2010-11-22

the insecurity of religious people

Well, yesterday I attended my first ever Christian wedding. I guess it wasn't a true Christian wedding; the bride (Indian) and groom (Canadian, or Quebecois, as he would remind me) were members of a church called "the international church of christ".

Anyway, I took an instant dislike to the person who was officiating in the wedding. He talked patronisingly of India traditionally having many barriers against inter-caste, inter-language, and inter-state weddings, etc., and patted himself and his church on the back that this wedding was therefore unique or at least very special.

Of course, he conveniently left out "inter-religion". Probably because his church expressly prohibits it ;-)

Anyway, I'd say http://carm.org/what-international-church-christ (esp the last 2 paras) is more accurate than Wikipedia's wimpy "it is difficult to make any generalizations about the organization collectively". Google around for more if you're curious. Add the word "banned" to see even more interesting results.


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Which brings me to my subject line. Why do most ultra-religious people feel the need to convince *you* of it? Or at least to praise it/themselves? Are they trying to justify their choice, maybe? Convince themselves, more than you?

I'm not against religion. I'm against the public display of religion. With few exceptions, my experience has been that people who feel compelled to *show* their religious affiliations overtly are, to put it delicately, very "imperfect".

There are two very good reasons I'm putting it "delicately" :-)

And oh... "against the public display of religion" also means "I won't tell you whether I believe in God or not" :-)

1 comment:

SHAHLA said...

"Are they trying to justify their choice, maybe? Convince themselves, more than you?" -> EXACTLY!!!

Good part is any religious body which becomes "very legalistic and controlling" will be shunned by people(hopefully, if they are sane enough :)) and is bound to fail someday.

I feel same applies to any society, organization or country .Everyone wants freedom and privacy to live their life in their own way. In today's world if someone tries to take away these basic rights from people( saner ones i mean),they will get to hear - Its either my way or the highway. BOOM!!!