Such contempt for other people's faith is exactly what's wrong with the fundamentalists, whether they're muslims or christians.
What We Can Learn From Liberals
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The contempt is not for Christianity, but for those Christians who are trying to tell other people how to live their lives, doing so with a holier than thou temperament.
I think it's the same as the contempt between the baptists and catholics. The closer you're ideologically the harder it is to forgive.
You also need to modify your statement - it's mostly non-Christian liberals that cannot stand the Christian fundamentalists. Christians (my definition and I believe they make up the majority of American liberals) are usually very respectful of other Christians.
Good point but your already hedging you bets using "fundamentalist'......what is a fundamentalist? it seems they use that for any christian ( like me) who a) doesn't believe one nation under god is a bad phrase...b) who believes that homosexuality should not be promoted in schools with books like 'my two dads' ....back in the day the fundamentalist were the jerry falwell's of the world, now it seems that anyone who doesn't want to see Janet Jacksons tit on prime time is one.
If you've seen my earlier posts, it would be clear what I mean by "fundamentalist." They're the ones who think that anybody outside of their church are not Christians. They blindly believe what their leaders (Falwell is a good example) tell them, with complete disregard for facts. They really believe that the earth is 6,000 years old, and that there were "a pair of dinosaurs in Noah's Ark" (Falwell's own words), and God created Eve with Adam's rib.
As for prayer in school, gay marriage, it's perfectly normal for people to disagree on these things. The majority of the people are different shades of gray on these matters (Your "two dads" example could well be polygamy instead of gay marriage
). The problem is, the fundamentalists (those who think the earth is 6,000 years old) are using these issues to win popular support, then once in power to push for their political agenda much further to the right. The problem with the stem cell research is one example. Even though more than 70% of the population supports stem cell research, the fundamentalists (less than 30% of the population) are driving the policy.In a word, dogma.
Quote from
james_bond_3rd:
If you've seen my earlier posts, it would be clear what I mean by "fundamentalist." They're the ones who think that anybody outside of their church are not Christians. They blindly believe what their leaders (Falwell is a good example) tell them, with complete disregard for facts. They really believe that the earth is 6,000 years old, and that there were "a pair of dinosaurs in Noah's Ark" (Falwell's own words), and God created Eve with Adam's rib.
As for prayer in school, gay marriage, it's perfectly normal for people to disagree on these things. The majority of the people are different shades of gray on these matters (Your "two dads" example could well be polygamy instead of gay marriage
There aren't many political leaders who are openly homosexual. In fact, it is still political suicide in most states (blue states included) for a politician to openly admit being a homosexual. Most people still think homosexual is abnormal or immoral, even though they don't openly admit it.
The TV example is not a good one. What is the percentage of murders in real life? How many murders do you see on TV everyday? Mass media is the reflection of the lowest common denominator (whatever sells). It shouldn't be used to measure "clout." Otherwise we have to conclude that in this society murderers have the largest clout.
In a sense, people (TV viewers) are perverse. They are more interested in watching people who are different than themselves. That's probably human nature.
Your figure of 5% may be right, I suspect it is a bit higher, but TV is all about ratings and revenue, and like it or not, people like to watch gays on TV.
If shows with gays had bad ratings, we wouldn't see them....
If shows with gays had bad ratings, we wouldn't see them....