Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: djdaneh@pacbell.com (Dan'l DanehyOakes) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Bigotry? (Re: The Ongoing Inquisition) Message-ID: Date: 14 May 91 07:10:29 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA Lines: 63 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article cc5h+@andrew.cmu.edu (Charles Robert Claydon) writes: >Well, why do people attribute this trait to Christianity? Well, people who >are looking to defame Christians pin this label, along with others, on >Christians (OOOHHH, can you say "stereotype", boys and girls? It is another >trait rather common to people). Some thoughts. There is no need to go looking for anti-Christian malice where none need be present. Bova's law, "Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity or laziness," is applicable here. The reason that this particular trait is so associated with Christianity *in* *our* *culture* is that Christianity, and in particular the Catholic church, was so imbedded in the power structure of wesciv for so long that it was *the* place for persons seeking power and self-aggrandizement to turn. (This is one of the reasons why an Established Church is harmful to the ends of Christianity.) Thus, the most spectacular abuses through many centuries (e.g., the worse Crusades, the Inquisition, the Klan, and, yes, Virginia, the Third Reich) have been performed by persons claiming to be Christians acting *as* Christians. The AntiChrist, like the poor, we have always with us. Now, this is not to say that there is no anti-Christian bias anywhere. Particularly in some of the intellectual subcultures of our society (including the science fiction subculture, of which I am a member), acknowledged belief in God and/or Christ is a severe social stigma. A number of groups of "neopagans" and "wiccans" have grown up not so much around belief in what they pay tribute to as a goodhearted desire to annoy Christians. Yes, goodhearted. They don't see Christianity; they see Christians, who frankly look to them like hypocrites. But some of them go beyond that and begin seriously worshipping "strange gods," which cannot help but be dangerous (these people just don't *know* what they're messing with!), and many go beyond "goodheartedness" to an active and automatic dislike or hatred for Christians. This expresses itself in any number of ways, of which one of the more obvious is the use of the term "Xian" -- a sad thing, because many people use it *without* intending hatred (as an old Southerner might have used the term "nigger" or "nigra"). These people will point out, quite rightly, that the "X" abbreviation for "Christ" is of "Xian" origin, so why are we offended by it? The answer, of course, is that it is a reminder of the time when our people were persecuted and used the X and the fish as code symbols for what they feared to name openly lest they seek (rather than accept) martyrdom. Another answer is that it is symbolic of the destruction of our religion as shown by the commercialization of "Christmas" to "Xmas." At any rate, it does no good to seek hatred. It will find you anyway, so why look for it where there may be only ignorance? Ah has spoke! -- Pansy Yokum The Roach