A few minor clarifications...
I'm quite certain I'm walking into a minefield here, but I feel compelled to do so anyway. A few points on the 'purity-ring' nonsense:
1. The school (apparently) would allow her to wear the ring if it were religiously required. So the Sikhs at that school are allowed to wear a metal bracelet and ceremonial knife, because that is an integral part of their religion. A Mormon would be permitted to wear their temple garment. A Muslim would be permitted to wear some form of veil or head scarf. Why? Because in the texts that these religions are based on, there's something that says "Once you've been baptized you need to wear a metal bangle", or "You must wear this undergarment to guide you towards modesty", or "You must keep your head covered in the presence of others". It's a command of their religious beliefs.
On the other hand, I know of no biblical verse that tells Christians to wear silver rings advertising that they're more likely to get into oral or anal. Rings like that are a staggeringly new moneymaking scheme, not a religious tenant. There is no reason to grant that ring the same status as something required by your religion.
2. People don't respect most religions more than Christianity, and anyone who says that is showing a staggering amount of ignorance. Sorry to be harsh, but it's true. I was raised in a not-Christian religion, in an area that has a huge minority of that religion. It's not respected more than Judaism. Islam is not given more respect in the Western World than Christianity (when was the last time you heard of a church being firebombed?). Buddhism is not more respected - have you ever considered what, exactly, is being said culturally when Abercrombie & Fitch or whoever co-opts the image of Buddha so that they can fund their sweatshop operations?
By virtue of being a terrifying, in-your-face, with-us-or-against us majority in certain world power nations, Christianity gets to do whatever it wants to do, and still whine about being persecuted.
Labels: common sense, politics, religion
posted by NinjaGeek @ 10:41 AM
1 Comments:
And in answer.
1). It's a worthwhile point. I personally don't find fault with the school for this point, as long as they're fair.
2). Christianity is respected less than other religions, especially in America. Where else does an entire political party defame a wide swath of the religious population? This blog right here is a decent enough example of the point I'm making.
Whenever someone trashes religion, they trash Christianity. About the only equal-opportunity God-hater is Christopher Hitchens (who's a fairly cool guy despite being grievously misled, although hopefully not permanently). Your average man on the street sees orthodox, scriptural Christianity as being loony. It's not a cool hereditary thing like Judaism, it's not a cool intellectual thing like Buddhism, and it's not a cool cultural thing like Islam. It's foolishness.
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