Has organized religion become the primary excuse for prejudice and hate in America?

Question

Wizzard mentioned I wasn't specific enough. I am not referring to Mormons, because they are not very hateful. Neither do I refer to Muslims because their American presence isn't large enough. I am referring primarily to Southern Baptists, Pentacostals, and various other varieties of Baptists and Methodists. Anything even remotely associated with "Evangelicals" is included as part of the hate machine.

Answer 1

It is the current talking point, but religion has less and less of an impact that it did years ago. Now it's just sabre rattling and rhetoric that doesn't mean too much. Most people are concerned with the issues and not so much religion. Now many people still bring it up, as is evident by this question, but in the real world of politics it doesn't carry to the polls.

Answer 2

I do know that if organized religion is removed from society, people have to depend on the government totally. I believe that was one of the philosophical ideas of Plato in "The Republic". It was a wonderful reading of how the government controls society.

As far as it becoming the reason for prejudice and hate-well I think you may be referring to Romney and Mormonism? Maybe Islamic religion is what you mean, I don't know. You're not specific enough in your question.

Most people are going to compare one person's religion against theirs because it's the natural thing to do.
How far they take the informationn they find out and what they do with it is up to them. Could it be the start of a hate campaign if they don't like the info they found? Yes it could.
But overall, I don't think organized religion promotes prejudice or hatred.

Answer 3

Religion (specifically Christianity) only becomes an instrument of hate when it is mishandled by human beings.

The Bible says that we are to speak the truth in love. (Eph 4:15) Part of speaking the truth is pointing out what we believe to be sin. The Right Wing does this in pointing out the
sin of homosexuality and such. Where the Right Wing is wrong, however, is that they point to those exclusively as sins, when they basically ignore other sins. Greed is a
sin, yet the GOP seems to be swallowed whole by greed.

"A blank" shows the general attitude of today's Right Wing Christians that is very troubling. The Religious Right believes that Christians should have the easy life, living in a "Christian Nation," and the non-believers are the ones who should suffer, which is exactly opposite of what Jesus said would happen (John 16:33).

We live in a sinful world, and we have to stand strong for Christ in spite of things around us. "A blank" claims that Christianity is under attack and has been for the past 20 years.

The truth is that Christianity is **always** under attack because of the fact that we stand for something. When you stand for something, there's always opposition. It's a fact of life, and it's troubling that the political right seems to think that there should be no opposition for Christians.

Christians are supposed to speak the truth in a loving manner, according to Ephesians 4:15. This is not a standard followed by Christians today, especially the political right.

In an episode of CSI several years ago, one of the CSI investigators complained during a criminal trial that he felt CSI was being put on trial. His supervisor said, "CSI is *always* on trial." They processed evidence to solve crimes, and their work was always put under scrutiny. That's the way it was, and they needed to be prepared for it.

It's the same way with Christianity. We claim to be following Christ, trying to live up to His standard, so we need to be prepared for the extra scrutiny. It will never be easy, and we will fail from time to time, but we need to understand that there will be extra scrutiny and be prepared for it.

Christ always spoke the truth in love. He spoke truth to those living in sin, but He did it in a loving way, and no one could ever accuse Him of being hateful unless they were being unreasonable. As Christians, we need to follow that same standard.

I think the political right has been hateful because they have not followed these standards. There will always be accusations of hate from those that don't understand what Christianity's about, because we do believe that there are certain things that are simply wrong.

But it's not their job to try to understand us, it's our job to reflect the love of Christ while standing up for what we believe is right.

Answer 4

Yes I believe the attack on Christianity has caused increase crime and ignorance, Christianity is a philosophy and if followed correctly leads to a peaceful existence.

Now look at your new 2000 criminals after 20 years of attacking Christians crime is getting more violent.

But hey why would I fool you with the truth.

Answer 5

Yes like the Religion of Atheism

Answer 6

Prejudice and hate come from the hearts of men, not from God.

Edit: The only thing I hate is evil and I'm a Methodist. God doesn't tell us to hate anything but evil. Many people want to say that evangelicals hate them, but it's their behaviors we hate.

Answer 7

Heck no!
There is racial, ethnic, class, wage, and probably a bunch of other ones I can't think of!
Thank goodness we have so many reasons to hate and distrust one another, otherwise we might get along and overthrow the entrenched corporate government.
Have a crappy day, and enjoy your crummy job!!

Answer 8

No. If you go buy "yahoo" as being representative of the U.S. , it is political affiliation that is the primary excuse for hate.

Answer 9

i don't know about that. certainly a major reason that there is prejudice and hate though.

EDIT i hope mister o above understands that we are both saying virtually the same thing.

Answer 10

No it hasn't.

The primary "reasons" for hate and prejudice is lack of tolerance, class disparity, and plain ol' ignorance.