Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Love and Hate

In response to my posting on negative perceptions of evangelical Christians, this comment was left by Anonymous:

I don't think anyone can deny that while evangelicals preach love, they are more prone to hate. Especially anything that falls outside of their beliefs, which given how backward many of them are, is a ton! I respect all religions and know that there are good evangelicals out there, I just haven't met any. Having lived in Georgia, I have been told that eating ethic food such as Lebanese or Indian is against the will of God, that yoga is spiritually dangerous, that Harry Potter fosters witchcraft. For among these reasons, while I respect all religions, I can't respect a religion that hates so much and denies science and hates anything it considers outside. Their message on Homosexuals is completey against their message of love, and their repression of women through their beliefs on contraception is rediculous and backwards. Their hating has turned me into a hater 
Clearly this person has bad feelings about experiences with evangelicals. I have no doubt that Christians have some amount of blame in that. We are called to give a reason for the hope that we have with gentleness and respect, and we don't always do things that way.

I want to take a closer look at the comment.


I don't think anyone can deny that while evangelicals preach love, they are more prone to hate.
We are more prone to hate than to love? How much experience does Anonymous have with evangelicals, and what is counted as "hate" and what is counted as "love"?

Especially anything that falls outside of their beliefs, which given how backward many of them are, is a ton!

That is human nature, isn't it? We could say that humans preach love but are more prone to hate, and that human have difficulty with anything that falls outside their beliefs.
I respect all religions and know that there are good evangelicals out there, I just haven't met any.

Highly unlikely. They just didn't shove it down your throat. Because they're nice.
Having lived in Georgia, I have been told that eating ethic food such as Lebanese or Indian is against the will of God,

If an evangelical said that, it was not based on evangelicalism.
that yoga is spiritually dangerous,
If you're talking about physical exercises, then no. If you're talking about altered states of consciousness, emptying your mind, or meditation on certain things, then yes, it can be spiritually dangerous.

Look, you told me going for a walk was contrary to vegan principles, I'd laugh at you. But if you told me going for a walk wearing leather shoes was contrary to vegan principles, you'd be right.
that Harry Potter fosters witchcraft.

Eh...  not as long as kids are clear that it's fantasy and allegory and don't think they can actually practice any of the kind of magic portrayed. I know some people who identify as evangelicals say this about Harry Potter, and many of them say the same thing about the Lewis' Narnia series or Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series. It's overkill.
For among these reasons, while I respect all religions, I can't respect a religion that hates so much and denies science and hates anything it considers outside.

Denies science? That was one of the points of my original posting. How does evangelicalism deny science? We deny philosophical naturalism, to be sure, but that's philosophy, not science.
Their message on Homosexuals is completey against their message of love,

Which message? Maintaining that sex is for marriage and marriage unites the sexes? How is that unloving? If you understood a behavior to be destructive, is it unloving to refuse to encourage that behavior?
and their repression of women through their beliefs on contraception is rediculous and backwards.

I know of no widespread evangelical position on contraception. Most evangelicals do not want to pay for someone else's abortion, which is not contraception. How does it repress women for someone to insist that their money not be taken by someone else to abort their own child?
Their hating has turned me into a hater 

It's sad that someone perceives is as "hating" for me to not want to pay for someone else to kill their own child.

Clearly we've let academia and media get away with too much falsehood and mischaracterization.

As far as hating, I don't recall hearing about evangelicals going to a baker, caterer, photographer, florist, or property owner with sincere convictions in opposition to evangelical practices and insisting that such people support and participate in an evangelical event that violates their conscience, and when there is a respectful declining to participate (and many other alternate options for the potential customer to patronize), the evangelicals attacking those people with the force of government and mob mentality to ruin their livelihoods.

I'm quite libertarian in my political leanings. I do not want to use the force of government to compel anyone to participate in Christian events or live by strict Christian morality. However, the same freedom of association that should prevent the government from trying to stop two men from engaging in private homosexual behavior is the same freedom of association that should prevent me from being forced to celebrate their homosexual behavior.

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