Do some Christians need prejudice?

I wanted to name this "Why do Christians need prejudice?", but I felt that the inherent presumption in that question might be too offensive and certainly would not always be true. There are many, many Christians who do not resemble the type I'm describing in this post.The prejudice I see exhibited by different Christian groups here in my little corner of the world is quite multi-faceted and is sometimes aimed at fellow Christians. I've touched on this in various ways in a number of other threads; isn't it a fact that many fundamentalist sects feel that their own specific belief system is the one true belief system? This leads some of them to feel that members of other Christian faiths, even other fundamentalist faiths, are either somewhat astray from God, in which case they'd best be doing a lot of praying, or doomed to hell so that nothing they do short of converting to the other belief system can save them. Clearly, this is prejudice.All through history we've seen prejudice from Christians, perhaps most notably toward Jews but also, again, toward one another. This internecine strife has led to civil wars, massacres, attempts at genocide, church-sanctioned torture and execution, etc., etc.Today, at least in the western world, these struggles are more often fought within the structure of a larger political system, which can obviate the warfare that was once typical. But we still have the problem of religious prejudice. To give an example I used in another post: the Baptists think the Pentecostals are going to hell because they speak in tounges and the Pentecostals think the Baptists are going to hell because their women wear make-up.Despite believing that most everyone outside one's faith is going to hell, fundamentalists show a remarkable ability to work with these infidels when it comes to a common goal: perpetuating prejudice within the larger culture. We see this in their efforts to prevent gay marriage today just as we saw it in the past in efforts to perpetuate slavery and/or segregation.These types of prejudice seem to directly contradict the teachings of Jesus, and that's the point I want to get at in this thread. What did Jesus ever do to try to keep anyone in their place? What did he ever do to try to segregate a minority? What did he do to set an example of feeling superior to others?I supoose 'Faith and Belief' would be the appropriate place should this be promoted.

"Swift" writes:

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Im a Baptist and I have a Pastor that was Penacostal for a long time. No one belives that anyone is going to Hell for those things.

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And I've lived around fundie Southern Baptists all my life and yes, they most certainly do think the Pentecostals are going to hell. That may be an idea that's dying out, but so is the Southern Baptist Church's support for slavery. We must give them credit, since in 1996 they took the bold, brave step of proclaiming in a dramatic reversal of previous doctrine to all the world that slavery was a sin. 1996. That would be 9 years ago.

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You know what happened to Sodom and Gamora. Well I think the USA will have to change its name to United States of Sodom and Gamora.

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Have you actually read Genesis 19? The only sin you notice is homosexuality? Read it again. Pay particular attention to the behavior of the "rightous" Lot.

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Its not just something that is sick unclean and unnatural but something that aint to healthy if ya get my drift.

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Three assesrtions in one sentence, my aren't we on the ball? Let's see the evidence to back up this nonsense. You're not up to the task, of course, but let's see whacha got.

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There were very very few who saw slavery as good.

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Don't know much about history, huh? The Southern Baptist faith is the largest protestant faith in America. You need to do a bit of research about them. Here's a clue: the SBC was founded on the principle of legalized slavery. This principle remained a pillar of the church's doctrine until 1996. That would be 9 years ago.

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riVeRraT writes:

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Jesus was a warrior...

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I'm no expert on Jesus, but I wasn't aware that he fought a war. What am I forgetting?

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...and a nice guy.

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I can go there. Many Christians are good people who are far more concerned with helping their fellows than with judging them. Such Christans are not at all like the ones I was describing in the OP.

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peace.

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Same to ya!

pink sasquatch writes:

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Why would you bother practicing a religion that wasn't the "best" religion, and thus "more true" than all other forms of religion?

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I understand the logic, but it's repellently tribal. So sad that so many of us have not evolved much from prehistory.I'm still interested in seeing anything from the direct teachings of Jesus that can be used to justify bigotry.

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Abshalom writes:

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Most adults in the congregation knew that the minister was preparing them for the arrival of local Blacks who would visit our church in response to similar events in Jackson and other larger cities across the deep South.

