Originally Posted by Eclectic

First, someone wants to recruit Christians into a guild where I guess they can pray before going to ambush and kill usually minding-their-own-business monsters and take their stuff, I have no problem with it. Seems an odd thing for Christians to band around but again, no problem.

I do have a couple problems with Christianity and with the current American state of Christianity. The Religious Right (TM), instead of loving everyone and being non-judgmental and turning the other cheek, has become the source of bigotry in our times with their hatred and discrimination against gays in the secular world. They "defend marriage" from people who want to be married while ignoring the fact that evangelicals have a higher divorce rate than the average couple. They are filling the same exact role (and usually using the same religious rhetoric) that the people trying to keep segregation in place and those trying to stop interracial marriage used. The followers of the Prince of Peace go to funerals of people killed for being gay and shout "Fags Burn in Hell" to the grieving family members. These same people are feted and given money from the Bush administration. They are MAINSTREAM, not out in left field Christians now. They've institutionalized bigotry in half their state constitutions, all led by a brazen political objective that had nothing to do with Christianity, but by raising fear of the other and making people feel persecuted when they most decidedly are not.

That's the next complaint. Someone got ridiculed in a chat in a game over their Christian themed guild and someone is comparing it to the persecution that caused early Christians like Stephen to be crucified upside-down. When people burn down your church and kill your people, then you are being persecuted. If nobody does anything about it, then you're seeing official persecution. Being flamed in a chat room in a game is so far from being persecuted as to ruin the word's meaning. Try to get some perspective people.

Christians run the country. They've got political power. They're using it in a variety of ways that run antithetical to a "Christian nation".

I wanted to mention something about the religious aspect of wars that were being argued about. Religion is often used to rally people for a cause, usually by cynical leaders pressing an agenda. The rally against gay marriage to give better electoral chances for Republicans for example. Riled people up in election season sending out pamphlets showing two men kissing and a big "Allowed!" on it and Bible with a big X on it saying "Banned!". Truly I'll have more respect for the Christian church when they don't fall for such imbecilic crap.

Where the people arguing for the religious aspect of war have things right is that when it comes to religion, nobody has the provably right answer. When an argument over which religion is right comes along, it cannot be decided, which leads to some form of coercion or force being used to decide the issue. We can argue about whether global warming is real because we can measure and eventually know a real, true, answer. Short of Armageddon and the Second Coming happening we can't do that with religion. So we've got to try to just live together and quit hating each other for what we believe. But I don't believe I'd be remiss in asking that those who profess a belief in loving everyone and turning the other cheek start doing that too.

Oh, and a "culture of life" that likes war and supports the death penalty? Whatever.