vtmarik wrote:Many reasons, none of which are represented above.
1) Christianity has been around for 2000 years (Well, technically it's been around for 1940 years...) and in all this time it still holds to the morality of the olden days. Hence it's a great target for jokes.
Be that as it may, much of the morality of the olden days is far better than what we call "civilized" today. Not all older "morals" are good, but I think the morals retained by the Church today are the best of the lot, and better than many of the things they have been replaced by.
vtmarik wrote:2) Hypocrisy. Greed is a sin, yet a lot of Christians (especially the ones on TV) are rich and keep asking for money. Pride is a sin, yet you proudly wear crosses and proudly declare your relationship with God gives you a better destiny. Wrath is a sin, yet non-believers feel the stingy wrath of God whenever they have the audacity to challenge Him simply because they have doubts. A skeptic can believe, but the instant a believer says "Wait a minute" they're no longer a believer according to doctrine.
This DOES strike the nail right on the head. Many people (TV evangelists, etc) do use Christianity as a platform for money. What's more, many Christians are the most materialistic people you have ever seen. People DO tend to scream "I'M CHRISTIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" in the clothing and jewelery they wear, and show off their knowledge of the Bible. It just so happens that said people are the type who annoy the heck out of me at school. But you are making vast, sweeping generalizations here. Perhaps the reason you label all Christians like this is because these ones are the loudest of the bunch. The minority is always heard best, a teacher of mine once said.
vtmarick wrote:4) Christianity is the most popularized religion out there, and is such very visible. It's easier to mock currently popular things than it is to mock things that went out of style.
fair enough.
vtmarick wrote:And you harp on about Christians being persecuted. What about the salem witch trials, the inquisition, events where Christians took it upon themselves to judge, torture, and kill others because they were different. Were these things that you're proud of?
Proud of it? Of course not. Acts of evil, no doubt about it. But those issues are more ancient even than slavery. Is it the fault of the modern Church that such things happened several hundred years ago? I daresay not, just as it's not the fault of modern southerners that their ancestors enslaved African Americans.