Why do Christians feel like they're under threat?

[Symmetry]

Cards on the table- I'm an atheist. I live in a country where the head of state is also the head of one of the largest Christian churches on Earth- 85 million members according to wiki.

I'd like to hear from Christians who genuinely feel that their faith is under threat.

My personal assumptions going in to this are:

1) That religions in general need an opponent to define themselves.
2) That Christians need to see themselves aligned with victimhood.
3) That Protestant Christianity is following the early church towards a kind of decadence, while modern Catholicism is moving closer to the early church.

I'd appreciate your input, if you'd like to have a chat.

[DirtyDishSoap]

Because everyone is a victim.

[Symmetry]

Because everyone is a victim.

In some ways, perhaps. How do you view yourself when it comes to religion?

[mrswdk]

The Church of England is great. The church for people that want to be a sort of Christian but also want to be able to just do whatever they want.

[thegreekdog]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-22270455

http://thehill.com/opinion/internationa ... iddle-east

Seems like Christians are getting killed. I'm a Christian (the Catholic flavor) and I suspect if I went to certain places in the Middle East I would feel under threat.

As for your assumptions relative to Catholicism, I'm not sure how you define early church so I can't really comment on that assumption.

[DoomYoshi]

Nothing strengthens an ingroup quite like an outgroup.

By the way, the queen is also the head of the Presbyterian church when she's in Scotland.

[mrswdk]

The queen wears so much ice that you just know she believes in nothing except the mighty greenback.



Didn't Marget Merpel's wedding dress cost like £300,000 or something? Bling bling, nipper.

[Neoteny]

Because modern society is a threat to their weird backwards beliefs.

[TA1LGUNN3R]

DDS already won this thread. You just see Christians as the poster child of victimhood because that's where your interests and culture lie. Every group ever thought themselves threatened by other groups- mostly because there's grain of truth that gets blown out of proportion.

It's just a matter of perspective. Religion in general is losing relevance (replaced by other things, of course) so even if they're at, say, a 70% majority, that's less than the 90% majority of a generation or two in the past. It's difficult for a stone rolling downhill to reverse its momentum and everyone sees the final destination clearly. Then it's just a matter of how one defines value to themselves.

[nietzsche]

[mrswdk]

DDS already won this thread. You just see Christians as the poster child of victimhood because that's where your interests and culture lie. Every group ever thought themselves threatened by other groups- mostly because there's grain of truth that gets blown out of proportion.

It's just a matter of perspective. Religion in general is losing relevance (replaced by other things, of course) so even if they're at, say, a 70% majority, that's less than the 90% majority of a generation or two in the past. It's difficult for a stone rolling downhill to reverse its momentum and everyone sees the final destination clearly. Then it's just a matter of how one defines value to themselves.

That's why it is positive when people stop subscribing to the idea of fixed genders or sexuality.

[TA1LGUNN3R]

DDS already won this thread. You just see Christians as the poster child of victimhood because that's where your interests and culture lie. Every group ever thought themselves threatened by other groups- mostly because there's grain of truth that gets blown out of proportion.

It's just a matter of perspective. Religion in general is losing relevance (replaced by other things, of course) so even if they're at, say, a 70% majority, that's less than the 90% majority of a generation or two in the past. It's difficult for a stone rolling downhill to reverse its momentum and everyone sees the final destination clearly. Then it's just a matter of how one defines value to themselves.

That's why it is positive when people stop subscribing to the idea of fixed genders or sexuality.

k

[KoolBak]

And I feel threatened as a gun loving, hunting pseudo redneck.

Well maybe not threatened....persecuted?

f*ck it...actually I'm just fine

On with the thumper thread....

[mrswdk]

DDS already won this thread. You just see Christians as the poster child of victimhood because that's where your interests and culture lie. Every group ever thought themselves threatened by other groups- mostly because there's grain of truth that gets blown out of proportion.

It's just a matter of perspective. Religion in general is losing relevance (replaced by other things, of course) so even if they're at, say, a 70% majority, that's less than the 90% majority of a generation or two in the past. It's difficult for a stone rolling downhill to reverse its momentum and everyone sees the final destination clearly. Then it's just a matter of how one defines value to themselves.

That's why it is positive when people stop subscribing to the idea of fixed genders or sexuality.

k

"Ooh please label me!"

[TA1LGUNN3R]

DDS already won this thread. You just see Christians as the poster child of victimhood because that's where your interests and culture lie. Every group ever thought themselves threatened by other groups- mostly because there's grain of truth that gets blown out of proportion.

It's just a matter of perspective. Religion in general is losing relevance (replaced by other things, of course) so even if they're at, say, a 70% majority, that's less than the 90% majority of a generation or two in the past. It's difficult for a stone rolling downhill to reverse its momentum and everyone sees the final destination clearly. Then it's just a matter of how one defines value to themselves.

That's why it is positive when people stop subscribing to the idea of fixed genders or sexuality.

k

"Ooh please label me!"

Is that some sort of tumblrina dirty talk?