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That's remarkable because I grew up in one of those Episcopal churches in Jackson, and I was an alter boy. I don't remember how many folks left before our first visit by a black preacher, but they were quickly replaced and the church continued to grow. It's still growing, although the congregation disappointed me by moving to the suburbs about a decade ago.Interesting that the Evansville non-denominational church was formed by disgruntled white racists. Here in the Deep South the non-denominational churches are exceedingly bigoted toward anyone who doesn't accept the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, but they can't be accused of being racist. The congregations always seem to have an almost 50:50 black-to-white ratio.

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Abshalom writes me:

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I was in the boy's choir at St. Andrew's Episcopal church in Jackson from about 1956 to about 1959, when a group of Black activists, some of whom were the now-famous Jackson lunch counter protesters, asked to be seated for Sunday services, and were escorted to the front two rows of pews.

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I've heard about that. You're a little older than I am so I suppose your memory is more reliable.St. Andrews has always had a very liberal reputation in Jackson, as has All Saints. I attended St. Collumb's over near the zoo, and although it wasn't quite as liberal I can only remember a minor stir when we had a black guest preacher one Sunday.

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I wanted to point out that it's not just "bible-thumping" fundamentalists who act out their prejudice.

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Point taken.

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riVeRraT writes me:

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He fought a spiritual battle.
If you walk into a temple, and put down a bunch of pharisee's, thats like starting war.

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In a rhetorical sense, yes. War terminology is sometimes employed to describe what is often no more than a debate. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think we should be careful in using such martial phraseology when describing Jesus. Wasn't he the "Prince of Peace", after all?Growing up in the Episcopal church I remember a number of Sunday sermons on this very subject. Perhaps those sermons helped to shape my thinking about Jesus. He was always presented to me as one who worked to unify rather than divide people. My church was careful to not portray him as warlike.

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(kicking myself to observe Asgara's warning)"Swift" writes me:

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These people are full of it to who ever you lived around. They were obveesly not true Baptist. Like I said black sheep and wolfs in sheeps clothing.

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As I hinted before, I think some of these ideas are dying out, at least among the Southern Baptists. But older Baptists still hold to them. It's a matter of simple fundie logic really:1. Southern Baptists believe that if one has committed a sin, but given the opportunity one does not ask God for forgiveness of that sin, one will go to hell.2. Southern Baptists (unless there has been a very recent change) believe that speaking in tounges is a sin.3. Pentecostals speak in tounges. They don't ask forgiveness for it. It follows that according to Southern Baptist belief, Pentecostals are going to hell.

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I probbly know more than you sence I proffesanalize in it.

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Let me guess: you're on the faculty at Bob Jones University?

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It would appear that the bible, and indeed the gospels, send us mixed messages. I take the measure of the Christian by which message he or she follows. If Jesus isn't the Prince of Peace then as far as I'm concerned he isn't worth following.

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Abshalom asks:

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While Christian Identity hate mongers are an extreme example of the phenomena I think this thread intends to explore, the original question could be phrased as what is it that apparently requires some people to incorporate prejudice and hatred into what they promote as Christianity? Is this the question, or not?

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Of course it isn't the precise question I asked (I was looking for any of Jesus' teachings that would validate bigotry and prejudice), but I didn't intend that the scope of the thread would be so narrow as to leave out any other considerations of religous prejudice. Your question is a good one and it follows logically from mine.

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I often quote Shakespeare when such points come up: From The Merchant of Venice. I had to look it up to be sure; the words are spoken by the character Antonio. The sentiment is quite accurate, as you've illustrated.The point is that there is no injustice or crime that can't be justified by something in the bible. Even genocide can be sanctioned if you twist the words just right.I think it'd be a bit harder to justify intolerance and bigotry if one is restricted to using only the direct words of Jesus as quoted in the gospels. I could be wrong, though.

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Abshalom writes me:

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Of course there will always be some wacko who will stretch an interpretation to justify his demented fancy.

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Indeed. It's happening today in ways that seem far more benign that the Christian Identity movement. Like the right-wing Christian opposition to the new video of We Are Family, starring scores of kids cartoon characters, the Sesame Street characters, Bill Cosby, Diana Ross, the two brothers who do Blue's Clues, et al. Conservative Christians are up-in-arms because the video teaches tolerance.Imagine! Tolerance! A controversial concept in Christian la-la land, all because of the bigotry and hatred people find in their bibles.

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