What offends you most about those who profess to be Christian?

Question

i am currently doing a project for my youth ministry and am interested in what others have to say about the topic at hand. your opinion will help me to narrow my thesis and thus get a better idea of the general discomfort or problem people have when encountered by a person of the christian faith (whether it be something they say, the way they act, etc)

if you have anything positive to say, that would also help me.

thank you, and god bless

Answer 1

If you truly want to know why good loving people sometimes get angry with Christians you actually need to listen to what they are saying. You need to try to understand how what you are doing is making them feel.

It hurts your feelings when someone pokes fun or makes disparaging comments about what you believe in. You know it does. People’s beliefs are precious to them, just as yours are precious to you. Simply thinking or saying but my beliefs are right and theirs are wrong does not help. In fact it is always seen as arrogant and often comes off making the one saying it sound like a fool.

People believe in what makes sense to them from their perspective, even if it makes no sense logically when it is looked at from any other perspective. Look around you at the great diversity the creator has given us to experience in this life. See the colorful and ever changing panorama that we have here to experience within. If this shows us any one thing about our creator, it makes it apparent that He/She loves this idea of diversity. If you look at any aspect of life, trees, birds, languages, or even sunsets you see an almost dizzying array of possibilities. This life we have been given by our Father/Mother God is a veritable feast of diversity from which we may chose what pleases us.

Such is the gift this life we have been given. Why is it so hard to imagine that our creator’s obvious love for diversity would not extend to the way his children expressed their love for him? If it seemed appropriate to have thousands of types of insects, birds, trees and sunsets etc. how likely is it that She would have suddenly become so narrow minded when it came to ways to express ones faith. Think about it. Just for a moment forget what you have been told over and over about their being only one correct way to approach God. Would this God who so obviously thrives on diversity even want that? When viewed from this perspective it makes one wonder about the source of the my-way or the highway idea of god. Sounds a lot more like ego bound narrow-minded human control issues than the work of our God who seems to have made diversity his trademark.

There is only one God; He/She has had many names. After all should we expect people who speak different languages to all call God by the same name? This would hardly seem to be a logical expectation. Jesus told us to love our neighbor, not to judge our neighbor or try to fix our neighbor, Only to love them. We are hardly being loving when we are insulting the way they express their love for our creator by telling them we have a better way. This can only make us seen like an arrogant know it all. The obvious consequence being our comments will hurt their feelings and they will say or do something to return the insult.

If we want our faith to grow we need to stop going around singing “MY Gods better than your God “. We need to shut up about their beliefs and start teaching by example. If we have learned anything about loving our neighbors like Jesus asked us to, it will show. People will be drawn to this loving belief system and want to know more about it. This is what being a Christian means. Anything else is just being an arrogant know it all.

Love and blessings
don

Answer 2

In general, nothing really. I was in the church for a very long time, and though I'm no longer part of it, I'm not offended by it or most of the people therein (of course, there are the idiots, but there are idiots everywhere--some just happen to be Christian, and in that case I'm looking at their idiocy and not their religion. Two totally separate things.)

As for discomfort...again, not *usually* a problem. I *am* made uncomfortable when I can tell someone disapproves of me immediately, which usually happens when I'm introduced as a graduate student--for some reason this tends to make some Christians very suspicious of me. Or even smaller things--I hate it when I am thrown into an encounter with Christians while, say, wearing a Nine Inch Nails shirt or something--I feel like my entire worth as a human is pre-judged because of it. (The shirt is a good example--I once had someone within two minutes of meeting me tell me that by wearing it, I was proclaiming a cry for help and a need for salvation.)

I don't know if all Christians quite understand the level of discomfort that those who are fine with them and their beliefs have when feeling judged for not being a Christian.

Answer 3

Wow I shall try to help you and make you understand what it so irrational about the modern christian religion!
it is that they believe Prophet Jesus is God and this is blasphemy and no good and the fact that king James really ruined the bible! You do know he had main issues many problem he had some sort of Phobic and this drove him mad and wow how is it that the Christians feel no need to Follow the he old testament don't understand any of this and how and why is it so permissible for them to make an eastern man which would be dark brown hair dark brown eyes, short in stature and Medium to dark brown skin to a man the white race has made to be blond hair White skinned and and tall and to prove this as fact research on where Jesus fled and you shall know these people were middle eastern and beautiful these is it and also they are the most vicious acting with no conscience at all just the bible to fall on so they claim also how in the world was it proper for what the whites did to the Africans in Africa and the Indians here in the Indian's own home land how is all of the possible huh??!
And why is it that the books in the New Testament all of them are telling the same story about Jesus why wasn't one book about him enough! It don't make since also here is really what is do difficult to comprehend the first is why are so many books missing from the bible and were chosen not to be placed in the Holy book the bible how do one pick and chose if all held the same authenticity and the Revelation you do know there is another Revelation which makes way more since to all whom would come to read it? Why was this crazy myth stuff chosen to be placed in your bible and further more in my opinion the Torah hold way more truth and weight than that book you all chose to worship from the data within!
I mean no offense but i need these questions answered is there anyone whom can answer these for me
And you know I shall say this out of pure truth why is it Paul seems inappropriately in love with Christ? to me he seems to display obsession not worship! did he have a mental problem this is what i get from ole Paul whom used to be Saul ... I don't understand the Christian and also why is a religion placed in a mans name whom has nothing to say at all in the whole book there fore would not be the founder! All which is claimed he did is all here say and not one witness except stories told and retold and ended being told out of context and extremely exaggerated!

Answer 4

That's easy!!

Those who walk out the church doors and don't live it.
Which seems to be quite a few people right now.