[mrswdk]

You wanna tumble?

[GoranZ]

Cards on the table- I'm an atheist.

Nice joke
You are not an atheist, you never were and you never will be.
Atheists are not cheering for Al Qaeda or ISIS like you do.
You are an Islamist... pretending to be Atheist in order to better blend in into the western society.

[DirtyDishSoap]

Because everyone is a victim.

In some ways, perhaps. How do you view yourself when it comes to religion?

You leave me alone, I leave you alone.

[TA1LGUNN3R]

You wanna tumble?

I'm adding you to the class-action lawsuit that nietzsche is claiming against saxi for sexual harassment.

[nietzsche]

pssst.. she's the main witness don't make her switch..

[warmonger1981]

Modern Catholicism is moving closer to the early church my ass.. Catholics ain't been Catholic since Vatican II council. When a Freemasonry was Pope and liberalism took over. This Pope Catholics have today would be ousted pre Vatican II. This guy is a Revolutionary that has deep roots in Liberation Theology. I think he has even covered for pedophiles in SA. Also has Masonic ceremonies in his SA church. This guy ain't no Vicar of Christ. What's your thoughts GD on the Pope?

[thegreekdog]

To answer the OP - I don't feel under threat.

Modern Catholicism is moving closer to the early church my ass.. Catholics ain't been Catholic since Vatican II council. When a Freemasonry was Pope and liberalism took over. This Pope Catholics have today would be ousted pre Vatican II. This guy is a Revolutionary that has deep roots in Liberation Theology. I think he has even covered for pedophiles in SA. Also has Masonic ceremonies in his SA church. This guy ain't no Vicar of Christ. What's your thoughts GD on the Pope?

Again, it depends on what early church you mean. The earliest version of the church (the church that the Romans persecuted) was less organized, much more religious, and much more tolerant than future churches. I think we're moving back towards tolerance and religiousness under Francis. Francis seems more concerned about the poor, for example, then about changing the Nicean Creed. I haven't heard about him covering for pedophiles, but I'm not sure there are many in the Catholic Church that can say they aren't complicit in that stuff. I have no idea what a Masonic ceremony is, but I've always understood that Masons and Catholics don't mix. I also think the media gives way too much airplay to the liberal things the Pope says. For example, the media skirts around whether the Pope may be more tolerant towards birth control and abortion. I think that's largely manufactured nonsense. The Catholic Church will never condone or tolerate abortion no matter how liberal the Pope is. And yes, I'm one of those people that thinks caring about your fellow man and feeding the hungry, etc. is more important than making sure gay dudes can't get married.

[saxitoxin]

Because everyone is a victim.

In some ways, perhaps. How do you view yourself when it comes to religion?

You leave me alone, I leave you alone.

I'm not sure if DDS is:
(a) answering Symm's question
(b) giving Symm an order

[Symmetry]

To answer the OP - I don't feel under threat.

Modern Catholicism is moving closer to the early church my ass.. Catholics ain't been Catholic since Vatican II council. When a Freemasonry was Pope and liberalism took over. This Pope Catholics have today would be ousted pre Vatican II. This guy is a Revolutionary that has deep roots in Liberation Theology. I think he has even covered for pedophiles in SA. Also has Masonic ceremonies in his SA church. This guy ain't no Vicar of Christ. What's your thoughts GD on the Pope?

Again, it depends on what early church you mean. The earliest version of the church (the church that the Romans persecuted) was less organized, much more religious, and much more tolerant than future churches. I think we're moving back towards tolerance and religiousness under Francis. Francis seems more concerned about the poor, for example, then about changing the Nicean Creed. I haven't heard about him covering for pedophiles, but I'm not sure there are many in the Catholic Church that can say they aren't complicit in that stuff. I have no idea what a Masonic ceremony is, but I've always understood that Masons and Catholics don't mix. I also think the media gives way too much airplay to the liberal things the Pope says. For example, the media skirts around whether the Pope may be more tolerant towards birth control and abortion. I think that's largely manufactured nonsense. The Catholic Church will never condone or tolerate abortion no matter how liberal the Pope is. And yes, I'm one of those people that thinks caring about your fellow man and feeding the hungry, etc. is more important than making sure gay dudes can't get married.

Indeed, and I would say that under Francis, there are significant changes towards reforming Catholicism to be more inclusive. I think that a lot of Protestant churches are currently struggling with that.

As Catholicism seeks to extract itself from politics, Protestant churches seek to insert themselves further in to partisanship.

I think that the Catholic church suffered a profound, and unofficially acknowledged schism over the still on-going scandal over the abuse of children. A schism between cultural Catholics and High Church Catholics- a generational divide in many cases. That's Francis' dilemma.

I'm not sure that Protestant churches are able to see that they face a similar problem.

[The ram]

Christianity is dead. I myself have not once been to church in my life except to be christened and a couple of weddings. The fact that the bible says homosexuality is bad and now there's gay vicars etc says to me that they don't believe or respect their own rules. The bible will resemble a liberal party manifesto in a few years.