just plain are wrong about what they think we believe. I would like to talk about how you deal with people that are Intolerant of your religion to help me in the futer as I have had to deal with it a lot and I'm not one to be quite when some one says something wrong about Catholicism.

First I would like to share some of my experiences:
For me I normally only have had to deal with some people at school and at work that did not understand catholicism. The most common thing I have come across is having to explain Catholics are Christians. This may seem simple to most people as we are and in fact were the first main Christian Church (I am not counting the Christian Cults before Catholicism). But I have had to argue with more than one person that we are in fact Christian, I hope you can understand that having to argue that you are in fact a Christian is very very annoying as I am one and feel I should be able to call myself such. I have had other things such as telling people that when we take communion we do not in fact think were are eating the 2000 year old physically body of Jesus but its is spiritual and that we do in fact know that it is just physically bread and wine. I have had to deal with may other minor things but these are the most common ones.

Now my girlfriend has had it far worse than me. She has told me that in the town we grew up in there use to a church that catholics worship Marry and that we were all going to hell. The girls at her elementary school felt that it was O.K. to inform her of this and treat her as if she was going to hell. The pastor at this church has moved away, and the church is now not denominational and I have friends that go there now. This we are both thankful for.

My mom is a nurse does in home care of a boy who is very handy caped and is in a wheel chair. His family goes to a local church in which they teach that Catholicism is wrong, that we are going to hell. The woman that she works for when talking to my mom about lint said that when we give something up we are supposed to be giving the money we would be spending on what ever we are giving up to the Church and it is just a way for the church to get money. My mom tried to explain this is not true, the church does not ask for that money, and never with in her life time have. My mom tried to tell her that many of the things her church have said about Catholics is not true. To this she responded "well every church does it" to which my mom responded "may be every church you have gone to but Catholic churches do not". There is one note I should add to this we did once have a new priest at a local church say something bad about another religion. This shocked the church and in a short amount of time he was removed from the church and a new priest was put in.

In my life I have been taught both at home and in my church to not only be tolerant of other religions but also to learn from them. If you could help me to fight further intolerance by sharing your stories plz do. I do ask that you do not refer to any specific groups as I have tried to done so we don't get in to a who my church would never say that kind of thing fight.

[ForzaFiori]

i have no problem with catholics, though i do admit that i make jokes about them all the time, though i do this with all religions.

as for my stories, I, being both from the deep south and not baptist or methodist (or even Christian), have been discriminated against all the time, from ppl at school, to all kinds of stuff. I've just gotten used to it, and don't really care. My friends know about it and it doesn't matter to them, and thats all I care about. Why should anyone care if someone they don't know (or don't like) doesn't like their religious preference?

[Hell Puppi]

Errr...I don't really have a religion, per se, but I can say I've seen this problem a lot.
People get very intolerant because of their religious beliefs. I can't exactly tell you why. It seems easier to tell someone their going to hell than to help someone out, I suppose, but I'm bitter.
I don't want to piss anyone off, but I kind of relate it to the fact that people take a good idea like, say, Jesus preaching tolerance, and turn it into a weapon.

Errr well damn I can say a lot on this subject but I'm afraid of either getting banned or flamed. =/

My advice is believe what you believe. You can't please everyone, so if it makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone else, it's your life. Stand up for what you believe in =P

[StickMan]

You see I don't mind when its me. But when is a girl in elementary school who is being told by her classmates she is going to hell because of her religion, that is why I feel I have to speak up. If I don't then people just keep spreading intolerance, and hate. If I don't say something then my kids are going to have to listen to the same stupid bull that I did.

[ForzaFiori]

You see I don't mind when its me. But when is a girl in elementary school who is being told by her classmates she is going to hell because of her religion, that is why I feel I have to speak up. If I don't then people just keep spreading intolerance, and hate. If I don't say something then my kids are going to have to listen to the same stupid bull that I did.

i gotta agree w/ stickman. while its stopped bothering me, seeing it happen to little kids (or hell, even kids in my grade) pisses me off.

although, even with all non-christians speaking up in America, due to the fact that out of our entire government, we have...i believe 1 non-Christian, i doubt much will happen. I'm not trying to say Christians are all intolerant, just that it seems the government is.

[zeratul]

Umm guys, I'm not a mod, but this topic is against forum rules. We aren't supposed to discuss religion.

[Ego Slayer]

* Real-world religions (including religious reactions to gaming)
* Real-world politics (including political reactions to gaming)
* Graphic violence
* Illegal drugs
* Criminal activity
* Explicit sexuality

>_>
<_<
*runs*

[Hell Puppi]

Well you could start down the hard road of speaking up for those people, or telling them it's okay. Mouthing off to someone usually just gets them even more pissed, so generally I find it easier to console the person who's being told their going to hell. Preaching tolerance to a religion that's supposed TO BE about tolerance is pretty damn dumb, and people generally don't change because someone else has told them to. Hopefully in the future their ideals might change, but then again sometimes it gets worse.
I say speak up for the people around you and try to show them that there's someone else who feels like they do.

[zeratul]

>_>
<_<
*runs*

Ah good you found the actual quote .

[Hell Puppi]

Ah.

O_o

o_o


*runs*

[StickMan]

I'm not discussing religions I'm talking about Intolerance. I don't care what you believe and I don't want to talk about it here as that is against the rules. What I want to talk about is how to put an end to hate and intolerance. I don't care if its Religious intolerance we can talk about race or economic class here as well. I was just siting the intolerance in my own life that has effected me, which has been Religious.

[Alarra]

Discussions of religious intolerance still falls under discussion of religion, which is a forbidden topic on these boards.