New thread inspired by Rain Dog's comments on another thread.

They totally supported apartheid in South Africa by supporting white minority rule. Google the Nederlands Reformed Kerk (NGK) what we called The Dutch Deformed Church, using Christian dogma to undermine any opposition to apartheid. Tutu and others who saw through it were labelled communists. The shame of the church.

Have they done/are they doing the same in your country? They were either quiet or actively supporting colonialism in India and many other colonies.

How do you pervert a work of fiction? In the early part of that book, God seems pretty keen on killing children and the unborn. Then after the interval it all goes a bit soft, forgiveness and love are a big deal... right up to the part that the world is consumed by evil and 144,000 people get their slot in heaven while everyone else burns...

Religion is rarely black and white and while adherents may claim they're a force for good... historically this seems to be rarely true.

Well, many think this particular fiction should be used for good, but many others used it to entrench the ruling class. It's not about whether it is truth or fiction, it's about what people did with what it was intended for.I believe it was intended for good, apart from the 'propaganda' crap.

I've read the Bible (and numerous other religious texts of all flavours), it was designed for societal control. It's used in the same way that adults punish children; if you don't eat your greens - you can't have any pudding. Except it's more, if you fornicate with your neighbour's wife, you'll go to hell. Though if angry men turn up at your door, it's OK for them to rape your daughters as long as they don't rape your sons...

The god of the Bible is both schizophrenic, childish and plain old spiteful. He loved us so much he nailed his kid to a cross and had him tortured? Because he was incapable of forgiving us without that?

It's no surprise the Christian ethos is used to exploit... it's literally a handbook to make people grateful for being treated like shit.

Have to agree with GrinchSR on his assessment of Christianity's true purpose. That said, addressing the original point: the United States Christians are probably some of the worst. They're constantly trying to destroy our education system with religious garbage, block mosques from being built, use public land for their symbols, fight gay rights, and historically fight racial equality. They also use rhetoric to rally support for wars or to support oprression abroad. As I pointed out in the Israel thread, evangelicals are twice as likely as jews to support Israel because they believe the land was promised to the jewish people by god. Bush employed religious rhetoric all the time when talking rallying support for our wars. Christians have been behind the drug war since it's inception and are still the ones supporting it, despite all the death and lost lives it has caused. I feel like you can trace almost everything wrong with the modern United States to christians.

The last pope was a member of the Hitler Youth... the Catholic Church has propped up atrocities around the globe. The Christian movement in the US is responsible for ridiculous restrictions on foreign aid, including the denial of medical aid for countries which promote contraception or allow abortion... In the Philippines the entire nation is subject to the whim of the church... despite being one of the poorest and most miserable places to live in the world... and so on.

It would be near impossible to argue that the "good" that Christianity does, outweighs the "bad". All over the modern word it is used to hate the LGBT community, until recently it was used to support racism (and a little further back - slavery), etc. There is no love inherent in the Christian practice and a close read of the book finds that there's way more hate than love there too.

Also, Christians in the US tend to support war and the death penalty, but oppose anything that resembles a social service. Total hypocrites.

I think it's important to remember that the message in most religions is well-meant, but people screw it up in practice. There's not much in the old testament I have any time for and if average joe wrote revelations today, he would be tested for drugs. I don't think the hypocrisy you mention is limited to any one religion, MM, we get locals pushing people off their land in the morning, and the next day going to the pagoda.

I attended a church in Cape Town, eventually they found out the founder was banging a woman in the congregation, when she went public they expelled her. Eventually the con-man pastor ran away to America. I left before that happened, the whole thing was geared towards getting money, insisting on tithes, the pastor was living in luxury and some were living in squalor, but they were giving him money? wtf.

Exactly.

Church of Drum n' Bass, Junglist 4 life.



MC Stroppy C? Badman fi life, fam, big up ya chest rude bwoy