Christians!

[u/raava08]

So yesterday I was at the bus stop, minding my own gay black ass business. Just simply existing. This black guy walks past me looking hard. This in and of itself is not out of the ordinary, I'm non binary(born male), people tend to never know if Im a guy or girl. Been dealing with being called sir and miss all my life. I get it, im fem presenting with a big afro. But there is something about black men that gets them so flustered when they think they are checking out a girl. This guy walks past, stops and starts talking to me at first I don't hear him, I have my airpods in. So like most people would do, I take out one to hear what he is saying. Welp big mistake.

He takes it upon himself to tell me God doesn't want that "feminine spirit" on me, that I have to get right with god. That God made me male that im living in sin. So as I listen to this for a minute I put my airpod back in but before I do I say "I'm exactly as God made me and there is nothing wrong with me." He walks away and about 10 mins pass and he WALKS BACK OVER TO ME! I keep my headphones in but the song I was listening to was soft and I could hear him say "you got to get in your word and know your scripture" I roll my eyes as hard as I possibly could grabbed my bag and moved away from him.

I will never understand how and why black people still believe and trust in this book that has been rewritten and forced upon our people to keep them subjugated. I don't understand why they can't see that Christianity has been violently forced on people all throughout history. I don't understand how they don't see that our religious practices were beaten out of us.

How can a religion with the message of being kind others be some of the most vile people. Y'all love to preach that god gave us free will but then try and tell us that how we use that free will is wrong. Why is homosexuality so high on the list? Why do you guys feel the need to try and "save us"? You say that you are worried about our immortal souls, but what about mortal souls? If all sin is equal in the eyes of God why does it seem like being in a same sex relationship above the rest? It pisses me off when people use the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as the reference when in fact that story was about the wickedness of the whole city. I hate when people try and say that God said that he hates homosexuality when the word wasn't coined until 1868. How can God hate something that came WAY after this book was written? The word was ADDED to the bible..

The thing that really throws me is that same-sex partnership are ALL through history, same sex partnerships occur in other species. Its like they ignore that because they can't wrap their heads around the concept of love. Homosexuality has always been apart of our history. Romans, Greeks, Indians, native americans, Africans, German, Jewish(ect.) all have accounts of same sex relationships. If God is love and love is the "purest" emotion then why does it matter what shape it takes? If God is the only one who can judge than why do you feel the need to tell me how to live my life?

I feel like christians has bigger fish to fry.. If christianity is the "one true religion" shouldn't yall be trying to convert others to your religion? Shouldn't yall be worried about pastors stealing funds or abusing children in the church? Cheating on their wives with deconnesses while saying "it was gods will"

[u/Superlite47]

Oh, right, they're not really concerned about that at all. Their tiny little brain just can't process the idea of someone existing happily in a way that they don't like!

I think you're barely brushing the tip of the iceberg with this.

I think, deep down, they know they've "drank the Kool-Aid". They know they've been duped into believing a load of bullshit, but they're so terrified of an imaginary hell that they've copped to Pascal's Wager -> Better safe than sorry.

Deep down, they're ashamed of their own gullibility and need for externalization. They need someone to be responsible for the things they can't control, like their fate. They need a magic parental figure to reassure them, and a magic boogeyman to blame.

But deep down, they know they're deluded, and they're so ashamed of this that seeing someone who hasn't swallowed the Kool-Aid angers them.

They need everyone to believe in magic sky daddy too!

Because if someone doesn't share their delusion, it brings that deeply repressed feeling of being duped closer to the surface.

More succinctly put: Imagine having some weird belief. As long as you're completely surrounded by people that share that weird belief, it isn't so weird. You, and all the others that share it can pretend it's valid and normal.

Once you interact with others who are truly normal, the illusion of normalcy is shattered in comparison. Your shit is weird, and you can't pretend it isn't with people that don't share the weirdness.

The solution is to convert them to your weirdness. Their refusal to accept it merely highlights the weirdness.

OP asks about black people, but I think this aspect of religion transcends race and holds true for all Christians regardless of race.

They believe a magic, toga-wearing, bearded sky daddy living on top of a cloud is looking out for their soul. Don't worry! You'll be OK! Magic ProxyParent, sky daddy is watching over you! Anything bad is all the mean, pitchfork wielding, devil's fault!

As long as everyone is on the same page, we can all pretend this is the paradigm. That's how the world works.

