This is going to make me some enemies, but I'm too cranky to care.

[kellinator]

Dear Everyone Who's Whining About What a Terrible Man St. Patrick Was and How Pagans Are So Oppressed,

I was looking forward to an evening of St. Patrick's Day fun with friends, so forgive me for being a little bit cranky about all the vitriol being launched on here today.

Are we Christians supposed to spend the day apologizing for St. Patrick converting Ireland fifteen hundred years ago? I'm no expert in Druidic practices, but how do we really know that the Druids were happy-love-everybody people and St. Patrick was a jerk determined to make sure no one was having a good time? It's not as simple as pagans good/Patrick bad (nor, I suppose, as simple as Patrick good/pagans bad). Imagine you're the person who got picked for the human sacrifice and see if you still think so.

Christianity is not all about hate and oppression, no matter what Jerry Falwell tells you. It's got some good ideas about kindness to one's fellow man. Many terrible sins have been committed in the name of Christ, but much good has been done too.

A lot of people out there seem to demand toleration for everyone but Christians. I almost didn't make this post because I knew it would piss people off, but that would be denying what I feel and what I believe. If it's okay for you to express your faith, then it's okay for me to express mine. I may be a lousy excuse for a Christian, but I still am one. If you want religious toleration, I think that's terrific, but you ought to have some for the Christians too. We progressive Christians have got enough to worry about with retaking our faith from the Pharisees currently in charge without having to constantly apologize for being Christian.

And I'm fucking terrified of snakes, so St. Patrick, you're okay in my book.

Comments

[10dimensions.livejournal.com]

"If I see you doing something wrong and don't tell you that you should change, I am partially responsible for your wrong doing."

But who are you to say what's "wrong" for anyone but yourself?

[10dimensions.livejournal.com]

No, it's not the same thing, actually. There's a rather large difference between secular laws that are decided upon by a society at large and that individuals within that society choose to live under the bounds of, and religious ideas about what is right and wrong.

Secular laws are [ideally and hopefully] created to provide the most amount of freedom to citizens while preventing them from using that freedom to do harm to others or to restrict their freedoms. I say "ideally and hopefully" because these laws begin to go wrong when secular govt begins involving themselves in the personal business of its citizens, where that person's business has no bearing on anyone but themselves. As an instance, gay marriage. This is a religious issue, not a secular one, but some religions feel it should be secularly controlled.

For a religious person to come along and tell a gay person that their lifestyle is wrong and should not be allowed is in NO WAY the same idea as a law that makes murder or theft a crime. This is just one example taken off the top of my head, but there are plenty of others. If it is your belief that homosexuality is evil then you are certainly entitled to it. But you are not entitled to tell someone who feels differently that they are doing wrong, any more than someone else would be entitled to tell you that you have to marry someone of the same sex. It works both ways, you know. Preventing religions from doing this to different-thinking individuals was one of the reasons for the founding of our country.

It's called cultural relativism. Certain behaviors are generally agreed upon as undesirable in almost all human societies. Certain behaviors are judged depending on the culture they are found in. The belief that you [universal you] know what is absolute right or wrong for other people, and that you are entitled to judge for that person is, in my eyes, the pride that goeth before a fall. It sure is easy to stumble with that damn beam in your eye.