If there is a significant amount of negativity directed toward your religion...?

Question

...what do you think that tells you about your religion? Is there any shred of validity in the negative attention that your religion receives? Are the factors that elicit negative attention a significant part of your religion? Does it matter that those elements are obviously significant to others?

Please be honest and analytical. Thanks.

Answer 1

Hey Vel',
By "religion" I assume you mean either denomination, religious tradition and community, or world religion.
I think of myself as an Anglican Christian, but most people would say that I am an American Episcopalian, and not a member of the Anglican Tradition and Community, nor even a Christian.

The negativity is based upon three mutually opposing factors, I believe:

The first is our well publicized drive to be "trendier than thou" about issues of gender, social arrangements, moral and religious relativism, and popular culture.
Partnered homosexual bishops and resigned governors attending seminary, U-2 music worship, pro-Islamic statements, elephants and tight rope walkers in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine --we have everything but Paris Hilton to offend Traditionalists

The second factor is the perception that the Episcopal Church has only the rich and cliqueish, and rich-cliqueish-wannabe's. There are such people and such congregations, but hey are few and far between: however, no outsider likes to feel that anyone is looking down upon them as an "outsider", so Episcopalians are often considered stuffy snobs who deserve to be embarrassed. Some may feel that our internal struggles and conflict are poetic justice.

And the third factor is correct perception that classic beauty of language, decor, architecture, music, and formal behavior is an important element of our offering of worship to God.
Evangelicals, fundamentalists, pentecostals, charismatics, all see this as both defecting from "The Bible Alone" and "down to earth lack of pretense" as well as assuming that we are directing our common life to impress other people rather than towards God. These may feel that our theological conflicts with ourselves are God's wrath come upon the unfaithful.

We are seen as being a well-deserved laughing stock- The Beverly Hillbillies neighbor, Mrs. Drysdale.

Yet many depend upon their life as Episcopalians to make it through desperate situations of life and death, to relate to God, to be faithful to their vows and commitments, to endure the persecution of ridicule, to share in the humiliation that attended Christ's crucifixion and to trust that it will all turn out to have been profitable for us and others.

Answer 2

To be completely truthful, there is a HUGE amount of negativity directed toward the religion that I affiliate with. This criticism (I think it's a more accurate word than negativity) comes from several fronts, both for religious, social, and logical/scholarly reasons. While religious differences are a part of life, and social standards change with time and place, logic remains logic and can't be set aside.

Therefore, I investigated the nature of these criticisms, and tried to analyze them with an objective frame of mind. At first, this was very difficult, because I tended to lean towards the apologetic response most of the time, offering my religion "the benefit of the doubt" in cases where fault couldn't be proven, even if fault was much more likely than not. Over time, I started catching myself offering justifications for my religion and began to pretend that my religion were just like any other religion, judging its history and tenets as I would those of any other religion. This is when it became clear, and the worst case of cognitive dissonance that I ever had in my life suddenly vanished, leaving my mind and heart clear.

For these reasons, I have stopped believing in the religion I affiliate with. My beliefs are now nondenominational and pretty liberal in nature. Even though I still attend this religion's weekly services, the life I lead lends credence to the idea that all meaning for life doesn't just suddenly end when you find out that your religion is false. You don't have to keep offering up excuses. Even when you find out it's false, you don't necessarily have to leave it right away, or even ever. And even staying in it, you don't have to be unhappy.

Dissent is a beautiful thing, and has brought forth every positive revolution in the world, both political and religious. After all, diversity is truly what makes the world go 'round.

Answer 3

Good question.

I don't really have a religion, but some people seem to consider atheism and belief in evolution to both be religions, so I'll answer the questions as if evolution were my religion.

There is a significant amount of negativity directed towards evolution, and that tells me that it challenges certain dogmatically held beliefs.

There is some validity in the negative attention that evolution receives. It is possible to twist evolutionary beliefs into "social Darwinism" in the same way that it is possible to twist any set of religious beliefs. It also is true that there are some problems with evolutionary theory.

I don't think the factors that elicit negative attention are significant, nor do I think it matters if those elements are significant to others.

