Why do people hate Christians?

Originally posted by JekyllHyde
I think most people are fine with 'normal' Christians- it's the extremists that people hate/dislike.

Am I an extremist? Do people hate/dislike me?

Originally posted by JekyllHyde
It is the things that some extremists try to force on others such as saying using protection is wrong, gay people will and should burn in hell and non-believers getting cancer is something to rejoice over that upsets me and other people.

What does the Bible say about these things? There is your ruler to determine if people are following Christ or blowing their own smokestack. Again, a Christian is one who follows Christ, correct? How could you possibly agree to call someone a Christian if they do not?

I see so many people desperatly seaching for something to hold onto in this brief life of chance. Or so it would seem. your life is the sum of the choices you have made.You cannot blame others for the choices you make,(he made me do that) this is the lamest copp out I`ve ever heard.
The state of the world is the sum of the choices we have all made.
Yes we let things influece us but it is our choice to allow those things to make the desicion to do or not to do, what ever it is that your faced with.
We are always given the oportunity to do the right thing,and it is up to our selfwilled selves to do our will or to do what is right even if it means suffering. We need to be the ones who stand up in this life and open our hearts and minds to the TRUTH. We all know. Just go to a quiet place and be alone, then empty your mind, and listen, but be warned not all you hear is the TRUTH, you must test what you hear,prove it to yourself,
IF you made me, would you make it hard to find you? no, of course not, but I could only find you, if I start looking for you.
the TRUTH is out there and its looking for YOU!

Personally, I don't hate Christians. I don't hate anyone. But I will argue with Christians as much as I'd argue with anyone who has been brainwashed into believing something is true, and it influencing their life so much, when we know the history of what they are believing in.

It tends to be the language they choose and their attitude that disturbs me, and the quotes given to substantiate a point, which are usually irrelevant unless you are one of them!

Originally posted by Nebankh
But I will argue with Christians as much as I'd argue with anyone who has been brainwashed into believing something is true, and it influencing their life so much, when we know the history of what they are believing in.

Please explain:
1.) How Christians are brainwashed.
2.) What the history is of what we believe in & why it is negative.

It tends to be the language they choose and their attitude that disturbs me, and the quotes given to substantiate a point, which are usually irrelevant unless you are one of them!

I agree there are many Christians who do have an air of arrogance and they should certainly know better. I also agree that many Biblical quotes can be useless to an non-believer. Many times people forget "where they came from" or what it was like before they knew God. Two points of good feedback here I think.


[edit on 2-6-2007 by saint4God]

Originally posted by saint4God
Please explain:
1.) How Christians are brainwashed.

well, i can't speak for all of them... that would be impossible as each person tends to have a different experience and upbringing as per the variety we have in the human experience. anyway, many are brought up from the womb to believe in christianity. not given a choice, forced to believe very negative things will happen if they don't follow christianity, they are highly pressured to believe from the people that are to be most trusted, and they tend to be isolated from other beliefs until it's introduced in a situation in which the parents have no control.

2.) What the history is of what we believe in & why it is negative.

see history of the hebrew faith

then

a bunch of hebrews found the mithran cult's teachings positive and decided to propogate it with a jewish messiah figure in place of mithra. they then engineered the story so that it would fit with prophecies... however, those that ended up writing the story weren't jews and worked from a greek translation of the prophecies (which accounts for flaws such as the hebrew to greek mistranslation that led to mary being called a "virgin" instead of simply a "young woman")

it's negative because it propogates irrational beliefs, in-group mentalities, and morals that are far outdated which cannot be logically backed.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul

Originally posted by saint4God
Please explain:
1.) How Christians are brainwashed.

anyway, many are brought up from the womb to believe in christianity. not given a choice, forced to believe very negative things will happen if they don't follow christianity, they are highly pressured to believe from the people that are to be most trusted, and they tend to be isolated from other beliefs until it's introduced in a situation in which the parents have no control.

I'd like to add, saint4God:

for example if you were born in the middle east you'd believe in Allah instead of Yahweh, etc. It just depends on where you were born...

Originally posted by saint4God


Please explain:
1.) How Christians are brainwashed.
2.) What the history is of what we believe in & why it is negative.

Well the points have been answered by the poster before me, but, I'll 2nd what they wrote.
Personally speaking, I was taken to church every day before I could even speak - the mass was in Latin anyway, as I learned as I grew older, but the sermon wasn't. By brainwashed, I mean just that...my brain and mind was filled with Christian teaching as much as my parental teaching and all other teaching - I was taught that the Church and Christianity were right up there with law and parental teaching. Not to be questioned. Even though I had questions, I wasn't allowed to express any of my own thoughts, or question what I was being told or disagree.

Mine:

It tends to be the language they choose and their attitude that disturbs me, and the quotes given to substantiate a point, which are usually irrelevant unless you are one of them!

