A change from politics...

[sqbr]

I've been pondering doing one of these for a while, but wasn't sure I'd get the wording right. Since it worked so well on his lj, I've decided to completely steal the language of angriest's recent post instead(*).

1. Tell me your religious beliefs. It can be as simple as "I am an X" or it can be a lengthy paragraph if you like. If you feel your religious and/or spiritual beliefs are private, either don't reply or leave a note saying as much.
2. If you want to reply to something someone else has written, feel free - particularly if you want to ask them a question about the religion you've always wanted to ask but have never been able to, or felt comfortable enough to.
3. This is one of the biggies: if someone asks you a question and you don't feel comfortable answering it, do not feel obliged to answer. Either don't reply at all, or drop a quick reply saying "I don't really want to answer that".
4. Religious intolerance will not be tolerated. I'm aiming this particularly at the aggressive atheists who seem to get their kicks scoring points, but the rule applies in any direction.

I know a lot of you are on both flists, I decided to do it now while it's still fresh in your heads. You are quite welcome to repeat/post a link to your comment over there! And yes fred_mouse I know you were also planning on stealing his idea, but, well, there's no reason it can't be stolen multiple times :D

(*)And yes, I checked it was ok. Don't want to be sued for copyright violation by the big mean famous writer :)

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

I believe intensely in the separation of Church and State, and also believe that so long as we continue to fail at that (and we are failing), there can be no true, mutual religious/spiritual tolerance.

Yes, and being angry about that is I think completely understandable. It makes me pretty angry sometimes, though I'm as likely to get angry on behalf of religious non-christians as atheists. (Well, apart from the genuinely "Pro all religions but anti-atheism" crap which assumes everyone has a "higher power" e.g. in * Anonymous or "The Artists way". Though I guess that probably excludes some religions too like animism. Maybe?)

It's the assumption (which you're not making, but I have seen other people make) that every religious person (or every christian, etc) is in favour of theocratic hegemony and thus as an individual worthy of anger which is the problem. I guess the reason I get so annoyed by it is that I got HEAPS of crap from my atheist friends when I was a left-wing, pro-science, pro-separation-of-church-and-state christian, and this actually made me stay christian longer since it seemed the more open minded option. Unfortunately I can't think of a way to say "Don't be an intolerant atheist" etc which keeps the genuinely mean spirited atheists in line without making the decent-but-justifiably-angry atheists feel like they're being told to shut up.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

This is such a tiny thing, but I do feel guilty when I take advantage of the Christmas postage reduction to send out my cards. Why on earth does the Government sponsor cheap communication for Christians. Not that I don't take advantage of it.

[alias_sqbr]

At least in America they have Thanksgiving, and a large enough jewish population celebrating Hanukkah(*), that "The Holiday season" actually makes some sense. Though I get the feeling it means people have trouble getting their head around any religions having major holidays outside that period or none within it.

That said: I'm not christian, and still sometimes send christmas cards :)

(*)Although apparently this isn't actually that big of a festival compared to some of the others at different times of year

[col-ki.livejournal.com]

I don't see your logic. You think sending christmas cards is about being christian? Last time I checked, they mostly have Santa on them.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

I don't see your logic. You think sending christmas cards is about being christian? Last time I checked, they mostly have Santa on them.

No, I think the public holidays and subsidies are for Christmas, which for me is actually a celebration of my faith (though my Christmas cards are just catch ups). It means one faith gets it made easy to celebrate.

[alias_sqbr]

It's easy not to realise how christian centric the christmas "season" is if you're not a member of a religion whose primary holidays are at a different time, and have to try to schedule work/family etc around them with no help (or understanding) from the government or surrounding culture. I didn't realise until I read some discussion by jews and muslims.

[col-ki.livejournal.com]

I can see that. It must be annoying being forced to spend nearly 2 weeks of your annual leave when everyone else is on holiday and travel is expensive, when you'd really rather take them at some other time when your family and friends are involved in your cultural / religious festival.

I still don't think christmas cards are about christianity, though. Like Easter eggs and Valentine's presents.

[alias_sqbr]

Oh, I see your point. Yes, I think sending christmas cards is a fairly secular act for most people (though one that only makes sense in a semi-christian context), I think it was the fact that they're subsidised that bothers emma_in_oz.

Though I was under the impression all cards were subsidised, just because they're a nice small standard size and weight. *shrugs*