Why do christians always get the bad rap?

Question

This is just for the sake of knowing. I am a "baby" Christian, who rescently came back to her faith. While I have always been raised in cultural christianity, it wasn't until I made a point to study the books of the bible with fellow christians, that I learned that Christianity is not about religion, or the traditions of man. Infact Jesus did not approve of excluding and reducing others to "traditions" and hating them for no other reason than they are different. I just wondered what other people's opinions on this were.

Answer 1

Christians get a bad rap because a lot of them are hypocrites that say one thing and do another behind closed doors.

Also, many of them believe the myth that this country was 'founded on christian values', and try to impose their own morality onto the rest of the country.

Answer 2

I'm going to try and ignore the obvious troll-ness of your question for the sake of explanation.

As a former Christian (now quite the opposite) it seems to me that the reason a majority of Christians get a so-called 'bad rap' is because they have a tendency to push off their religion on everyone else. This is not to say that other religions don't have those who do the same thing, but the fact remains that a majority of it comes from Christians. For example, I've had more people coming to my door trying to convert me to Christianity than those coming to my door to convert me to Islam. And I've seen more 'why does everyone pick on Christians' questions on Yahoo answers than I have seen 'why does everyone pick on Pagans'.

Don't believe me? Read your question again. You don't explain how exactly Christians have a hard time, you just jump into an explanation of what your belief is. It doesn't matter that Jesus did not approve of exclusion, the fact is that the Christian church generally does, be it with persons of alternate religions, sexual orientations, etc. But I digress.

Plainly and simply put, Christians will preach where practicioners of other religions will not.

Answer 3

The reason Christians get a bad rap is people are tired of them forcing their beliefs on everyone. No means no. If I tell you I am an atheist do not try and convert me. Leave me the hell alone. I do not care what Jesus said to so and so and I don't give a rats a** about the rapture, Noah or any other fairy tale you care to part with.
The only thing worse than a christian is a born again christian.

Answer 4

Christians always get a bad rap because of the cultural Christianity. True Christians are trying to live their lives with the way Jesus did. Some Christians just go to church and forget about it on everyday except Sunday. Going to church on Sunday is a "tradition" to them. Jesus teaches us to love everyone but sadly only a few Christians really do. Most go in to their clicks and forget everyone else. The true thing is the fact that we need to stay strong in our faith no matter who, Christians or not, tries to put us down, and its not easy trust me, but it has to be done.

Answer 5

Christiantiy gets a bad rap because it is one of the first Western religions to evangelize other cultures actively. Paul of Tarsus, started the tradition of going to people of other religions, converting enough to have a power base, and thence using forceful persuasion to convert holdouts (like putting prayer in schools, or the Ten Commandments in a courthouse, for instance.) In other words--In the U.S. Christians intrude on other people's business more than any other spiritual people around.

Of course, there's the spiritually extorting implicit concept of every Christian minister I've met, "If you don't believe this stuff, you're going to Hell forever." Hare Krishnas may be annoying, but at least they do not threaten us with eternal torment.

Christianity is based on traditions, even though said traditions are not depicted as such. First, in order to be a Christian, in most denominations, it is necessary to believe in the divinity of Jesus--which he never claimed, and it is necessary to accept, as truth, visions which would drive people in this day and age to seek psychiatric help. Accepting a legend as divine fact is at least as much of a tradition as lighting a menorah once a year, or facing Mecca when you pray.

Christianity, which is basic Jewish history and law married with Greek gnosticism, teaches us that our very bodies and lives are terrible burdens that we need a supernatural being to help overcome. On the other hand, Jewish tradition, for instance, dictates that God wants us to enjoy our earthly lives and live in peace with our fellows, and the Law was a gift which enabled men and women to do so.

In a nutshell, Jesus himself was a Jew (as was St. Peter), while St. Paul, St. Augustine, the Spanish Inquisition, King Henry VIII, the Borgia family, King James, and Pat Robertson were/are Christians.

Answer 6

Christianity is a religion that breeds arrogant people with mini-messiah complexes who have to go around trying to convert people. It also breeds people who are very intolerant of other beliefs.

I know that not all Christians are this way. But the fact is that there have always been a large portion of Christians who are this way, and they are often the ones who wield the power within Christian communities.

Islam probably has some of this too, but in the U.S., where most of us are from in this forum, Islam is insignificant compared to Christianity.

Answer 7

People hate on Christians because of the atrocities that a few members of this faith commit. I respect Christianity and all other religions based on morality and human betterment. But as human beings, we judge others based on a miniscule sect in the larger order of things; we perceive the group in its entirety based on the actions of a few. This is true for everything in our society.

Answer 8

why we are looked down upon is b/c we dont live for ourselves - we try to do our best by putting others first and this is not the way of the world - the world says look out for #1 and forget everyone else but Christ tells us to lower ourselves to lift others up
non-believers have trouble accepting this and dont want to have any part of it so they do their best to knock us down when they can
stay strong in your new found faith b/c Jesus tells us we will hit hard times and challenges will come, its not an if its a when, so be prepared to follow Jesus and what He tells us before the hard time comes so you will do the right thing

Answer 9

Dear Dia,

The Lord tells us in John 15:18, 19, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

These verses tells us that the true believers (elect) are citizens of heaven. They are no longer members of the kingdom of satan and under his authority. God also tells us that the true believers (elect) are just a remnant of the whole population.

Answer 10

Christians per se don't always get a bad rap. It's those who try to shove their dogmatic beliefs down the throats of others...or those who mistake right-wing conservative fundamentalism for Christianity.