Abortion & Religion

Let me start by saying that I really love my mom, but her religious views and the way she's turned uber-Catholic since my dad passed is really driving me nuts. She watches this religious channel on cable; there are masses, saint stories, and the proverbial Catholic priests blathering about the horrors of abortion. It makes me want to puke. First of all, I need to be up front here with you all. The path that I have chosen is that of the elemental kind. In other words, I am Wiccan/Pagan. After much reading up on religions about fifteen years ago, I had found Wicca and was filled with a sense of peace and that it was the most comfortable, peaceful, benevolent belief system. I was baptized and raised a Catholic, but I never felt comfortable with it. For some reason, Catholicism scared the shit out of me, to be totally honest. So I did research. I am happy with my chosen path. But I digress...

So I hear this priest talking about how the younger generation has lost their Catholic upbringing and beliefs and have turned to SINFUL Pagan ways. Yes, that's what he said, Pagan ways. My mom knows that that is my belief system, yet I saw her nodding in agreement with this priest. I was seething, but said nothing. Then this priest starts in on the whole abortion subject. I left the room quietly without saying anything. A little while later, my mom says to me, "I know you don't agree that abortion is wrong, but if you would see what they do with the dead babies and how they are deposited into a trash can in back of the clinics, you'd be sick. There are baby parts, bla bla bla..." I said, "Well, what do you think they should do with them?" She said that some pro-lifers got together, collected the parts & fetuses and gave them a proper burial." Okay, that's fine with me, as long as they didn't hurt anyone in the process. THEN, my mom went on to say that these babies are now angels, and that since I had a miscarriage (please note: I thank the Goddess that it happened) that I now have a little angel in Heaven. I felt a little freaked out - not upset or sad, but kind of like I was being put on the spot. I didn't know how to respond to that comment. As far as I am concerned, life begins AT BIRTH. Now that's just my opinion, personally. I was lucky enough to be able to change the subject before the conversation went on.

But damn. I don't know what irks me more; this whole anti-abortion shit that these priests are preaching about, or the fact that they BLATANTLY are disrespecting other religions. The way I used to think was "Faith is faith, pass it on." However, the more I hear these priests bellowing about the evils of other religions, the more animosity I feel towards Christianity, namely, Catholicism. I do not disrespect ANY religion - I feel that if you have faith in something, fine. However, when people start tearing other religions apart, it's just wrong. I would never tear down another religion during Circle, ever. For these priests to start saying negative things about Wicca/Paganism is something that could cause problems for anyone who follows The Craft. I am fearful that history might start repeating itself, if you know what I mean. (Think Salem, Mass.)

Any comments or input on these issues? I'd be interested to know opionions, if you will.

Oh, and Blessed Be!

My husband is an agnostic and works with a rabid Catholic. He never mentioned to the woman his Jewish roots or else he would really be hassled. She had asked him once if he was "one of those d@mned Arabs" due to an ankh on his wedding band. Husband likes Egyptology. This showed her ignorance as Egypt is a part of Africa. This woman constantly hassles him about how he must go to Catholic Church because it is the true religion.

I had found most European Catholics alright but this woman is from Croatia and very different. She whines how G-d hates divorce but she was married once before while in Germany for 10 months to possibly emigrate. That is different for her, though. She screams against abortion and birth control while having only one child and admitting to using an IUD as a younger woman. My husband has patience and just ignores her. If it were me, I would go "HR" all over her.

I find the fanatics in my own faith. I am an American convert but am still me. I still have some new age attitudes. Many American converts are not so mellow. I would often rather be around a "born Muslim" than many of these Westerners who converted. A lot of them traded fundamentalist Christianity, such as Pentecostalism, for Islam. Any woman who does not cover completely is sinful and they are so for Shari'a Law which I am not!

The joke is how most of these American women only converted when they married their 'green card' husband. Usually it is very young women in their 20's and did this to possibly shock their families or divorcees who married a man their age in their early 40's but they married much younger men only to go on and have a baby with them. It did not matter if their kids from their American exes were grown.

One got on me for not being married to a Muslim man. She shut up and then went on to cry for weeks when I pointed out Younness was about 15+ years younger than her and how I, at least, have a husband who is a peer rather than a young boy toy. Was it cruel to say that? Yes. It did shut her up. She, like many religious fanatics, need to get their own 'houses' in order before looking at me. At least, my husband works and pays for his things rather than like Younness at Target where he is supported by his wife, who has money from her ex-husband.

