As a Christian: this is absolutely despicable. Jesus taught us to love our neighbors, and a huge part of loving someone is to respect their boundaries.
So screw this app and the people that built it. If you want to invite your neighbors to learn about Jesus:
Set a good example
Get to know them
Invite only when it’s relevant (i.e. to a kid’s baptism or whatever)
Yeah. I’m not religious but I’ve worked with church groups and actually every one I can think of immediately, was out for good and doing Christ things. I think the more prejudicial ones just are more vocal about what they’re doing.
If I were the devil and this world was mine to seeWell, I’d witness all the atrocities and it’d probably frighten meSo I’d run back home with a story to tellI’d tell all my demon friends that I always preferred Hell
— Colby Acuff
One of the existential terrors of deconstruction is realizing the human species is plenty capable of evil and atrocity, that no demons are needed
Then when we’ve seen the absolute worst humans could imagine, Sir David Attenborough comes along holding Nature’s beer.
As the saying goes: one bad apple spoils the barrel.
I think most Christians are fine, at least the Christians who understand and try to follow Christ’s teachings, it’s just the few “Christian influencers” or whatever that are a pox on society. I try to distance myself from them as much as possible, and encourage the rest to be better examples.
It’s because they craft their entire identity around that particular thing. It does not matter what the belief or how illogical the belief, if you question it, or are simply not prepared to go along with it, they get really angry and incoherent.
I mean I know people who are vegan or religious or atheist which are not annoying, but as you said some people make it a huge part of their identity and it sucks.
I somewhat agree with you. The problem is that all those bad apples are the loudest of the bunch, which is why people, understandably, try to avoid all Christians like the plague.
I did too for MANY years, until I was the target of a miracle myself. But that didn’t change my behavior towards people, I still treat EVERYONE with respect, and as kindly as I am able to (sorry, still human, so not always possible, lol).
The same is true with Muslims as well. A lot of people in the west dislike Muslims generally because of the relatively small percentage of extremists, yet the Muslims I work with are fantastic people. My coworker (Christian, I believe) married an Iranian woman (Muslim), and said the people in Iran are generally quite awesome, it’s just the minority who is in power that causes the problems.
In general, most people are pretty chill, regardless of religion (or lack thereof). So please, if you feel like a stereotype is accurate, go out and meet people from that demographic in real life (not on SM), and you’ll likely realize most people are good. It doesn’t really matter what the demographic and stereotype are, most people don’t fit it.
I have a bunch of friends, coworkers, employees and business associates that are Muslim. Some live in my country, some in the US, Egypt, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Irak, all over the place, and all of them, without exception, are amazing people, super humble, can take jokes, even about religion, and are incredibly respectful of everyone else regardless of any perceived difference.
My family and I went to the New York side of the Niagar Falls for New Year of 2019, where we know absolutely nobody. When we got to the AirBNB late at night, my wife and I went out to buy some water, some food for breakfast the next day, and everything was closed. We found a small store that was open and when we walked in we were greeted by this guy originally from Iran, Muslim. We started talking like we were friends for years. Before he left he offered to make us dinner the following night. I’m Dominican, and I have yet to meet someone as nice and outgoing as this guy and his family. We met almost every day for the 2 weeks we spent there, and I am grateful that I met them. We had an amazing time.
I’m sure there are some nasty people out there, just like there’s a bunch of nasty people everywhere and from all walks of life.
Bottom line is that we can’t tell who is who just by race, religion, nationality or any of those things. Take the time to know the person, more times than not, you’ll be grateful you did.
I’m sorry, I’m feeling really hyped with this thread. You guys have restored some of my lost faith in humanity. Thank you very much.
I don’t think they should “target” anyone. The entire basis for this app is creepy at best, and it shouldn’t exist in this form. If people want a way to discuss things, they should instead share anonymous experiences.
But yeah, there are a lot of weird, culty “churches” out there, where I suspect the leadership is knowingly manipulating their congregations. But there ale also a lot of accusations of culty behavior that really aren’t applicable, so it’s a mixed bag. At the end of the day, I think most people are decent, regardless of religion, it’s just the really vocal minority (the brainwashed minority, as well as those who left) that make the most noise.
As a Christian: this is absolutely despicable. Jesus taught us to love our neighbors, and a huge part of loving someone is to respect their boundaries.
So screw this app and the people that built it. If you want to invite your neighbors to learn about Jesus:
If they want to learn about Jesus, they’ll ask.
As an atheist, I wish there were more Christians like you.
There are millions of them. You wouldn’t know it though, because they don’t announce themselves.
Yeah. I’m not religious but I’ve worked with church groups and actually every one I can think of immediately, was out for good and doing Christ things. I think the more prejudicial ones just are more vocal about what they’re doing.
