treat me differently because I'm christian?"Well." He responds reluctantly, "Yes."
Confused I asked, "Why so shy?"
He shrugs, "Those people, they will judge you. I never tell people I'm Christian."
Confused further, I asked: "Which people?"
He laughed at me. "Everyone who isn't Christian."
My entire life has been bombarded with stereotypes: Ranging from how I'm expected to behave depending on the way I look to how smart I must be because I'm in engineering to how stupid I must be because I do art or how shallow I must be because I always wear nice clothes and makeup. I'm sure you all have your own to share!
But I have never encountered a stereotype which was so broad and so inhibiting as the ones I now face once I converted to Christianity. Some common ones are that I believe the word of god based on faith alone, that I am incapable of thinking for myself, and that I disregard all fact and logic simply because I am Christian. Others are that I am simply hell-bent on converting you, that I must be a complete prude and I must not believe in sex before marriage, or something truly offensive such as the presumption that I must be pro-life and must be against gay marriage.
Now of course I'm not pretending that everyone who meets me thinks these things just because I am a Christian, but I am treated differently when I tell people that I am. I just wonder why people even bother making assumptions to begin with. As I mentioned in the intro to this journal, I hang out with some church groups. That means that I HAVE run into the people that do fit some, or all, of the above stereotypes. But they are extremely rare.
I would never deny that I am a Christian, nor would I awkwardly force it into a conversation. But I honestly do hesitate slightly to talk about my religion. I have been more heavily criticized for my faith than all of my other attributes combined. I just wonder why it is such a bad thing?
No matter what, aren't Christians fundamentally good people? The Christians I know volunteer to help people, genuinely work to be nice people, and sincerely care for others. This is also a stereotype, but it's one that I see in most Christians. Because if you grew up with the Bible you are taught to be a good person and to help others. I just wonder why people focus on the few negative people in the religion and ignore all of the good that the vast majority of the people do.
R E S O U R C E S
Devious Comments
--
Please visit my page! Thank you!
Not really sure what to say, actually. Here in Mexico most people believes in christianism, and it's actually people who have other belief that gets attacked (like my case).
Well, we can always say there are a lot of jerks in the world, and our unlucky minority, will always be subject of the attack of those jerks... or something.
--
With your daily dosis of ebil-chibi Dan!
So much Dan-ness that it's actually poisonously unhealthy!
But it doesn't seem to be a problem now. But I think that's because I'm so young, and because I'm in high school. Kids would rather gossip about each other than care about religion. xD
But I can understand why you'd be reluctant to say you're position. I tend to like saying who I am, but that's more just because I like a good debate over things like that. P:
But I can see why. A lot of times nowadays, things are generalized, and stereotyped. And people are judgmental.
It's a shame some people are afraid of who they are because of the way others will treat them.
Which is odd and bad that I keep bring this up but a passed deviation of mine, "It is more convenient to assume something then it is to understand it"
Another thing is that some people, no matter the faith, will use it as an excuse to tell themselves that they are better then the other person.
It's not your religion(avatar(s) or not), it's the intention or motives of how you use your faith that makes you who you are.
--
You. Yes, you.
Do Something! Do something, anything. NOW~!
But I am also a Christian and I go to a Christian school. I'm not really "persecuted" since I'm always around other Christians but I am persecuted against things I'm not. And so are other people. So i guess since the people at my school dont have Christianity to make fun of, they choose to make fun of something else.
But being a Christian, or being religious there will be people out there who are just against everything that your religion does since they don't believe it (obviously) but people should really not make assumptions when they know nothing about the person or the religion ):
I don't think that anyone who cares of your religion really deserves your time. I mean, it's not really their business. And you're not an evangelical, so it's not like the topic would come up often, right?
Aww, how can you not like debates?
Previous Page12345...Next Page