By the way, I am very pro-choice. Many American converts to Islam are as bad as what you are dealing with. I find many Middle Eastern women calmer and more pro-choice.

I can sympathize, my mother is very christian religious. Currently, I am not attending church because I was made to as a child and hated every minute of it. My mother gets very angry if I say anything about evolution or abortion. Now I just try not to say anything serious to her... As a student of biology it's difficult to not be able to express my interest in the subject while she's around.

In her church they don't respect other religions and I suspect that many christian churches are the same. People have the right to not agree, but I think it's important to recognize other views and not be so polarized on the subject of religion. I live in America, so I support the divide between religion and state. Religion has no place in government. It is free to influence the voting masses and government representative, but it should not be legislated.

As far as abortion goes, people should have a choice. It is not the government's job to regulate whether a person is allowed to chose this medical procedure. My opinion is, if your religion says not to get an abortion, don't get one. Many religions frown on other things such as eating meat or drinking caffeinated beverages. I have friends who are Mormon and they don't flick me crap for drinking coffee. They also don't support the removal of caffeinated stuff from the stores. Everyone should make their own choice.

I still don't understand why people feel the need to chose evolution or religion...that's another can of worms. haha

Maiden, what's your take on atheism? I do not believe in god and have zero religion in my life whatsoever. I have always thought it was a waste of time and money and makes people stupid (or do stupid things). The religious nuts who try to impose their views on everyone else using the force of government are scary. And wrong, too. In some ways, being an atheist is worse than being CF.

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"I thank god I'm an atheist!" -- Mike "Meathead" Stivic (from All in the Family)

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Muslimah

I find the fanatics in my own faith. I am an American convert but am still me. I still have some new age attitudes. Many American converts are not so mellow. I would often rather be around a "born Muslim" than many of these Westerners who converted. A lot of them traded fundamentalist Christianity, such as Pentecostalism, for Islam. Any woman who does not cover completely is sinful and they are so for Shari'a Law which I am not!

The joke is how most of these American women only converted when they married their 'green card' husband. Usually it is very young women in their 20's and did this to possibly shock their families or divorcees who married a man their age in their early 40's but they married much younger men only to go on and have a baby with them. It did not matter if their kids from their American exes were grown.

One got on me for not being married to a Muslim man. She shut up and then went on to cry for weeks when I pointed out Younness was about 15+ years younger than her and how I, at least, have a husband who is a peer rather than a young boy toy. Was it cruel to say that? Yes. It did shut her up. She, like many religious fanatics, need to get their own 'houses' in order before looking at me. At least, my husband works and pays for his things rather than like Younness at Target where he is supported by his wife, who has money from her ex-husband.

By the way, I am very pro-choice. Many American converts to Islam are as bad as what you are dealing with. I find many Middle Eastern women calmer and more pro-choice.

You've been a "Muslimah" for what, 3 or 4 months now? Before that it was the Hare Krishnas. Some "convert", changing religions more often than you change your underwear. :crz

Ummm... ducking out of this thread for now.... Bye! May peek in a little later.

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Jehovah

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Muslimah

I find the fanatics in my own faith. I am an American convert but am still me. I still have some new age attitudes. Many American converts are not so mellow. I would often rather be around a "born Muslim" than many of these Westerners who converted. A lot of them traded fundamentalist Christianity, such as Pentecostalism, for Islam. Any woman who does not cover completely is sinful and they are so for Shari'a Law which I am not!

The joke is how most of these American women only converted when they married their 'green card' husband. Usually it is very young women in their 20's and did this to possibly shock their families or divorcees who married a man their age in their early 40's but they married much younger men only to go on and have a baby with them. It did not matter if their kids from their American exes were grown.

One got on me for not being married to a Muslim man. She shut up and then went on to cry for weeks when I pointed out Younness was about 15+ years younger than her and how I, at least, have a husband who is a peer rather than a young boy toy. Was it cruel to say that? Yes. It did shut her up. She, like many religious fanatics, need to get their own 'houses' in order before looking at me. At least, my husband works and pays for his things rather than like Younness at Target where he is supported by his wife, who has money from her ex-husband.

