Factnet

[The Sage Nabooru]

I was cruising around this organization's website tonight. I really think the organization itself is well-meaning, but I was disappointed at the number of Christian fundies on the message boards declaring anything that was not within the Christian Fundamentalist party (yes, that includes Catholicism and Orthodox) an evil brain-washing cult.

 

I have nothing against Christians in particular; I don't like their beliefs, but if they practice them quietly, I don't mind. I don't even mind when they post their beliefs on a message board to simply explain them, so long as it's not a conversion attempt. I even think their churches can be very pretty, and their followers genuinely good people. But these people were convinced that the only way to escape the evil cult of Baha'i was to accept Christ's love and become a born-again evangelical. And tithe, of course.

 

When extremist fundie churches came up as cults in which ex-members would need healing from FACTNet, often a tide of not only members of the accused church but fellow fundies would roar in anger about how "oppressed" they are and how the claim should be removed at once. Again, their "freedom of religion" is exactly the same as Scientology's: "I should be allowed to practice my religion by making its laws the law of the land and beating down people who don't agree with my exact beliefs, since my religion tells me to do so, and to not allow me to do as my religion tells me to do so is taking away my right to practice my religion; however, no other religion may have these same rights to practice, let alone criticize my own religion - their criticizing my religion is an attack on my religious freedom."

 

Again, I don't think this is how FACTNet actually works, but I don't like that so many people do think it should be run that way.