Pope calls Christians the most persecuted

reply to post by SaturnFX


Just because it happened in the past doesn't mean its not persecution. Also there still are people out there who blame the Jews for all the worlds problems.


As for cut off date there isn't one. We should learn from our mistakes in the past and learn to love. Something we are all failing at. My main argument is that the pope has no right to say that they are the most persecuted. Is it globally? some specific area? What time frame?

Of all time no they aren't, right now they could be, I'm going to say the homosexuals are a more likely group of people who are persecuted.

reply to post by jjkenobi


China and Russia are not exclusively against Christianity, but against religion as a whole.
Japan is increasingly secular...and Indiana? You're making little sense there...

Originally posted by Xiamara

Of all time no they aren't, right now they could be, I'm going to say the homosexuals are a more likely group of people who are persecuted.

Bam...you just successfully countered. good job.

and your right...they are.

granted, they aren't a religious group, but it doesn't take religion to classify what persecution is.

as far as the people whom blame them durn jooz for everything...well...simply put, they are idiots.

oh the harshness of the world, when you cant even bum a child without someone complaining about it, the world is so unfair.

Atheists are probably the most persecuted since every religion decided they're the enemy

Originally posted by SLAYER69
Let's be fair here and reveal everyone's dirty laundry
Muslim genocide of hindus in India (a must read)

This is very true and your link only speaks of maybe 1% of the genocide in India
Actually, I personally come from a long line of grandfathers and great grandfathers who were part of the resistance.

All of my bloodline comes from Punjab and it was in Punjab where most of the resistance came from.

Some may disagree with me but Sikhism was created to defend hindus from the Islamic empire.

WHAT AN IGNORANT POPE and HOW ignorant and crazy must followers of the Vatican be?!

MOST PERSECUTED? Excuse me while I laugh my nuts off...this guy used to be part of the Hitler-Jugend and is now part of the religion that has MOST deaths assigned to it. One poster earlier said thousands...try hundreds of millions murdered in the name of "Catholicism".


Beyond this, it is becoming more and more clear that this is a political game being played by this disgusting excuse for a pope.

You forcefully invade a nation and you promise well being to those who convert to Christianity, just so you can use their deaths as political leverage when their lives are taken because they are seen as siding with the enemy.

RIDICULOUS.

Burn down the Vatican! LIARS!

Originally posted by Valdestine
Atheists are probably the most persecuted since every religion decided they're the enemy

No i'd say it's the opposite
Atheists are not ridiculed, religious people are

What I find particularly special about the human race is that we (including me) go: "Oh, the Christians are being persecuted"; "Oh, the homosexuals are being persecuted"; "Oh, the blacks are being persecuted".

Wouldn't it be more constructive to say that "People are being persecuted for holding Christian beliefs" or "People are being persecuted for entering into same-sex relationships" or "People are being persecuted for being black"?

Because as much as the label may matter to the persecutors, I feel that we can't really get around the label-discrimination unless we make it clear that the distinguishing labels are secondary to the unifying fact that... we're all people. Of course, you might say that the revised versions don't mean the same thing as the originals, but if christians, homosexuals and blacks are just being persecuted randomly, why even bring up the label?




(Yes, I know that this is a hippy post. But I have to fulfill my annual quota of hippy posts, otherwise... I will not have fulfilled my annual quota of hippy posts.)

reply to post by SLAYER69
Hey Slayer! it's been awhile since we've been on the same thread.

www.mcclatchydc.com...
BAGHDAD — The Bush administration introduced Ahmad Chalabi, the former U.S. ally and perennially controversial Iraqi politician, as a secular, pro-Western Mr. Fix-It who could slide right into Saddam Hussein's old seat.

Instead, he embarrassed the Bush White House with bogus pre-war intelligence, aligned himself with Shiite Muslim extremists and got uncomfortably friendly with Iran.

Now, he's No. 3 on an electoral ticket alongside Iraq's biggest Shiite Muslim factions and his name is cropping up

How did Chalabi get from ex-pat in England status and back to Iraq? The invasion.

A little known fact in the West is that Southern Iraq is the birthplace and home of Shia Islam, not Iran, as some pretend it is. Iraq and Iran are neighbors, unlike Iraq and US. Some small amount of security should be provided for Iranians making pilgrimage to Karbala. Strict Wahabi as applied by Al Qaeda and Saudi royal family consider pilgrimage to anywhere other than Mecca as idolatry, hence many pilgrims get killed annually. This should be considered a very serious persecution against people who are practicing their religion.


Also, I believe Al Qaeda and Saudi royals could learn a lesson from Jesus and the early Christians: persecution brings the minority closer to God, the persecutors much less.

Originally posted by ModernAcademia

Pope calls Christians the most persecuted

www.washingtonpost.com

Pope Benedict XVI says Christians are the religious group that suffers most from persecution.

He expresses his worry in the Vatican's annual World Peace Day message for the new year. He laments that this year was again marked by "terrible acts of violence and religious intolerance."

Benedict said he is especially thinking of Christians in Iraq, where an attack on a Catholic cathedral in Baghdad in October killed two priests and more than 50 other faithful.

Benedict also decries what he calls "sophisticated forms of hostility to religion," including rejection of religious symbol

(visit the link for the full news article)

Brother is that a load of horse-puckey.

So-called Christians throughout the ages have caused more wars and suffering than any other religion. Inquisition anyone? Witch burnings? Crusades? Holocaust?

Intolerance wasn't invented by muslims, it wasn't invented by christians either - but they mastered it.