If I were the devil and this world was mine to see Well, I’d witness all the atrocities and it’d probably frighten me So I’d run back home with a story to tell I’d tell all my demon friends that I always preferred Hell — Colby Acuff
One of the existential terrors of deconstruction is realizing the human species is plenty capable of evil and atrocity, that no demons are needed
Then when we’ve seen the absolute worst humans could imagine, Sir David Attenborough comes along holding Nature’s beer.
Every concept of hell and the details on what earns you a spot there I have always translated to “hell on earth.”
As in: the things someone would do to earn them a spot in hell creates hell on earth. There is no hell other than the hell people create for us here.
As an atheist, I wish there were less Christians and more demons
As a metalhead, same.
Good Christians leave because they realize who are in power and what corrupt shit have been going on
Honestly people US would move naturally to Christianity if the church as a welcoming nonjudgmental place.
People don’t need to be Evangelicalized. I think there are some lessons the all White Churches could learn from the historically black Church.
As an ex-christian, the most un-christlike behavior is often espoused by Christians.
As the saying goes: one bad apple spoils the barrel.
I think most Christians are fine, at least the Christians who understand and try to follow Christ’s teachings, it’s just the few “Christian influencers” or whatever that are a pox on society. I try to distance myself from them as much as possible, and encourage the rest to be better examples.
Well, militants are always annoying, be they Christian, lefties, Righties, vegans, meat eaters or whatever
It’s because they craft their entire identity around that particular thing. It does not matter what the belief or how illogical the belief, if you question it, or are simply not prepared to go along with it, they get really angry and incoherent.
I mean I know people who are vegan or religious or atheist which are not annoying, but as you said some people make it a huge part of their identity and it sucks.
That’s exactly right. Most of them have no capacity for critical thinking whatsoever.
Hence their being religious.
That would be an accurate assessment, yes.
I feel called out as a Linux user
I somewhat agree with you. The problem is that all those bad apples are the loudest of the bunch, which is why people, understandably, try to avoid all Christians like the plague. I did too for MANY years, until I was the target of a miracle myself. But that didn’t change my behavior towards people, I still treat EVERYONE with respect, and as kindly as I am able to (sorry, still human, so not always possible, lol).
The same is true with Muslims as well. A lot of people in the west dislike Muslims generally because of the relatively small percentage of extremists, yet the Muslims I work with are fantastic people. My coworker (Christian, I believe) married an Iranian woman (Muslim), and said the people in Iran are generally quite awesome, it’s just the minority who is in power that causes the problems.
In general, most people are pretty chill, regardless of religion (or lack thereof). So please, if you feel like a stereotype is accurate, go out and meet people from that demographic in real life (not on SM), and you’ll likely realize most people are good. It doesn’t really matter what the demographic and stereotype are, most people don’t fit it.
I have a bunch of friends, coworkers, employees and business associates that are Muslim. Some live in my country, some in the US, Egypt, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Irak, all over the place, and all of them, without exception, are amazing people, super humble, can take jokes, even about religion, and are incredibly respectful of everyone else regardless of any perceived difference. My family and I went to the New York side of the Niagar Falls for New Year of 2019, where we know absolutely nobody. When we got to the AirBNB late at night, my wife and I went out to buy some water, some food for breakfast the next day, and everything was closed. We found a small store that was open and when we walked in we were greeted by this guy originally from Iran, Muslim. We started talking like we were friends for years. Before he left he offered to make us dinner the following night. I’m Dominican, and I have yet to meet someone as nice and outgoing as this guy and his family. We met almost every day for the 2 weeks we spent there, and I am grateful that I met them. We had an amazing time. I’m sure there are some nasty people out there, just like there’s a bunch of nasty people everywhere and from all walks of life. Bottom line is that we can’t tell who is who just by race, religion, nationality or any of those things. Take the time to know the person, more times than not, you’ll be grateful you did. I’m sorry, I’m feeling really hyped with this thread. You guys have restored some of my lost faith in humanity. Thank you very much.
Thank you. I thought I was alone in the world, haha!
At the very least they should target people who consider themselves Christian but have stopped going to Church for one reason or another.
Although to be fair many of the more “dedicated” Churches function more like a cult
I don’t think they should “target” anyone. The entire basis for this app is creepy at best, and it shouldn’t exist in this form. If people want a way to discuss things, they should instead share anonymous experiences.
But yeah, there are a lot of weird, culty “churches” out there, where I suspect the leadership is knowingly manipulating their congregations. But there ale also a lot of accusations of culty behavior that really aren’t applicable, so it’s a mixed bag. At the end of the day, I think most people are decent, regardless of religion, it’s just the really vocal minority (the brainwashed minority, as well as those who left) that make the most noise.