By the way, I am very pro-choice. Many American converts to Islam are as bad as what you are dealing with. I find many Middle Eastern women calmer and more pro-choice.

You've been a "Muslimah" for what, 3 or 4 months now? Before that it was the Hare Krishnas. Some "convert", changing religions more often than you change your underwear. :crz

Wow, that was rude and uncalled for. I don't think Muslimah's alleged changing of religions is really anyone's business.

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Jehovah

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Muslimah

I find the fanatics in my own faith. I am an American convert but am still me. I still have some new age attitudes. Many American converts are not so mellow. I would often rather be around a "born Muslim" than many of these Westerners who converted. A lot of them traded fundamentalist Christianity, such as Pentecostalism, for Islam. Any woman who does not cover completely is sinful and they are so for Shari'a Law which I am not!

The joke is how most of these American women only converted when they married their 'green card' husband. Usually it is very young women in their 20's and did this to possibly shock their families or divorcees who married a man their age in their early 40's but they married much younger men only to go on and have a baby with them. It did not matter if their kids from their American exes were grown.

One got on me for not being married to a Muslim man. She shut up and then went on to cry for weeks when I pointed out Younness was about 15+ years younger than her and how I, at least, have a husband who is a peer rather than a young boy toy. Was it cruel to say that? Yes. It did shut her up. She, like many religious fanatics, need to get their own 'houses' in order before looking at me. At least, my husband works and pays for his things rather than like Younness at Target where he is supported by his wife, who has money from her ex-husband.

By the way, I am very pro-choice. Many American converts to Islam are as bad as what you are dealing with. I find many Middle Eastern women calmer and more pro-choice.

You've been a "Muslimah" for what, 3 or 4 months now? Before that it was the Hare Krishnas. Some "convert", changing religions more often than you change your underwear. :crz

If you have a problem with my religion, please PM me privately. Many people do go through some changes in life. I do not have to explain mine to you unless you do ask in a dignified way. You do not know me personally or what my life was like before or after any other faith. Perhaps, you may want to take more interest in your own life than the lives of others.

I can see a storm coming...

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Sanguinius
I can see a storm coming...

That is why I ran away - but I peeked back in...

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Sanguinius
I can see a storm coming...

No storms. I do not have time for bull$#it. If the person has issue with me, there is the PM feature. I will not fight it out here. I posted my one post to that person and that is it. I have a life of my own than to fight with someone online.

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AngryReptileKeeper

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Jehovah

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Muslimah

I find the fanatics in my own faith. I am an American convert but am still me. I still have some new age attitudes. Many American converts are not so mellow. I would often rather be around a "born Muslim" than many of these Westerners who converted. A lot of them traded fundamentalist Christianity, such as Pentecostalism, for Islam. Any woman who does not cover completely is sinful and they are so for Shari'a Law which I am not!

The joke is how most of these American women only converted when they married their 'green card' husband. Usually it is very young women in their 20's and did this to possibly shock their families or divorcees who married a man their age in their early 40's but they married much younger men only to go on and have a baby with them. It did not matter if their kids from their American exes were grown.

One got on me for not being married to a Muslim man. She shut up and then went on to cry for weeks when I pointed out Younness was about 15+ years younger than her and how I, at least, have a husband who is a peer rather than a young boy toy. Was it cruel to say that? Yes. It did shut her up. She, like many religious fanatics, need to get their own 'houses' in order before looking at me. At least, my husband works and pays for his things rather than like Younness at Target where he is supported by his wife, who has money from her ex-husband.

By the way, I am very pro-choice. Many American converts to Islam are as bad as what you are dealing with. I find many Middle Eastern women calmer and more pro-choice.

You've been a "Muslimah" for what, 3 or 4 months now? Before that it was the Hare Krishnas. Some "convert", changing religions more often than you change your underwear. :crz

Wow, that was rude and uncalled for. I don't think Muslimah's alleged changing of religions is really anyone's business.

Seconded. Besides, Jehovah, you're irrelevant now anyway. Asshole.

This is why I don't like religion. I hate when people attack others for their beliefs. I personally believe that anyone can be whatever they want so long as they're not hurting anyone else. I also highly recommend the movie Religulous (starring Bill Maher). It was hilarious.

Maidentheusa, I don't think you and your mom are ever going to agree. So try to ignore her comments as much as possible. I know that's not easy, but I think you'll feel better if you do.

