Most of the items on the list would come as "entitlements" in what some of you call "a Christian country." They are, generally, markedly unfair in a democracy/republic and a people who consider themselves to be fair to all.
I grew up as a practicing Christian and am now a cultural Christian whose spiritual life is spent elsewhere. I respect the best of the Christians, but loathe what the right wing of the religion has done to our sense of equality, fairness and understanding with its closed-door approach. That is generally true of any right wing of any religion (though I don't much think the Buddhists have a left or right, just good sense, compassion, understanding and all the things Christians claim, but don't practice).
Read Sam's list and see if there's anything on it you don't recognize. Is there any part of it you'd like to see changed? Look at it as a Jew or a Moslem might and think how far outside the stream of American life you are made to feel. Is that what we mean when we say, "I am an American and I love my country?"
It's not what I mean.
(Graphic: drjimsthinkingshop.com)
Excellent article and the comments are fascinating too. As a follower of one of those "other religions", I can only shake my head when Christians in the United States complain of "persecution".
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dan.
Most of those examples are true...like 99%. But look at some other countries with a majority (insert religion here) and see what happens...Everything swaps. We're a majority Christian nation and that's why the programming on TV reflects that, or the stores are full of Christian things, or why people don't know (and don't care) about the practices of other religions.
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ReplyDeleteElliot: I don't like to compare our practices to those of other countries because most Americans will tell you that we are the standard and that we should measure up to what we expect of others. I agree that we need to be what we think we are, but rarely achieve. I hear Christians making excuses because they can't reach "perfection," but the problem is that most of them don't even achieve adequacy.
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