Answer 4

A Christian here.

Yes, there is validity in the negativity. Yes, in the most common way to understand and practice Christianity those factors are central. Yes, it matters very much to me that these elements are significant to others.

I see this not as a problem internal to Christianity but a problem of philosophy and the underlying psychology. Fundamentalism takes modernism or pre-critical naivity to an extreme - there is one truth, conveniently we have it, and we'll harm you for disagreeing. The postmodern world in which my neighbors are diverse and tribal identities are lost to multiculturalism and integration (for the better, of course!) is no longer a place that can tolerate such a viewpoint. Some of us see too much universal humanity and spirituality, too much truth in other ways and creeds to go on believing we have the market cornered on truth or to believe everyone must be made to think like we do. And all the people willing to love their neighbors embrace that central truth as the universal moral maxim.

And in such a world, the one who violates the moral sphere of loving your neighbor as you would be loved and commits a violent act is responsible for bringing hate into the picture. Whether by non-resistance or by forceful opposition, we post-moderns will have to recast this problem in terms of worldview instead of a tribal religion like Christianity and begin to use the old social mechanisms like shaming and gossip to make the world unsafe for fundamentalist aggression.

As far as I can tell, that IS what Jesus wants from me.

Answer 5

Negative attention will be directed at all belief systems or religions, to some degree. Traditional religions, with their know it all, I don't need to improve attitude, can get quite a bit of negative energy, especially if they condemn their competition to a horrible place. A good religion would feed off of the negative energy, tranform it to good positive energy, and use it to tranform itself for the better. Religions should be open to the best and newest in spiritual ideas, and training techniques, from all possible sources.

Answer 6

I suppose for the Christians you may refer to the Crusades etc.....and what that proves is that my religion (Christianity) has acted in an abominable manner not according to Jesus's teaching during the medieval era....and presently there are HORRID fakes "preaching" God's word like Benny Hinn etc.......In those cases there is more than a "shred of validity" in the negative attention and I'll be the first to admonish it. Don't think that all Christians are blinded to history or fall for obvious false preachers. Does it matter that those elements are significant to others? If those matters are significant than also let Mother Teresa's life and Christian charity organizational efforts etc..also lay and overpower the significance you feel is represented.

Answer 7

That tells me that some people are just messed up. Yes, there are some stupid people out there that claim to be Pagan and do bad things, but they arent following the ideals of Paganism thus making them not real Pagans. Also there are people who dont even take the time to look beyond the hype that Pagans worship the Devil, thus making us evil. Our religions were created before the idea of the Christian Devil, so we definitely dont worship it. Now yes, some people worship "The Horned One", but he is not evil and is not the Devil. Yes, we wear pentacles or pentagrams, but they are a sign of protection (atleast point up, as we wear them. Ill leave it to the Satanist to explain point down pentagrams).
I think all of the negativity is just from people not taking the time to understand what Paganism is about, as is with all religious misunderstanding. I've taken the time to read and learn about many other religions, so I feel it is only courteous for you to do the same. You dont have to like it, you dont have to believe it, just see that I dont eat babies and such.

Answer 8

Not really. Or at least, not any more. And when there was negativity towards neo-paganism, it was primarily because people didn't understand it.

As for the truth in the negativity, well, today it's that we're "just trying to get attention." Which may be true for a few people in the Pagan religions, but not many.

But then, I don't take "Tree hugging dirt worshipper" or "wannabe hippie" as negativity. :-D

Answer 9

My religion (Theravada Buddhism) only receives negative attention from religious extremists, and this is usually caused by misinformation or deliberate ignorance... everyone else seems to be okay with us...

It doesn't bother me one bit. If someone wants to feel insulted by my religion, then that's their problem, not mine. The only thing that I have a problem with is the propagation of misinformation about Buddhism. This is because I think that it is unfair to feed misinformation to anyone, especially someone who trusts you like your children or students...

Answer 10

Great question! I have no religion, but I definitely think if I did it would be worth taking a look at if a significant number of people were telling me negative things about it. I feel this same philosophy is useful when dealing with individual people.