Wisconsin Forums

[Crys]

Here's the problem with what he says -- he's assuming there is Abrahamic religion with your one god and there is atheism and that's all there is. He's not offended by Christians pushing their Bible in schools because the Christians and the Jews worship the same god and he rightly sees the two religions as different understandings of the same god.

As a non-Christian polytheist who routinely got detention for refusing to say "under God" in the Pledge because they would not let me either remain silent during those two words or change it to "under the Gods" to match _my_ religion (among hundreds of personal examples of the discrimination against non-Christians in the country), I have to say that I would rather have no religion in our schools and government than to be constantly told that I don't belong in this country, even though I was born here and my family has been here since before there was a United States of America, even though we fought for our Independence as part of the Revolution and every generation since has had warriors in the military spilling their blood to protect our rights and freedoms, just because I'm not a Christian. All religions or no religions. That's the only fair and Constitutional choice.

This idea that Christians are being pushed around in this country is just stupid. Utterly, ridiculously stupid. We just want you to STOP FORCING YOUR RELIGION ON THE REST OF US. It makes me so angry I want to hit something. When a gaggle of children ties your child to a tree and tries to burn her alive and the police and school refuse to do anything about it because "she deserved it" because of her religion (as happened to me), then you come talk to me about discrimination.

You'd think that Christians at large would have learned this from their own history. When the Christians were persecuted in Rome, it was not because they were Christians, it was because as Christians they refused to worship the Emperor as a god. All the state wanted was for them to also acknowledge the Emperor; they were otherwise free to practice their religion how they wanted. But they wouldn't. It was blasphemous to them. They refused to let the state religion be forced on them. They stood up for themselves and their brethren and I admire them for it.

So why is it that it was wrong when Rome did it, but now that it's Fundamentalist Christians trying to make their religion the state religion (in a country founded on Enlightment Deism, NOT Christianity, and founded to guard AGAINST a forced state religion) and expecting the rest of us to worship their god (hey, we're free to practice our own religion as long as we also worship the Christian god publicly...), it's ok? Why?