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- The human gene pool could use a little chlorine

my own personal faith is that personal, everyone travels along paths to their sense of faith.

so what if you change religion to find that thing that makes you happy.

religion divides people.

faith and religion are two different things. catholic, pagan, along many paths.. thats just my journey.. we all have journeys. even you jehovah. and yet thats wrong? that people spend time finding the truth. or should we all be ignorant and stay in the path we are given, if anything the journey gives you strenght.

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

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m4p
This is why I don't like religion. I hate when people attack others for their beliefs. I personally believe that anyone can be whatever they want so long as they're not hurting anyone else. I also highly recommend the movie Religulous (starring Bill Maher). It was hilarious.

Religulous is a hilarious, profound and disturbing look at religion.

Religion, I just don't get it. I find no comfort in myths and no reason to live my life by fictional books. I find conversion attempts to be highly disrespectful. And I see no reason why the 16% of the population that does not believe in a god, has less say in how the world treats them than the 1.3% who make up the NRA, or 3% who identify as gay....or any other minority that falls well below the numbers of the godless.

"It truly is the one commonality that every designation of humans you can think of has, there's at least one asshole."
--Me

Jehovah, people make changes. Why is that apparently a news item to you? It's strange that you would feel threatened by anyone who decided to change their faith--what difference does it make to you? It's an adult decision. Your attempt to insult Muslimah by weirdly attacking her perfectly ordinary adult decision, one that does not affect you and is none of your business, says nothing about Muslimah but a lot about you.

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m4p
This is why I don't like religion. I hate when people attack others for their beliefs. I personally believe that anyone can be whatever they want so long as they're not hurting anyone else. I also highly recommend the movie Religulous (starring Bill Maher). It was hilarious.
Religulous is a hilarious, profound and disturbing look at religion.

Religion, I just don't get it. I find no comfort in myths and no reason to live my life by fictional books. I find conversion attempts to be highly disrespectful. And I see no reason why the 16% of the population that does not believe in a god, has less say in how the world treats them than the 1.3% who make up the NRA, or 3% who identify as gay....or any other minority that falls well below the numbers of the godless.

I agree... And that movie was great! Hubby and I rented it about a month ago. I grew up Catholic and was forced to go to church as well. It's all just a bunch of bullshit rituals to me now. My parents are die hard Catholics as well and I find myself just avoiding subjects that might make them give me the "disappointed" talk. They feel bad because they struggled to send me to Catholic school. I'm so glad it was only through grade school because that shit was torture. I tell them not to worry, I learned a lot, leaving out that all I learned was negative bullshit.

I'm sorry your mom is being so...blatant. Yes, the best thing to do is ignore the comments and worry about yourself.

As an atheist (see my signature line), I found Religulous hilarious! The latter part of the movie was a little bit slow, but I loved the parts which included the politicians.

______________________________________________

"I thank god I'm an atheist!" -- Mike "Meathead" Stivic (from All in the Family)

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Muslimah

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Sanguinius
I can see a storm coming...

No storms. I do not have time for bull$#it. If the person has issue with me, there is the PM feature. I will not fight it out here. I posted my one post to that person and that is it. I have a life of my own than to fight with someone online.

i hope you realize that if you are a Muslim or if you become a Muslim, then you change your religion, you automatically go to hell, no questions asked

that is if you beleive in a hell..guest. you may beleive most of a religion but ignore some of the most stupid, and before anyone says thats not religion.. it is what you wish it to be..

i may identify by the paper that i am RC, but i dont beleive in everything thats said in every religion, muslims dont, jewish people dont.. its a more rational evolved form.

anyway christianity it was permissable to abort

http://www.elroy.net/ehr/abortion.html

Wrong. In reality there is merely overwhelming evidence that most people don't take time to read their own Bibles. People will listen to their pastors and to Christian radio broadcasters. They will skim through easy-to-read pamphlets and perhaps look up the one or two verses printed therein, but they don't actually read their Bibles and make up their own minds on issues such as abortion. They merely listen to others who quote a verse to support a view they heard from someone else. By definition, most Christians, rather than reading for themselves, follow the beliefs of a Culture of Christianity -- and many of the Culture's beliefs are based on one or two verses of the Bible, often taken out of context.

