Hi, everyone,
It may be time to move this thread to grrltalk. I am cross posting this
one... Care to follow me over there?
Snarfblat wrote:
> it is sad when an open minded perspective is considered extreme.
Yep. I think you hit upon why in the next question and comments...
> On a
> somewhat similiar tangent, are very many of you religious?
Once upon a time I was. I have a major problem with all organized religious,
including the one I was raised with.
> In my
> experience, organized religion is a very patriarchial and constrictive
> environment, which I would imagine, would put off most people here. Is
> there a near mutual exclusion between open minded women (or men) and the
> church?
Church, synagogue, mosque, temple... I think the answer is yes, at least in
the orthodox or fundamentalist form of most all religions. I think some
denominations (such as Unitarianism and Reform Judaism) are more open minded,
but stricter, more literal minded, ancient scripture as literal law type sects
tend to discourage free thought and any form of questioning, and tend to be
very patriarchal.
My main problem with most of the organized religions is that they think they
have the one true path to (G-d, Allah, the Almighty, and so on) and that
everybody else who does not agree is to be condemned. The Muslim concept of
"infadel" bothers me no end, and do the Born Again Christians who will tell
me, right to my face, that I am going to burn in hell.
I remember a "Contemporary Christian" song that started off...
"Oh Budda was a man
and I'm sure that he meant well
but I pray for his disciples
lest they wind up in Hell."
That kind of view really bothers me. I don't think any one religion has the
absolute, true, irrefutable path to G-d, or an exclusive pipeline. I think
different views need to be respected.
> i personally have a rather ill view of common christian religion; the
> power struggle and opression that I see there annoys me to no end.
I'd have to limit it to conservative Christian denominations to agree with
you. There are over 400 Christian denominations, and an amazing degree of
diversity between them. I also really like to live by Matthew 7:7, "Judge
lest not ye be judged." My complaint is that some people in some
denominations are *SO* judgmental, and it is so foreign to what Jesus preached
in the sermon on the mount. "Let he who is without sin cast the first
stone." In the biblical story, nobody could throw a stone after he said
that. In modern America the rocks fly.
Take care,
Caity
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