Yours

I agree there are many Christians who do have an air of arrogance and they should certainly know better. I also agree that many Biblical quotes can be useless to an non-believer. Many times people forget "where they came from" or what it was like before they knew God. Two points of good feedback here I think.

Another point you should bear in mind - people can know God without being Christian; as a non-Christian (I'm a pantheist) I can accept that you know God, but we just recognise it and acknowledge it differently. The laws are the same, the love is the same, just the 'presentation' is different, and there's no need to quote anyone else's 'wise words' as wisdom is wisdom no matter who says the wise words.

All the best, and thanks for being non-confrontational; there's enough conflict in the world and all we're trying to do is understand each other really

Nebankh

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
well, i can't speak for all of them... that would be impossible as each person tends to have a different experience and upbringing as per the variety we have in the human experience. anyway, many are brought up from the womb to believe in christianity. not given a choice, forced to believe very negative things will happen if they don't follow christianity, they are highly pressured to believe from the people that are to be most trusted, and they tend to be isolated from other beliefs until it's introduced in a situation in which the parents have no control.

So if I were to say this was not the case for me, how then would you explain my belief? At the time of my change, I was actually open to any/every thing that existed beyond the human realm. It was quite a surprise to me that anything stepped up at all.

It's very interesting because according to Shaunybaby, Christians are brainwashed by their parents from birth, whereas here you're stating the opposite. One cannot help but wonder which it is...if it's either at all.

see history of the hebrew faith

then

a bunch of hebrews found the mithran cult's teachings positive and decided to propogate it with a jewish messiah figure in place of mithra.

Please validate this claim.

they then engineered the story so that it would fit with prophecies...

What were the previous prophesies?
How were they engineered?
What do they read now?
How does a non-"brainwashed" prophey turn into a "brainwashing" one?

however, those that ended up writing the story weren't jews and worked from a greek translation of the prophecies (which accounts for flaws such as the hebrew to greek mistranslation that led to mary being called a "virgin" instead of simply a "young woman")

It matters not how its translated as it is explained that the Holy Spirit was the source of the conception, not Joseph. Joe was going to sent her on her way because he knew the child was not his. It took an angel to stop him from doing so. Finally, there were over a hundred scholars who translated the original text to the modern day one as "virgin" in the eight year project known as the New International Version. If one cannot trust that, they can learn the original language themselves. I doubt they'll find little difference (if any) in word usage. There's more (of course), but bickerings of translation hardly matter when the whole story is explained in great detail.

it's negative because it propogates irrational beliefs, in-group mentalities, and morals that are far outdated

Such as?

which cannot be logically backed.

Mankind does not make decisions because of logic. Logic is the excuse utilized to support their decisions and convince others why it should be so.


[edit on 3-6-2007 by saint4God]

As something as simple as generalization, stereotyping, or racism, people will tend to lump all groups of people into one, by using one example, experience, or person.

Someone who has an bad experience with a Christian will tend to generalize all Christians as having the same demeanor as the Christian.

Same goes with other faiths, races, cultures, languages, and even food. People will generalize when there isn't enough evidence to state the opposite. Until a person can have some kind of experience that disproves the negative stereotype they've believed about a group, then they will continue to believe it without question.

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
You must not be a Christian if you ask that question.

Our Savior told us that we would be hated, just as He was hated. Notice the lies and the twisting of facts, while the ignoring of the real threats. And, notice that they attack only Christianity and all the while claim to only be going for the "truth".

Ack.. Sounds like a Fred Phelps comment there

Look, its tiresome of people thumping their bibles at me, telling me Im going to burn in hell, or Im a Fag, and the end is near, and when I die, Im going to burn in hell.. When you have the top masters of the craft rolling in GODS money.. which is Gold oil and Drugs... Your not fooling this soul into your system of rules and mindset.. have a good day!


Edit: Poor choice in the topic OP... I dont hate anyone.. Nor do I hate christians.. Very Crass and igorant if you think people HATE you...
People like me, only wish to live my life free of pain, murder, lies, and dark things.. Hmmm why does evil surround most religions? Why so many wars, and deaths? all for what? Casue you dont belive my god?
I dont have a god, so now I dont fight about it... But yet you claim we hate you... Well think agin.. mostly its just pity now..

[edit on 3-6-2007 by zysin5]

Why do people (on this board) hate Christians?

A generic answer . . .

while most of us Christians sooner or later can do some pretty dorky things--being human and all . . .

mostly folks hate Christians for the same reason they hated/hate Christ.

They have chosen to do their own thing . . . essentially to enjoy some variation on rebellion against God and the pleasure of the moment vs lasting, deep, broad joy and eternal life . . .