This is most definitely the case when it comes to abortion. Ask most anti-abortion Christians to support their view, and they'll give you a couple of verses. One, quite obviously, is the Commandment against murder. But that begs the question of whether or not abortion is murder, which begs the question of whether or not a fetus is the same as a full-term human person. To support their beliefs, these Christians point to one of three bible verses that refer to God working in the womb. The first is found in Psalms:

"For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for Thou art fearfully wonderful (later texts were changed to read "for I am fearfully and wonderfully made"); wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them."
Psalm 139:13-16
Although this passage does make the point that God was involved in the creation of this particular human being, it does not state that during the creation the fetus is indeed a person. According to Genesis, God was involved in the creation of every living thing, and yet that doesn't make every living thing a full human person. In other words, just because God was involved in its creation, it does not mean terminating it is the same as murder. It's only murder if a full human person is destroyed.

In the full context of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon makes the point that much of life is futile. Over and over he writes that if life is good then we should be thankful. But when life is not good, Solomon makes some interesting statements:

"If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things, and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, `Better the miscarriage than he, for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity. It never sees the sun and it never knows anything; it is better off than he.'"
Ecclesiastes 6:3-5
Clearly there is a quality of life issue being put forth in the Scriptures. And in this case, Solomon makes the point that it is sometimes better to end a pregnancy prematurely than to allow it to continue into a miserable life

. Consider the words of Job, a man of great faith and wealth, when his life fell upon the hardest of times:

"And Job said, 'Let the day perish on which I was to be born, and the night which said, "a boy is conceived." May that day be darkness; let not God above care for it, nor light shine on it.'"
"Why did I not die at birth, come forth from my womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me, and why the breasts, that I should suck? For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest, with kings and with counselors of the earth, who rebuilt ruins for themselves; or with princes who had gold, who were filling their houses with silver,. Or like the miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be, as infants that never saw light. There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary are at rest. The prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master."

Job 3:2-4,11-19
And again a few chapters later Job reiterates the greater grace he would have known if his life had been terminated as a fetus:
"Why then hast Thou brought me out of the womb? Would that I had died and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not been, carried from womb to tomb."
Job 10:18-19

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_hist.htm

and here

The Jewish faith was generally opposed to both infanticide and abortion. An exception occurred if the continuation of a pregnancy posed a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or to her other children. In such cases, the pregnant woman is actually obligated to abort the fetus; the fetus is then considered "radef" -- a pursuer

St. Augustine (354-430 CE) reversed centuries of Christian teaching in Western Europe, by returning to the Aristotelian Pagan concept of "delayed ensoulment." He wrote 7 that a human soul cannot live in an unformed body. Thus, early in pregnancy, an abortion is not murder because no soul is destroyed (or, more accurately, only a vegetable or animal soul is terminated). He wrote extensively on sexual matters, teaching that the original sin of Adam and Eve are passed to each successive generation through the pleasure generated during sexual intercourse. This passed into the church's canon law. Only abortion of a more fully developed "fetus animatus" (animated fetus) was punished as murder.

Augustine had little influence over the beliefs of Orthodox Christianity. They retained their original anti-abortion stance.

St. Jerome (circa 340 - 420) wrote in a letter to Aglasia:

"The seed gradually takes shape in the uterus, and it [abortion] does not count as killing until the individual elements have acquired their external appearance and their limbs" 8

Starting in the 7th century CE, a series of penitentials were written in the West. These listed an array of sins, with the penance that a person must observe as punishment for the sin. Certain "sins" which prevented conception had particularly heavy penalties. These included:

practicing a particularly ineffective form of birth control, coitus interruptus (withdrawal of the penis prior to ejaculation)
engaging in oral sex or anal sex
becoming sterile by artificial means, such as by consuming sterilizing poisons.

Abortion, on the other hand, required a less serious penance. Theodore, who organized the English church, assembled a penitential about 700 CE. Oral intercourse required from 7 years to a lifetime of penance; an abortion required only 120 days.

Pope Stephen V (served 885-891) wrote in 887 CE: "If he who destroys what is conceived in the womb by abortion is a murderer, how much more is he unable to excuse himself of murder who kills a child even one day old." "Epistle to Archbishop of Mainz."

