I was brought up in a fundamentalist Protestant church that taught the kind of hatred-filled rhetoric and bigotry that I have seen here with some people. I was taught that the pope was the anti-Christ; that Catholics were basically ignorant people who could only blindly follow what the pope and the church taught; that they made up all sorts of teachings that are not found in the Bible; etc. I remember being told to read an anti-Catholic book recommended by the pastor, which I did while still in high school.
And my parents chimed in on this as well, with my own father telling me that if he ever heard that I even visited a Catholic church that he'd kick my "a**". I was also taught that Jews were ignorant since they didn't believe that Jesus was "the messiah", and also that they were corrupt and money-hungry.
Now, imagine my parents' reaction when I decided to marry a very devout Italian Catholic woman-- the same very devout Catholic woman that I have been married to for 51 years now. I heard through my sister that they thought I was so stupid to marry her, and my own father pretty much avoided us when visiting them, sometimes even finding an excuse to leave to work in the garage or whatever. My mother, otoh, was much more reserved.
But something changed all that. Within months, they fell in love with my wife as well since she is so compassionate and loving, plus she doesn't go around bad-mouthing people. When our kids went through their baptism and confirmation services, they came and saw that it's actually a church we go to, not some sort of hell-hole.
Not only did their anti-Catholic bigotry come to an end, so did their anti-Jewish bigotry. When I started going to synagogue and mosque and Hindu services, they didn't object one bit. Matter of fact, not too long before my mother passed away from cancer 25 years ago, she said to me "You sure do get around", and that was said in a complimentary manner that she never would have said a few decades earlier.
Now, maybe some here can understand why my emotions get ramped up when I see any denomination or religion being attacked, and some here at RF who have been around here for several years know that I have responded to attacks on other religions and on many occasions.
In closing, my "theology" is so very liberal that I can walk into any religious service and pretty much feel at home-- with one exception. That exception are those religious institutions that take the "my way or the highway" approach. Yes, they have the full right to having that opinion, including teaching it as such, but I also have the full right of having the opinion of feeling that this is not for me, thus preferring not to to their services if I can avoid them.
shalom
