Pudding...

[OldApostate]

In another thread, Spoomonkey and I commented on the lack of discernable effect on conduct by Christian belief.

 

Spoomonkey brought up poor behavior in restaurants following church. I have another one related to churchgoing folks.

 

I used to live a couple of apartment complexes down from a large church with an attached Christian school. Every morning to go to work, I would proceed East down the street in front of my complex, passing this church/school on the right. At the same time, parents would be arriving at the school with their children. As this school was near the end of the block, most of those parents would be arriving from the East, travelling West, and would need to make a left turn across traffic to go into the parking lot. What occurred, without exception, was that the cars entering the parking lot would form a line, with each car proceeding into the lot directly behind the one before. First, this is illegal, as they were making left turns and were therefore required to yield to the traffic traveling East. Second, this served to stop the traffic completely in my lane for several minutes, causing what was normally very light traffic to be backed up. If each car turning left yielded to accommodate the traffic going East, the delay would be negligible. Nevertheless, these parents would halt the traffic going the other way for several minutes to avoid even the slightest delay. In the year or so I lived there, I don't think I had even one person yield to me. This is the lesson these parents pass on to their Christian kids on the way to the Christian school. No need to comply with the law. No need to be considerate.

 

Unfortunately, I've noticed that this isn't atypical. Over the years, my friends and I have noticed that the existence of Christian bumper stickers on a car is directly proportional to the lack of consideration in the driving. Obviously, this evidence is purely anecdotal, but it's an observation that's been made by several people that I know. As I've said in other posts, I blame a lot on an epic sense of entitlement.

 

Finally, here in my town there is a small chain of stores that is like a Christian Hot Topic. It sells things like hoodies with bible verses on them. One of the things this store sells are car stickers that say "NOTW" for "Not of this World."

 

NOTW Stickers

 

Inevitably, these stickers appear on new and obnoxiously large trucks and SUVs. Yeah, folks, nothing says you're not of this world like an expensive, gas guzzling vehicle that you'll never actually use for its intended purpose. How much good could you have done for the cost of that vehicle and the gas?

 

And nothing says that you're not of this world like the Edgy Polka Hoodie. It's only $49 to proclaim your "not of this worldness." PLUS, the right front pocket is iPod friendly!! "Just think of the polka dots as a glimpse to how many thoughts God has for you. This is a fun way to tell others of God's love and that you are not of this world."

 

I just see so many conflicts between what Christians say their religion is about and their actual conduct. I also see a lot of problems with what Christians say their rieligion is about and the amount of bad conduct it doesn't prevent. It's all well and good to blame the Inquisition on politics, but shouldn't Christianity prevent those things from happening rather than be a vehicle for them? How can such an allegedly powerful and good force be used to such bad purpose? To put it bluntly, why are so many Christians such a-holes?

[Piprus]

To put it bluntly, why are so many Christians such a-holes?

Mmmm...could it be, perhaps, that xians are...hypocrites??? Eeeesh...perish the thought!

[L.B.]

It's like I've been saying in my rants and so on... If they weren't making the big claims, no one would be so harsh in their assessments of Xtianity. I am certainly not the person claiming I have a supernatural divine Ghostie living in me permanently that enables me to live and act in ways that are above and beyond the spiritual, emotional, moral and ethical ken of the "unsaved". Yet, these are the blatant statements being made by Xtians every day; I'll be damned if'n the rule-BREAKERS aren't the common ones, and the rule-OBEYERS are the rare and hard-to-find ones. In fact, the worse an asshole a particular Xtian is, the more sanctimoniously they and their holier-than-thou friends defend themselves and each other. Fucking pathetic.

[ShackledNoMore]

Repeat a lie often enough and loudly enough, and people will believe rally behind it. xianity thrives on this.

 

So pervasive was the lie of xian virtue, that it wasn't until after I had deconverted, AFTER I had called the lie on the claims of xianity, that it really sunk in just how badly xians behave compared with their skeptical counterparts. I saw the discrepancy, but I did the mental gymnastics to the bitter end.

 

For a long time I thought it said something that I was more virtuous that the xians who allegedly found favor with an alleged god. No. It's merely an illustration of the vile, disgusting, outspoken hypocrisy that goes along with the lie. Although I've thought about some of the root causes for bad xian conduct and hypocrisy, and know of what I think might be likely reasons/explanations, it still amazes me on some levels that so many xians make so many grandiose claims yet fall short of a basic level virtue that others who DON'T make the grandiose claims seem to have no problem attaining.