Homophobia and Religion

Something happened in Idaho just a twenty miles south of me. A man convinced an elderly Gay man drive to the wilderness supposedly for Gay Sex, where he and three other "brave Christians" beat the man to death with baseball bats. The same day a Muslim man murders fifty Gay men in Orlando Florida. In both crimes the religious beliefs of the criminals turned intolerance of people with different sexual beliefs condemned in their religion into murder. People are blaming the crime on every thing but what actually caused it intolerance. Oddly no one Nationally has condemned the four Christians for their beliefs, but many have the Muslim man. Extremists in all religions preach intolerance. It is a sad fact that people kill others over a difference in opinion. This has caused me to do some soul searching. Perhaps it will you.

In a post a number of years ago there was a fight between a Baptist and a Catholic on one of the threads over religion, and our favorite author David Weber made a pithy statement. I share it with you on an art I made on Religious tolerance:



Something else to ponder.

Poker

I'm just picturing GOD pulling the universe over to sort out the kids

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We live in a world where heroic deeds are few and far between. As Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." A cycle of work, eat, sleep, repeat. But people want to feel that there's more to life, some greater thing. The vast majority seek it through exciting hobbies, loving relationships, public volunteer service or some other productive avenue. A few look for reasons to feel "better than" others. Ideologies, religious or political, give them not reasons but excuses to feel "better than", and it's a short step from feeling "superior" to despising the "inferior". The greater percentage of this small percentage simply vent their feelings in speech or text (which has been made much easier by the internet), but some take it further. They feel that they have to act to impose their warped world view on others, or remove their opposition through violence.

So-called "leaders" take advantage of this tide of inferiority complexes seeking validation. They whip up the mob's frenzy and wash their hands of the results.