And they know inherently that any earnest, authentic Christian is an affront to, a testimony against that rebellion against God and the choice of pleasure as their God of choice, for example.

Christ warned us this would be the case.

[QUOTE]
. . . to find that peace . . . once felt . . .
[/QUOTE]

Certainly know that feeling.

And have found many pseudo Christians and even plenty well-meaning ones to be some of the most troublesome if not deadliest of creatures.

But we are all flawed humans and I have not always been sweetness and light though have usually tried to be.

In my experience, devoting the time to "get alone with God" regularly eventually brings fruit along the lines of a return to such peace.

But there are times when He requires us to walk by faith without that sense of peace or any other evidence of His presence.

Thankfully, there can also be times and a learning to walk with some sense of His Presence most of the time. But I think He disciplines us and requires that we . . . make Him a super priority before He graces us with such a sense of His Presence with any reliably regular great intensity.

Besides, this is BOOT CAMP . . . not a party.

We are being trained to rule and reign with Christ based on an economy of Love, faith . . .

Lots of nitty gritties in such a training program . . .

But SEEKING GOD FIRST AND FOREMOST persistently, relentlessly, does bring results . . . in HIS time.

I must admit that my favorite group of Christians belong to the Westboro Bapitst Church.

this world belongs to Satan : 1st John 5 v 19 , John 14 v 30

this current "system of things" is of Satans creating & is under his influence

this is soon going to end , but the one thing Satan doesnt want is knowledge of Jehovah being spread

Originally posted by Brad_cf
this world belongs to Satan : 1st John 5 v 19 , John 14 v 30

this current "system of things" is of Satans creating & is under his influence

why do people hate christians? well, just read above....

cop out "the devil controls the world"

this is soon going to end , but the one thing Satan doesnt want is knowledge of Jehovah being spread

why would anyone care about the propegation of knowledge of the ancient henotheistic mountain god jehovah?

well, i think any peace loving person wouldn't want ANY relgion to be spread, it's quite apparent that religion is the enemy of peace.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul

well, i think any peace loving person wouldn't want ANY relgion to be spread, it's quite apparent that religion is the enemy of peace.

It's good to finally agree with you on something. Religion is an enemy of peace. Good thing that the Messiah has been sent to bring peace to the earth.............you'll find out about that soon enough.

Originally posted by Sun Matrix
It's good to finally agree with you on something. Religion is an enemy of peace. Good thing that the Messiah has been sent to bring peace to the earth.............you'll find out about that soon enough.

sun, let me spell this out for you: Y O U F O L L O W A R E L I G I O N
just because you refuse to label your religion as such, doesn't mean you're not following one. your "messiah" figure is simply the creation of a religion.

the bible gives no allowence for violence - if people take up any action against another because of orders or politicians , they sin against their maker

if a group of people are truely living according to what God says , they will not fight one another

this is evident in the jehovahs witnesses religon , it isnt true for all other christian religons . some even tell their members whats going on in the world today is a good thing to support , as if!

people hate christians because they do not understand them.

people fear what they do not understand, and fear becomes anger and frustration.

this we all know, and in all things.

you see, there are plenty of vocal, fundamentalist, evangelical christians to stand up on television shows and radio shows and spout ther crazy ideas and the urge to meet armageddon head on. they get involved directly in politics, using christianity as a political force, mixing the two. making religious concerns political ones.. which augment the outcome of political races. this is why Bush was elected both times.

I myself had a skewed view of christianity, thinking all christians were trinitarians, or catholics or evangelicals, i never knew there was a sizable group of christians that did not fall into these petty denominations. these christians followed the bible and the teachings of Yeshua Meshiach in a way differently from the Churchs ive mentioned. Mainly, they'd follow his exact teachings, and not all of this man-made, man-added crap people have thrown in, like rituals, unneccessary statements .. weird stupid rules on clothing and what you can and cannot do, despite it not being evil anyways?

There is a sizable group of christians who follow the teachings as-is, and don't twist it with politics, and dont try to convert everyone, and dont act like crazys, and dont wish war upon the world, and dont want to see the world end.

I consider myself a part of such group of Christians.

Praise be to GOD, through the grace of Yeshua, and his will enacted becomes the Holy Spirit..

i beleive that people dont "hate" them persay, its just they get very annoyed by the majority of them

meaning, in christianity it says in the bible that god is not a condeming one....yet all people talk about is goin to hell, if you dont do this, you go to hell, it kind of contradicts in and of its self, and also i think one of the reasons is because majority of christians only think that there is one god and think that everyone else is going to "hell", which just justifys that persons narrow-minded behavior

also most christians tend to shove their religion in people faces which i think is wrong

but i also believe that tellin people that their religion is wrong also, so im not saying that christaians bleifs are wrong im just saying for them to let people be people and not just think that their religion is the #, because most of them are just ignorent to anything else