chelle-shock:

Quick question (this is probably going to sound angry, but I don’t mean it that way): if you were mostly referring to Christianity, why did you say “religion” or “religious” throughout? 

a fair point, and basically i should probably have gone back and changed that.

the source article was non-specific, and i was responding to that and lifting the non-specific language in my kneejerk liberal way, but while i was writing i realized that inasmuch as i have a problem with “religion”, i don’t really have strong feelings about any of the others.

i have issues with israeli politics but that’s unrelated to judaism.  there are muslim extremists just as there are christian extremists, but the aspects of islam i don’t like are the oppressive interpretations of it used by the taliban et al, who are not ambassadors of their religion.

my generalized disdain for christianity is based around earned mistrust of the church leadership and their unwillingness to embrace any kind of positive internal change.  individual christians who don’t support gay marriage or even the asshats who abuse their missionary work to incite homophobia don’t bother me nearly as much as the priest abuse scandal, the pope endorsing abstinence for third world countries with aids epidemics, and the high-level freakouts whenever gays or women try to ascend the ranks of the clergy.

i’ve never had an adherant of any other religion get in my face and try to convince me how righteous they are, but in so many branches of christianity, the aggressive ministry of stephen baldwin is some kind of idealized strategy.