As a follower of Jesus we have to look different to the world. More joy, more hope, more peace. We have the answer.

I have traveled to many places and seen people that call themselves Christians and if I were a muslim, jew, or anything else I wouldn't have the slightest interest in becoming a Christian because of the rituals and rules put upon the people. I have also seen many parents who aren't living out their faith at home so why should their children want any part of that?

Answer 5

I don't think that it offends me, but Christians ignorance of their own religion is profound, I'm not talking about the golden rule stuff, I am talking about the majority of the Bible which is filthy and morally reprehensible.

One thing that offends me is the things that most Christians believe to be true about atheists. They believe what their herders and holy books say about us, which is really not their fault. I know that their mind is clouded by fear. But they believe verses like Psalms 14:1 that says we are corrupt and can do no good, which is an obvious lie. Herders often tell them we are immoral and that we just disbelieve for a ticket to sin freely which in most cases is not true. I guess the bottom line is that I am offended that herders don't tell their sheeple that atheists have sound philosophical reasons for not believing and it's not because they are evil people.

It also offends me that Christians can actually have reverence for a god who foreknew that billions of good people, even some who are their friends and loved ones, would go to the sadistic hell he created, but ran the plan anyways.

I don't think I am offended by them. I just pity them because their minds and sense of morality is clouded by fear.

Answer 6

Erin J and Don have written the perfect responses - IMO.
Between the two of them they have covered everything that I find irritating and annoying about christians.

The verses Erin quoted are here.

Mark chapter 6:10-13
"10 He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ 12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13 They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them."

Find a place to stay and stick with it. Don’t look for a better offer. Be completely dependent for food and shelter on the kindness of strangers. Finally, if no one’s listening to what you have to say, don’t hit them over the head with it; don’t rant, don’t rave, don’t saw the saw dust, but shake the dust off your feet; move on and go to the next place. Move on. Move on. Go.

See the link below

Answer 7

First of all, I appreciate that you are actual asking non-Christians rather than allowing groupthink to guide your paper. You get major kudos for sheer openmindedness.

Personally, the only beef I have with Christians is when I feel like they try to force themselves on me. I intensely dislike being "witnessed to" - it is highly uncomfortable to be placed in a social situation where someone is asking you to change your fundamental beliefs to make them happy. Humans are trained, socially, to only ask for reasonable requests from strangers and we are also trained to give in to requests when they come. For a Christian to ask (no matter how well-meaning they are) you to radically alter your lifestyle on their account is patently unreasonable, yet it creates social discomfort in the person being witnessed to because we are taught to feel guilty when we don't do what people ask us to. It's unfair and manipulative - even if the Christian doesn't realize it.

Consider if someone came up to you and earnestly begged you to worship Zeus. The first time, you'd shrug it off and go on with life. Now consider if this happened multiple times a day. You'd start to feel trapped. You'd start to feel guilty that you were so stubborn to turn down so many nice people, but at the same time you just can't worship Zeus. You'd want to hide from these people, or maybe lie to them so that they would leave you alone. That's how many Wiccans feel in the U.S.A.

That's also assuming that the people are at least polite, albeit persistant. Add into the mix that some of the Zeus worshippers say hateful things to you and accuse you of worshipping the devil and of going to hell, and you'll get an even better picture of why people have trouble with Christianity. I'm not saying you all do that, but it happens enough times to give a really bad name to the whole religion.

I hope that helps. In passing, Jesus told his disciples that if they couldn't convert someone, they should shake the dust from their sandals, leave that house, and never return. Basically, let the heathens be heathens and stop trying to convert them. The whole idea is that they're going to hell and it's not your responsibility anymore, and frankly, I love that verse. I hope it gains popularity soon, because I'm tired of people insisting that they're "just trying to save [my] soul".

Brightest blessings.

Answer 8

the ignorance offends my sensibilities as a human . I've yet to hear of an honest christian or other monotheist believers as well.
no wonder the world is so backwards we still hold on to our most primative superstitions like they matter for good ! It is truly fortunate some suspend it long enough to work in medicine and other scientific fields .

Answer 9

Well... YOU saying god bless. That's offensive to me because I don't believe in a god and I don't believe in blessings.

The #1 pet peeve I have about theists (particularly Christians) are the ones who believe in misconceptions about atheism and Evolution. They're so ignorant and they are hard to have listen to logic.

I could list several others, but that's my biggest one. A lot of the others are caused by those misconceptions.

For example, the misconception that atheists are immoral, evil people who worship the devil. Thus, a lot of times people are rude to atheists and threaten them with Hell.

Answer 10

I am surprised at how shallow they are. They are poor at apologetics; they are an inch deep and 4 miles wide in their faith; they can't agree on much of anything. In answering questions on Y.A. they don't bother to read other opinions, and they don't support those who give Scriptural evidence. It's hard to tell them from non-Christian.

Answer 11

The greatest joy about being a Christian is knowing that God has forgiven our sins.
Without Jesus Christ we would not know what God's love was really like and we definately would be in hot, hot water.

I love the fellowship we have with other Christians who have experienced the love of Jesus Christ in their hearts. There is nothing that matches being in worship and fellowship with other people whose heart know the forgiveness and mercy God has extended to us.

The greatest disappointment of being in the Christian faith is seeing people who take God's love for granted. (have had to kick myself on occasion too....) We act as if we can do whatever we want and say whatever we want. We assume the Love of God will just cover us and it really doesn't matter what other people think about us. When we accept Jesus into our lives we are supposed to be filled with His love and graciousness and that love should be reflected to others in this world.

And boy do we see alot of that NOT going on here in Yahoo Answers.

Hope that helps some

Jesus Loves You
blesings on you as you put together your project