Nothing is more embarassing than being religious

[Peasie]

Ada Calhoun's 12/21/09 article on salon.com starts with<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">It was Sunday morning in my scruffy Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood, and I was wearing a dress. Walking to the subway, I ran into a friend heading home from yoga class. She wore sweats and carried her mat over her shoulder. &quot;Where are you going so early all dressed up?&quot; she asked, chuckling. &quot;To church?&quot; We shared a laugh at the absurdity of a liberal New Yorker heading off to worship.

The real joke? I totally was.
</div></div>
Great article, easy reading here I am a closet Christian

I can certainly relate to Calhoun You?

Let's discuss.

[mountaingal]

Re: Nothing is more embarassing than being religious

well, i'm not loving the article so much. for one thing, it defines being christian as being religious when the two terms can sometimes depart from each other. i'm not really quite sure why the author is embarrassed about being religious, sounds more like she's embarrassed about being Christian because of the bad label a lot of Christians have for prejudice. not crazy about the potshots about the so-called fundamentalism of atheists because as always that is not what i feel most atheists express. there are atheistic religions, i'm told, with buddhism being held up as one.

anyhow, mi read the article again later see if it strike mi different.

[f0rTyLeGz]

Re: Nothing is more embarassing than being religious

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Peasie</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Great article, easy reading here I am a closet Christian

I can certainly relate to Calhoun You? Let's discuss. </div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ada Calhoun: Many of them had to come out -- as gay, as alcoholics, as artists in places where art was not valued. To them, my situation is far more sinister: I am the bane of their youth, the boogeyman of their politics, the very thing they left their small towns to escape. I am a Christian. &lt;snip&gt; About 2 percent said they didn't want people to know...</div></div>
Ada Calhoun believes her situation is worse than coming out as gay, or confessing that you need help as an alcoholic? She is hiding from 2% of the population? I don't get it.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ada Calhoun: All of us need help with birth and death and good and evil, and religion can give us that. &lt;snip&gt; The idea of an eternal community brings me comfort</div></div>
I don't think that we ALL need help with the mystery of life and death. She likes &quot;help&quot;, but that doesnt mean we ALL need what she LIKES.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ada Calhoun: And yet, atheists are at least as fundamentalist and zealous as any religious people I know, and they have nothing good to show for it: no stained glass, no great literature, no great art, no comfort in the face of death. Just dissipated Christopher Hitchens sounding off on &quot;Larry King Live&quot;.</div></div>
And the above paragraph is just dumb. Does she really believe that Christians ought to take pride in Christian art, and that non-Christians are losers in some fine arts competition? Atheist artists don't make art <span style="font-style: italic">about</span> their non-belief. But Christian artists have made art about their magical thinking for 2000 years.

And where is she coming from calling Christopher Hitchens &quot;dissipated?&quot; Does her name calling destroy his arguments? To my way of thinking her ad hominum is exactly what Christians always do when confronted by atheists... they call them some kind of evil with a wave of their hand.

Christians RULED the US and still do, and to think otherwise is naive. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/1..._n_398059.html No politician could come out as an atheist and have any hope of being elected. Does she really believe that a school age child can profess non-belief openly in the U.S.?

[Peasie]

Re: Nothing is more embarassing than being religious

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: f0rTyLeGz</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ada Calhoun: Many of them had to come out -- as gay, as alcoholics, as artists in places where art was not valued. <span style="font-style: italic">To them, my situation is far more sinister</span>: I am the bane of their youth, the boogeyman of their politics, the very thing they left their small towns to escape. I am a Christian. &lt;snip&gt; About 2 percent said they didn't want people to know...</div></div>
Ada Calhoun believes her situation is worse than coming out as gay, or confessing that you need help as an alcoholic? She is hiding from 2% of the population? <span style="font-weight: bold">I don't get it.</span></div></div>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Well FortyLegz, here's how I interpret what Calhoun meant in the quote you pulled out: Calhoun feels that <span style="font-style: italic">her friends think</span> that her situation is far worse than <span style="font-style: italic">theirs</span>... not that <span style="font-style: italic">she</span> thinks her situation is worse. Makes sense?</span>

[Peasie]

Re: Nothing is more embarassing than being religious

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MGee</div><div class="ubbcode-body">well, i'm not loving the article so much. for one thing, it defines being christian as being religious when the two terms can sometimes depart from each other. i'm not really quite sure why the author is embarrassed about being religious, sounds more like she's embarrassed about being Christian because of the bad label a lot of Christians have for prejudice. not crazy about the potshots about the so-called fundamentalism of atheists because as always that is not what i feel most atheists express. there are atheistic religions, i'm told, with buddhism being held up as one.

anyhow, mi read the article again later see if it strike mi different. </div></div>

I took the article on its own merit, meaning that this was a writer's point of view on being religious AND christian in her cosmopolitan environment. I agree that she does not differentiate between being religious and being Christian - but I took her writing to mean that really, among her friends, those two terms mean the same thing. And I agree with this. From where I stand, it is those of us who are (say) on the inside of Christianity that differentiate between being 'religious' and being 'Christian.' Others don't differentiate.

See my point?

[f0rTyLeGz]

Re: Nothing is more embarassing than being religious

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Peasie</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: f0rTyLeGz</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ada Calhoun: Many of them had to come out -- as gay, as alcoholics, as artists in places where art was not valued. <span style="font-style: italic">To them, my situation is far more sinister</span>: I am the bane of their youth, the boogeyman of their politics, the very thing they left their small towns to escape. I am a Christian. &lt;snip&gt; About 2 percent said they didn't want people to know...</div></div>
Ada Calhoun believes her situation is worse than coming out as gay, or confessing that you need help as an alcoholic? She is hiding from 2% of the population? I don't get it.</div></div>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Well FortyLegz, here's how I interpret what Calhoun meant in the quote you pulled out: Calhoun feels that <span style="font-style: italic">her friends think</span> that her situation is far worse than <span style="font-style: italic">theirs</span>... not that <span style="font-style: italic">she</span> thinks her situation is worse. Makes sense?</span> </div></div>
I can see what you are saying. Her &quot;friends&quot; can come out to her as gay, alcoholic, or failed artists, but she can't come out to them as a Christian. She knows that her &quot;cosmopolitan, progressive friends&quot; would think that was too awful.

And they ALL left &quot;small towns&quot; so they can live &quot;out.&quot; Maybe she should move to a small town?