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Forgiveness

Entry 923, on 2009-01-09 at 20:56:48 (Rating 4, Religion)

I'm constantly struggling to figure out what Christianity is all about. My cynical view would be that it is all about following a particular dogmatic belief and in participating in whatever rituals the church requires. That is a cynical view though, and my religious friends often claim that there's a lot more to it than that. So what else is there?

A common theme seems to be that being a Christian is all about following the teachings of Christ. Now I know that the Bible isn't the clearest book on Earth and is open to a lot of interpretation, but it seems to me there are some common themes that few people would debate. For example, there are the famous Christian principles of forgiveness and understanding.

But if forgiveness is so important to Christians why do so many fail to demonstrate it? And why are the people who are most fanatical about their fundamentalist Christian beliefs often also the least forgiving, the most hateful, and the least understanding of others?

I have seen this trend on many occasions during my discussions with religious people but it became most apparent recently when discussing the current situation in Gaza. Sure, I don't expect many people to be supportive of Hamas, but the vicious hatred I have seen recently goes far beyond what I would expect.

As I pointed out yesterday, I don't blame Israel entirely for the situation as it is now, but I certainly don't blame Hamas totally either. I think the blame for the misery there should be about equally shared between the two.

I am basing my thoughts on independent reports from people in the area, and from neutral organisations (or those which are as close to neutral as possible, because I guess true neutrality never really exists). But the hateful Christians don't operate that way. Oh no. They have already decided that Israel is totally in the right and they get their information from sources with that same attitude.

And there doesn't even seem to be the chance of any compromise. Anyone who really thinks about this will see that there is blame on both sides, but these people won't move a bit. In their simple minds the situation is black and white: Israel are simply carrying out a fair and reasonable response to terrorism. As soon as the word terrorism is used any chance at a reasonable discussion is lost because to many people terrorists have no rights and any response against them is justified. And its so easy to apply that tag to any group forced into using non-conventional warfare!

Of course they also say that if innocent civilians are killed (as they are) that's totally Hamas' fault because they are so cowardly they use civilians as a shield. The fact that reports from the area indicate many casualties are happening which do not arise from this situation doesn't matter because those aren't the reports the fundies listen to.

If more people really followed the better parts of the Christian message I wouldn't have such a problem with religion. I know that the majority of Christians are not as narrow minded as the people I have recently debated with, but the extreme cases do tend to give the rest a bad reputation.

The ironic thing is that, based on what I have seen recently, I (as an atheist) demonstrate far more of the positive Christian virtues than these clowns ever have!

Comment 1 (5526) by Anonymous on 2020-10-21 at 09:50:55:

You do understand that Israel is not mainly a Christian country, dont you.

Comment 2 (5527) by OJB on 2020-10-21 at 10:30:09:

Well, sure. It's 80% Jewish. The Christians I was referring to are from outside the two sides immediately involved in the conflict.

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