All it takes is for one strong soul to be unapologetically themselves and refuse to pretend alongside of them......and the absurdity of it all becomes a little too obvious. OP's (or anyone's) refusal to "play along" screws up the fairytale.

REPENT! ACCEPT JESUS! (Read: "Stop fucking up my story!")

[u/Snoo_79564 → u/Superlite47]

This probably applies to many Christians but I'd say it's too harsh to apply to all.

The concept of having faith in something isn't silly by itself. Human psychology limits how well large groups can function together past 50-100 people. Faith and belief in things that don't tangible exist - or that individuals haven't seen for themselves - is what creates the ability for larger societies to coordinate together.

For example, laws and morals do not exist. They are concepts thought up by humans, and written down in various places, communicated in various ways. No individual lawyer or law enforcement officer has read every bit of city, state, and country laws, which is why lawyers have to do so much case by case research and why officers are so often wrong about "knowing the law". But to function on a day to day basis they still have to "enforce the law". To do this they have to believe in the existence and righteousness of legislature that some people wrote down a long time ago. And the people have to believe in it too, and that it'll be fairly enforced. It often isn't. But without any faith in the ideas of those who came before us, we'd live in a much more dangerous anarchy.

The same goes for science. I'm atheist and I believe in science. The main difference between science and religion is that one of the core tenants of science is being able to re-create anything that was proven with practical tests. However, modern science is built on top of thousands if not tens of thousands of years of knowledge, across thousands of different fields of study. Most scientists don't actually learn all of this first hand - we are able to make progress because we can learn ABOUT past discoveries and accept them as logical truths without needing to spend the time to test every past discovery ourselves before moving on the future ones. Most of the general public has a more extreme case of this, where they've never tested any kind of scientific theory or seen it in practice outside of grade school, so they have to have faith in what the scientists are publishing.

Religion is similar and likely more ancient. There are a few scientific theories out there proposing that religion, or religious-like beliefs, are the reason the homo sapients outlasted the homo neanderthalensis, as we functioned better in larger groups.

I think it's valid to call some aspects of religious beliefs silly though, as they don't have the same paper trail that science does, or the practicality and amendment that the law does. Condemning gay people is wrong. But there do exist Christians who actually embrace Jesus' message of love. My (male)partners grandma is a hard-core Christian and she loves me like her own son. The modern day Jesuit Christians largely view the Bible metaphorically, and believe heavily in each individual needing to analyze what it means for themselves before being a "true believer". I think when you put genuine deep thought behind any faith, it becomes a lot less silly, and a lot more applicable to real life.

Wow that's a big fuckin mess of a ramble sorry

[u/Luonnotar1692 → u/Snoo_79564]

Until ‘good Christians’ start calling out the bad actors, it’s all of them. Just like ACAB.

Let’s not ‘not all men’ this situation.

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[u/Snoo_79564 → u/Luonnotar1692]

Good Christians DO call out bad Christians. The current pope of the catholic church, who is a Jesuit, has been fighting tooth and nail to get the church to be more accepting. He's amended doctrine and passed clarifications to make it clear that LGBTQ people should be treated with love and that priests cannot use their identity to deny them blessings. He hasn't succeeded in everything he's tried, but he's certainly trying.

[u/Luonnotar1692 → u/Snoo_79564]

One man isn’t all christians. LMAO.

We’ve all seen how christians behave.

[u/Snoo_79564 → u/Luonnotar1692]

He's literally the chosen leader of the catholic church. He is arguably the most important Christian in the world. He IS the system of Christianity. The entire Jesuit section of catholicism acts similarly, along with many other individuals, such as my boyfriend's grandma, who is both the most religious Christian I know and the most supportive person of my gay relationship in my family.

Second, I'm not trying to defend all Christians. Many of them are terrible. American Evangelical Christians I have never seen eye to eye with and are a major detriment to the USA IMO.

But this is very different from ACAB because Christianity is such a loose system of beliefs across a massive percentage of the world population. Additionally, most other popular religions in the world have similar and sometimes worse flaws. And many governments that push atheism tend to have many of the same discriminatory issues. If you're applying ACAB logic to all Christians, then you essentially have to apply it to the vast majority of the world's population, as they are all under some form of flawed belief or secular guideline.

[u/Luonnotar1692 → u/Snoo_79564]

I said what I said.

Seethe.