Pope Innocent III (circa 1161-1216):

He wrote a letter which ruled on a case of a Carthusian monk who had arranged for his female lover to obtain an abortion. The Pope decided that the monk was not guilty of homicide if the fetus was not "animated."
Early in the 13th century he stated that the soul enters the body of the fetus at the time of "quickening" - when the woman first feels movement of the fetus. After ensoulment, abortion was equated with murder; before that time, it was a less serious sin, because it terminated only potential human life, not human life.

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) also considered only the abortion of an "animated" fetus as murder.

Pope Sixtus V (1471-1484) issued a Papal bull "Effraenatam" in 1588 which threatened those who carried out abortions at any stage of gestation with excommunication and the death penalty.

Pope Gregory XIV (1535-1591) revoked the Papal bull shortly after taking office in 1591. He reinstated the "quickening" test, which he determined happened 116 days into pregnancy (16½ weeks).

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

so as you can see not all popes beleived in it and not all in the church at any one time.

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Everyone here knows I'm a Christian. Whatever you choose to believe or not believe in is your own business. However, I do find it ironic that (since most here are not Christians), you purposefully leave out the letter 'o' in God (Muslamah), or how you [also] disrespect Christian beliefs by typing the word God backwards or calling it a 'myth'. That is the same disrespect you're referring to regarding the disrespect of the belief, or non-belief, of your choice. It's not a one-way street. I've never read here where someone wrote: "Pa-an", or "Ju-ism" or "Mu-lim". You act as though if you type the whole word out, or properly, you're somehow going to wake up the next day and be a Christian!

I just want to point out one thing: *I* have never EVER disrespected ANY belief or non-belief of ANYONE here, calling them stupid or dumb, and I don't intend to start. Yet I have to constantly hear most on this forum incessantly bashing and degrading a religion I believe in. But I don't complain about it because my beliefs are solid and unequivocal. I guess that's why it doesn't bother me.

Deegee, you asked me my take on Atheism. I have absolutely no problem with it. It is everyone's right to believe in (or disbelieve in) whatever they choose. I do not dislike a person because of what their belief system may or may not be. I do have a problem with those who try to tell me that what MY beliefs are are wrong, evil, bad, etc.

As far as the word, "Pagan" goes, I do understand that the word is used by the Catholics to describe those who are non-Catholic. However, because today, the word is used to describe what I like to call "The Old Tyme Religion" I find it to be offensive that the word is used to make "us" look like heathens or devils. And it added insult to injury already because my mom knows my belief system and this dumbass priest was only making things worse for me in the eyes of my mom.

I skirt the subject of religion with my mom. As soon as she turns on her EWTN, I leave the room without making a scene or making it obvious that it's why I am leaving the room. I tend to keep my belief to myself around my mom.

My Catholic MIL, on the other hand, asked me about my pentacle pendant. I told her that it's an elemental pendant. My husband told her that I am into Earth Religion and that I worship the elements. She said, "I don't believe in that SHIT, I belive in gaaaawd and jeeeeezus." THAT pissed me off. Since that comment, I have no respect for the woman. You just don't blatantly put someone's religion down TO THEIR FACE. Some people can just be so fucking ignorant.

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str8six
Everyone here knows I'm a Christian. Whatever you choose to believe or not believe in is your own business. However, I do find it ironic that (since most here are not Christians), you purposefully leave out the letter 'o' in God (Muslamah), or how you [also] disrespect Christian beliefs by typing the word God backwards or calling it a 'myth'. That is the same disrespect you're referring to regarding the disrespect of the belief, or non-belief, of your choice. It's not a one-way street. I've never read here where someone wrote: "Pa-an", or "Ju-ism" or "Mu-lim". You act as though if you type the whole word out, or properly, you're somehow going to wake up the next day and be a Christian!

I just want to point out one thing: *I* have never EVER disrespected ANY belief or non-belief of ANYONE here, calling them stupid or dumb, and I don't intend to start. Yet I have to constantly hear most on this forum incessantly bashing and degrading a religion I believe in. But I don't complain about it because my beliefs are solid and unequivocal. I guess that's why it doesn't bother me.

Leaving the "o" out of G-d was never a disrespect or fear of Christianity. I am not afraid of your faith or fear I will become one. If a person is happy with the faith s/he is in, that is his/her business. In many faiths, the name of G-d is not spelled out...including Orthodox Judaism. I am not going to say I am sorry because I was the same way when typing out Hare Krsna instead of "Krishna" as that is common with them as well.