How to Rebuke "Religion is an accepted form of discrimination"

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I have some friends at work who are not religious at all. They may be atheists or agnostics but probably haven’t even given God enough thought to even label themselves that way. Today one of them was telling me about a restaurant she wanted to try, despite the reviews saying they play Christian music there. And so I said “What do you have against Jesus?” and she said “hahaha, nothing personally I don’t like religion, its an accepted form of discrimination” Which is pretty ridiculous when you consider what Jesus came to accomplish. I did say back “Well Jesus didn’t intend it to be that way. He came to save the whole world. all people.” He actually opened up salvation and the Truth to the whole world, including gentiles and asked that the Gospel be shared to every nation. Yes, some people have used religion to discriminate in the past 2,000 years but really, the net good has outweighed the net bad done by Christians for society. Do any of you have a book or article I could recommend to this person with some hard data on this?
 
Check Catholic.com and search it there. I remember someone calling in about that. For the life of me I can’t remember what they said.
 
Dianne_Yunker said:
I have some friends at work who are not religious at all. They may be atheists or agnostics but probably haven’t even given God enough thought to even label themselves that way. Today one of them was telling me about a restaurant she wanted to try, despite the reviews saying they play Christian music there. And so I said “What do you have against Jesus?” and she said “hahaha, nothing personally I don’t like religion, its an accepted form of discrimination” Which is pretty ridiculous when you consider what Jesus came to accomplish. I did say back “Well Jesus didn’t intend it to be that way. He came to save the whole world. all people.” He actually opened up salvation and the Truth to the whole world, including gentiles and asked that the Gospel be shared to every nation. Yes, some people have used religion to discriminate in the past 2,000 years but really, the net good has outweighed the net bad done by Christians for society. Do any of you have a book or article I could recommend to this person with some hard data on this?
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I’d agree with her and inform her kindly that we as the only RATIONAL creatures in the Universe; this reality that we alone ARE Rational with odds of one in many Billions; humanity HAS to exist for a reason.

That reason is to discover that there IS One True God

Then Pray that this gives her pause to think about it.

PRIDE is behind this move and Satan IS behind PRIDE.

Mt 7: 13-15 " [13] Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. [14] How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! [15] Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."

BUT if you choose this path, you’d better be prepared to follow through on her questions.

And be careful quoting the Bible as they don’t know it or its purpose and value, which may be place to start?

Blessings,
Patrcik
 
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Religion is a the source of discrimination is true.

However, the word “discrimination,” isn’t always the evil presented in our world today.

We discriminate against letting children drive cars and getting drunk

We discriminate against allowing people to stop traffic by sitting in the middle of the road.

So, there is rational discrimination, which we all use.

In religion, defining marriage as between a woman and a man, isn’t discrimination, because “marriage,” only has one meaning.

The list could go on, but I know where the atheists are coming from, for I’ve heard and had the debates with them over the past decades.

Jim
 
Yes. Discrimination has become a nasty word, when it often isn’t. The examples you gave are what is normal discrimination, because rules are made for a reason.
 
There are plenty of Muslims that would say Islam is a religion of peace and non-discrimination. I’ve not real argument with that statement, but tell me there aren’t more than a few Americans that think otherwise. To many modern ears the stance against LBGT issues many Christian bodies (especially some really high profile instances) take feels like discrimination also.
 
Usually I simply respond, “You may believe that, but predjudice against Christians (Catholics) is really the only politically correct form of discrimination acceptable in modern society.”

Most of the time they get really quiet and change the subject.
 
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It’s socially acceptable to hate you but not others. You may not feel like you’re discriminated against but it’s only because you fail to see how much better everyone else has it.
 
I would have asked what she meant by “accepted form of discrimination.” Discriminating against who? The only discrimination we as Catholics are called to do is discriminate between moral and immoral actions.
 
I have been-- by Protestants. But secularists also discriminate by immediately dismissing certain issues or points of view because they are seen as religious.

Odd how the Catholic view of poverty is wielded against fiscally conservative Catholics by people who think it’s perfectly fine to ignore the First Commandment…
 
I lived most of my life in South Carolina in a heavily Baptist county. It’s better now, but fifteen years ago, if someone saw that you had a rosary hanging in your car or you wore a cross with a crucifix or a saint’s medalion, it wasn’t unheard of for you to be denied service at a store or restraunt.
 
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16000 said:
It’s socially acceptable to hate you but not others. You may not feel like you’re discriminated against but it’s only because you fail to see how much better everyone else has it.
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Not really. I’ve been insulted for being Catholic by a couple of nondenominational Christians. But they couldn’t discriminate against me. I’ve been discriminated against for other reasons though, so I can usually tell it when I see it. Catholicism is one of the biggest sects of any religion. It’s hard to discriminate against us that badly.
 
I suspect they feel people should hold to the standard they claim. They don’t claim to hold to those same standards.
 
We entered into the Catholic Faith for THE LOVE OF CHRIST and not as avenue to discriminate others.
 
It’s not really clear what she meant. Religion is an accepted form of discrimination… between what?

You did well, but just from your post I got the feeling that she didn’t really want to talk about it, although maybe I’m wrong. Even if you do clear up this vaguely antipathetic comment with her though, what will either of you have gained? I know you know this, but you can’t force the faith on someone.

You may be the only person she knows as an example of the Catholic faith. When you talk about religion, don’t get stuck defending against vague put-downs—talk about what interests you. Maybe she will be interested as well.
 
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