#i appreciate Christians who try to counteract the more harmful aspects of their religion & it's history

[melancholyjones]

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A reply posted by user arvethli

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The people saying that their church encouraged them to question their beliefs seem to conveniently be missing the fact that Christianity is an actively proselytizing religion, seeking to convert non-Christians ("heathens" 🙃) and that this has been used as a religio-political colonization method for centuries, and is the cause of a lot of harm done by the church. Whereas iirc, Judaism and a lot of other religions are pretty anti proselytism.

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I wouldn't go so far as to say other religions are "anti" proselytism, but the broader point I agree with. While Judaism, Islam & Buddhism (& others I'm sure) have also been used/are being used as tools of colonization/imperialism, iirc none of them have proselytism as a core tenet of the doctrine itself, like Christianity does. That's what sets Christianity apart as a destructive force compared to other religions. It's not uniquely violent in its idealogies, but it is the only "major" religion that directly instructs practitioners to go out of their way to convert others (as in, to leave their own communites/enter into others' communities with the intent of spreading Christian doctrine). & that's the distinction I think a lot of modern (western, evangelical) christians don't/won't/can't fully grasp the weight of.

Regardless of how personally entrenched in formal missionary culture any given individual is, proselytizing is so normalized in overall western Christian culture that it assumes itself simultaneously intrinsically good (or at least neutral), but also as a universal trait amongst ALL religions, & therefore a constant power struggle. Which is why simply acknowledging that other religions exist in public space is interpreted as attempted conversion.

I think this is also a factor in why concepts like cultural appropriation & closed cultural practices are so difficult to understand/cope with for so many white western Christians. Staying in your lane is antithetical to both "white" cultural hegemony & evangelical praxis.

The more I learn about judaism the more I wonder where tf christianity got all its bad shit. Why is divorce a sin in christianity when judaism has recognized the right to divorce for nearly a millennia and has codified religious laws for it. Why does christianity consider sex to be dirty (to the point where puritans considered it a sin to enjoy having sex with your own spouse) when in judaism it's considered holy and it's a literal mitzvah to have sex with your spouse on the sabbath. Why does christianity consider it a sign that you're faithless if you question your religion when in judaism that's considered an essential part to developing your faith. I'm probably stating the obvious here but I still can't get over the fact that there's no historical basis to any of this shit before christianity started, it's like christians just said "hey guys what if we took the torah and built a new religion around it but this time it was actively hostile to human life"