What a joke.. Christianity by far has repressed and persecuted far more people than any other religion in the world.. Think the pope been drinking bit too much of the sacramental wine lost touch with reality...

reply to post by ModernAcademia


I think it is obvious that it is Atheists & Agnostics. This is because they are outnumbered & organised religions are everywhere & flaunted in their faces with in many cases not entitled to reply

reply to post by phatpackage

I think it is obvious that it is Atheists & Agnostics. This is because they are outnumbered & organised religions are everywhere & flaunted in their faces with in many cases not entitled to reply

Whether Atheists and Agnostics are presently most persecuted, which I doubt, Ratzinger (the pope's name while Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy Office, the historical Inquisition), leaves them out of consideration with regards to religious freedom.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, THE PATH TO PEACE
Section 3
A freedom which is hostile or indifferent to God becomes self-negating and does not guarantee full respect for others. A will which believes itself radically incapable of seeking truth and goodness has no objective reasons or motives for acting save those imposed by its fleeting and contingent interests; it does not have an “identity” to safeguard and build up through truly free and conscious decisions. As a result, it cannot demand respect from other “wills”, which are themselves detached from their own deepest being and thus capable of imposing other “reasons” or, for that matter, no “reason” at all. The illusion that moral relativism provides the key for peaceful coexistence is actually the origin of divisions and the denial of the dignity of human beings. Hence we can see the need for recognition of a twofold dimension within the unity of the human person: a religious dimension and a social dimension. In this regard, “it is inconceivable that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights”.

So the Pope believes Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, have no identity to safeguard, and cannot demand respect, in fact, are the origin of divisions. Non persons, is what he's calling them. I disagree with his concept of twofold dimension. He says religious and social. I say moral and social.

There are other groups he attempts to de-humanize and disenfranchise. The spiritual minded people with no affiliation to any of "the world’s great religions". He uses the term 'Patrimony' 5 times in the speech, which means 'passed down from the fathers'. Lost and rediscovered religions are therefore left out of consideration. Fanatics are left out, no concrete definition. Maybe any deeply held non-conformist view could be considered fanatical.

He pooh poohs syncretism(the mixing of concepts from one tradition with another). I actually can't think of a single friend of mine who doesn't have a syncretistic world view, every one else seems rather 2 dimensional to me.

He's all in favor of religious freedom to step into the legislative halls of the world, as long as it's a hierarchical patriarchal "great" religion. Everyone else doesn't quite have an "identity". So if the world worked according to his world-view Atheists, Agnostics, and non-labeled people really would be most persecuted, but hey, we're not really quite human so we can't really complain.

if you put on a yankee uniform, cap and baseball glove, that doesn't make u a member of the new york yankees.

the true followers of Christ, that can truly be called Christians are people like mother teresa, padre pio and countless others that sacrificed their lives to God instead of taking lives.

to call murderers and politicians who use Christianity as a convenience to further agendas for power and profit Christians is a lie.

To say that Christianity and Christians killed millions throughtout the history of the world is a lie, since Jesus cured the sick, comforted the poor and stood up for those seeking justice. People who follow Jesus's examples and commandments are true Christians, everyone else is a fraud, hopelessly lost or corrupt.

reply to post by Xiamara


You do realize that it wasn't today's Christians who did that, but their ancestors? The people who are being killed for their beliefs in non-Western countries today have, for the most part, done nothing even close to committing such atrocities. It's quite disturbing to see someone rejoicing the deaths of others because of atrocities committed by people who've been dust for centuries.

Originally posted by gnosticquasar
reply to post by Xiamara

 

You do realize that it wasn't today's Christians who did that, but their ancestors? The people who are being killed for their beliefs in non-Western countries today have, for the most part, done nothing even close to committing such atrocities. It's quite disturbing to see someone rejoicing the deaths of others because of atrocities committed by people who've been dust for centuries.

Take a look at NI, Iraq, Afghanistan for a few modern examples .. Even parts of america today..

reply to post by gnosticquasar


You are absolutely right, today's Christians do things like this:

Scott Roeder: The Tiller Murder Suspect

Westboro Baptist Church



Pat Robertson says Haiti paying for 'pact to the devil'

These are the followers of Christ today.

What is Kilmeade's favorite quote? "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim." Let's just say, that not all Christians are doctor killing, funeral protesting, bigots, but all doctor killing, funeral protesting, bigots are Christian.

i just want to know when it will be okay to wear an invisibility cloak, so men can't see my devilish femininity. then there will have to be laws against religious people wearing invisibility cloaks. but if ya think about it, that's about the gist of it. they don't want to see or hear you if you're female, thus the head to toe bag of cloth. once the ladies can wear invisibility cloaks, the gig is up! poof.

"where'd all the ladies go?"

"you said you didn't want to see them, and now ya can't!"

it would totally suck if they made it a law that you had to wear an invisibility cloak if you're a female. now that's scifi. i reserve copyright on that idea! you heard it here first.

the most persecuted adult on the planet is the female.
the most persecuted age group, is the fetus.
the most persecuted religion on the planet is anything with the word "abraham" attached.

reply to post by undo

i just want to know when it will be okay to wear an invisibility cloak, so men can't see my devilish femininity. then there will have to be laws against religious people wearing invisibility cloaks. but if ya think about it, that's about the gist of it. they don't want to see or hear you if you're female, thus the head to toe bag of cloth. once the ladies can wear invisibility cloaks, the gig is up! poof.

Don't tease me with fantasies like this.

does it have a mute function as well?