Is there not bad in everything? Many like to point to Ted Haggard, or Jimmy Swaggered?

Question

or even Jim Baker and say, that’s what Christians do. But is that really a good acessment? In science if you take a test and repeat it over and over and over, and come out with 540,000 good results, but 5 or 6 bad results, is the logical conclusion not, the 540,000 must be right? There are over 540,000 Christian churches in this nation. You don’t hear about the people they feed, you don’t hear about the people they clothe. You don’t hear about the orphans they help place, and support till they are adopted. You don’t hear of the billions of dollars in aid that they give around the world to help ease suffering and pain. The first ones on site after Katrinia, was the Southern Baptist assc. With their mobile kitchens to feed the ten of thousands that they feed. They asked nothing in return. They did not demand ‘convert or starve’ as many like to say they do.. They saw a need and filled the gap. While everyone else stood by and complained, or blamed, churches form around the nation got to work. In many places they are still there, volunteering to build houses, and help those still in need. Yes some do wrongs, but is there a group that does not? Mao and Castro were both atheist, should all atheist be condemned for their action? Should all Muslims be condemned for 9/11? Do the 540,000 + who do what is right and just, along with the millions of their members are they all to be condemned for such a few who did wrong?

Answer 1

Yes there is but many cant see past their own prejudice. So they blame the entire community, and then ***** about the others doing the same thing.

Answer 2

There is no good or bad in anything. Good and bad are not substances. They are not characteristics of anything, either. Good and bad are judgements made about things, but are not of the things themselves. You can't take an object and measure the amount of goodness or badness in it.

That said, people tend to have compassion for other people. This transcends religion. So, no matter what religious belief someone has or doesn't have, they can still be good or bad people (yes, my judgment of them).

Of course, there are religious people who do good things for other people. The question is not what good the people do, but what religion promotes, itself. It is true that religion gets people to perform charity, perhaps more than they would otherwise. However, they tend to do so to appease a fictional god. They do it because they feel they're supposed to do it, not because they think it a good thing, of itself. Now, there are many who are religious who do perform charity just because they believe it is a good thing to do, no matter what promised rewards or punishments some god would impose on them. But there are equal numbers of atheists who also just do good because they feel it is right to do so.

Religion, though, also promotes a lot of bad things. It promotes ethnic cleansing, bigotry, torture and killing. You can pick nearly any two religions and even sects of religions and find somewhere that they've tortured and killed each other.

Personally, I think that if religion went away, it would take away one of the biggest excuses we have for treating each other badly. Then our natural compassion for each other would allow us to treat each other better than we do now.

So, while you are correct, and we shouldn't judge a whole group by a few exceptions, we should also look at the views of the group as a whole. We shouldn't say that Christianity is bad because Haggard or Swaggard are bad. We should ask if what Haggard and Swaggered pushed was in line with what Christianity, itself, pushed. Given their following, that's an easy argument to make.

Answer 3

unfortunately yes, it is called stereotyping. People are just going to do it. All people do wrong anyway, it is inherent. It is a part of our human nature.
Our job is not to judge who does or doesn't do wrong. It is to accept everyone and love them no matter what they have done or will do.
People tend to either build people up or break them down.
Those that build people/churches/pastors/family/kids... up are just setting themselves up for a fall. We tend to forget the human quality of all these and expect perfection or attained righteousness from them. Truth is these our only people, members of congregations, whatever. People sin. Thats what we do and we all do it very well. If everyone and everything were perfect God would not have had to sacrifice Jesus for our salvation.
Its all about how you view it as well or even how a person portrays themselves. We must not ever let someones presentation of how great they are affect our ability to reason the reality of their imperfections.

those that break down people, call them hypocrites, liars, fakes, well they have either never learned the reality of human nature or are judging others. It is never ever good to break down a fellow person. It is destructive and sad. Then again we do it don't we. We all do. Unfortunately.

Answer 4

I've never "condemned" and entire group of people based on the acts of few. That would be generalizing, sort of like what you're doing.

The fact is, is that Pastor Ted and Jim Baker are hypocrites. If you preach one thing and do another that's hypocrisy no matter how you put it. They get the attention because their bloated egos asked for it. Yes, church organizations do good. Many organizations do good. They don't all get credit for it, but that's life, sweets.

Answer 5

Did Darwin's "lies" cause any American soldiers to go to Iraq, fight and die so the Republican NeoCons could have control of the oil? Because if Darwin's lies caused any of that, or if they put the US in 9 trillion $ worth of national debt, then I think we'd all like to know about it, don't you?

Answer 6

Good job policing your own ranks.

Answer 7

Wasn't Ted Haggard that church leader who was caught with the gay meth whore?

Answer 8

if you want to see what american christianity is about, go to baghdad.

if you want to see what an american christian looks like, google 'lynndie england'.