Blind Faith
Jun. 30th, 2009 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianSo ... religion.
The top three topics you don't bring up at dinner parties, or so says etiquette, are religion, politics and sport. This, as far as I'm aware, is to prevent arguments and social stress from turning a nice round of drinks and frou-frou food into a punch-up. (Unless you're having brandy and cigars with the Young Conservatives, apparently - in which case, go to. I actually had brandy and cigars with Young Conservatives once; I don't like brandy, cigars are overrated and ye flippin' gods, those people can be so unutterably boring. Particularly when all they can do is what their party does, namely pointing out Labour's flaws without actually suggesting any alternatives to speak of. Yay politics? But I digress.) Religion is one of those utterly divisive topics that you just ... sort of try not to mention, particularly if you are of an 'alternative faith'.
I'm of an 'alternative faith'. I suppose I come under the wide blanket of 'Pagan' but if I'm honest, I'm probably of the First International Church of For-Pity's-Sake-Own-Your-Shit. I'm really keen for people to stop justifying every action they take through outdated, contradictory, poorly translated allegorical source material and just accept that they're judgemental arseholes. Faith isn't an all-access pass to Fucktardville, okay? I've known a lot of people who follow a lot of faiths and not all of them have acted like complete arses about it. Sure, I had a friend who got on my case when my mother started seeing a married man - apparently it was my responsibility to flag up the fact that adultery is a sin in the eyes of the Lord and blah. I went to that stupid sleepaway camp with six different daily prayer sessions, the guy telling people they were going to hell because they didn't speak English and the exorcism of the hyperactive eight-year-old. A boyfriend of mine insisted that he was a devoted Lutheran and then two weeks later insisted he was a devoted Mormon and started bitching me out for my caffeine intake. However, I have devoutly Christian friends who are open-minded and willing to have theological debates and deal with a changing world without getting judgemental - up to and including a Catholic priest. Of course, I also know atheists who dock me IQ points for believing in a 'higher power' at all, so I guess the whole judgement call thing is not restricted to faith-based militant believers.
In short: religion doesn't give anyone the right to act like a fuckhead. And, to say it a lot better than I ever could, here's Marcus Brigstock.
The top three topics you don't bring up at dinner parties, or so says etiquette, are religion, politics and sport. This, as far as I'm aware, is to prevent arguments and social stress from turning a nice round of drinks and frou-frou food into a punch-up. (Unless you're having brandy and cigars with the Young Conservatives, apparently - in which case, go to. I actually had brandy and cigars with Young Conservatives once; I don't like brandy, cigars are overrated and ye flippin' gods, those people can be so unutterably boring. Particularly when all they can do is what their party does, namely pointing out Labour's flaws without actually suggesting any alternatives to speak of. Yay politics? But I digress.) Religion is one of those utterly divisive topics that you just ... sort of try not to mention, particularly if you are of an 'alternative faith'.
I'm of an 'alternative faith'. I suppose I come under the wide blanket of 'Pagan' but if I'm honest, I'm probably of the First International Church of For-Pity's-Sake-Own-Your-Shit. I'm really keen for people to stop justifying every action they take through outdated, contradictory, poorly translated allegorical source material and just accept that they're judgemental arseholes. Faith isn't an all-access pass to Fucktardville, okay? I've known a lot of people who follow a lot of faiths and not all of them have acted like complete arses about it. Sure, I had a friend who got on my case when my mother started seeing a married man - apparently it was my responsibility to flag up the fact that adultery is a sin in the eyes of the Lord and blah. I went to that stupid sleepaway camp with six different daily prayer sessions, the guy telling people they were going to hell because they didn't speak English and the exorcism of the hyperactive eight-year-old. A boyfriend of mine insisted that he was a devoted Lutheran and then two weeks later insisted he was a devoted Mormon and started bitching me out for my caffeine intake. However, I have devoutly Christian friends who are open-minded and willing to have theological debates and deal with a changing world without getting judgemental - up to and including a Catholic priest. Of course, I also know atheists who dock me IQ points for believing in a 'higher power' at all, so I guess the whole judgement call thing is not restricted to faith-based militant believers.
In short: religion doesn't give anyone the right to act like a fuckhead. And, to say it a lot better than I ever could, here's Marcus Brigstock.