Religious Groups that give your religion a bad name.

[Demonslayer]

The Westboro Baptist Church is the most obvious one to me...though Christianity is not my religion so I'm just providing an example of a group that makes the Christian religion look bad. Most Chrisitans aren't insane bigots who force their children to hold disgusting signs on street corners, and protest American soldiers funerals because they think God is killing our soldiers because of America's tolerance of homosexuality.

Most Christians I know hate the WBC because of how it makes their religion look.

 

[Jainarayan]

• Neo-Nazis.
• Prison-yard Odinists.
• People who watch 'Vikings', wear a hammer and go around "singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!"

 

[Robert.Evans]

Our more exemplary behavior does make them look bad.
They're supposed to be the ones who follow the scriptural righteous path.
But they continually fall from grace, fully knowing it's wrong.
Go figure.

Bad thing have been done on both sides.
But a large part of the world are believers, a few billion. I think if they were all bad and all fighting, the world would be a different place! But they aren't. It is easy to think they are when we look at the media and then stereotype. Most religious people are peaceable.

 

[Revoltingest]

Bad thing have been done on both sides.
But a large part of the world are believers, a few billion. I think if they were all bad and all fighting, the world would be a different place! But they aren't. It is easy to think they are when we look at the media and then stereotype. Most religious people are peaceable.

There's one large difference.....
When Xians commit sins which prohibited by the Bible, they know they're doing wrong, & that they offend their god.
When atheists commit sins, we often don't even think we're doing anything wrong.
But if we do something we believe to be wrong, we're not offending a supreme being who could condemn us to an eternity of torment.

We can be as good or evil as Xians, but the latter owns hypocrisy.

 

[Theweirdtophat]

Lol, seriously? I can't answer this op,

Than why make a post in the first place? Do you read what you type or does it not matter to you? In any case don't make posts if you think they are a joke.

 

[Quintessence]

You don't seriously think Druidism is immune to corruption do you...?

Considering the post I made suggested nothing of the sort, it is very interesting that this is how you chose to interpret what I said.

 

[Theweirdtophat]

Considering the post I made suggested nothing of the sort, it is very interesting that this is how you chose to interpret what I said.

Then what were you suggesting? I get it. Each person and what they do is a reflection on their faith, but if that was the case, why do you see numerous others hating on Muslims for what Muslim terrorists do? If lots of people look at others as individuals, why are there people lumping them into the same group and acting as if they are one and the same when they clearly are not?

That was kind of my point. Say for instance that there's a corrupt group of Druidic Witches running amok. Your faith and how you practice it will be different to them and pretty much everyone else but that's not going to stop people taking a second glance on you, isn't it? Just because you happen to have the same or similar label despite how different you practice your faith.

 

[Quintessence]

It was mostly a sideways comment that yes, there are specific individuals I think that are terrible representatives of various groups, but that it is poor form for me to start naming names and I don't think that should be the story that comes out of this thread anyway. On the whole, I'm suggesting we do less judging and more listening, whether we're talking groups or individuals. This whole idea of there being "corrupt" and "pure" religions is a value judgement that we impose onto others. What is the purpose of that? What outcome does it serve?

As an aside, there is no group of "Druidic Witches." I mean what I said that my path is a religion of one. I don't think me running amok qualifies as a group.

 

[Theweirdtophat]

It was mostly a sideways comment that yes, there are specific individuals I think that are terrible representatives of various groups, but that it is poor form for me to start naming names and I don't think that should be the story that comes out of this thread anyway. On the whole, I'm suggesting we do less judging and more listening, whether we're talking groups or individuals. This whole idea of there being "corrupt" and "pure" religions is a value judgement that we impose onto others. What is the purpose of that? What outcome does it serve?

As an aside, there is no group of "Druidic Witches." I mean what I said that my path is a religion of one. I don't think me running amok qualifies as a group.

Really the whole thing is about pointing out which groups that are clearly corrupt and revel in it. We know which groups are out there, and some people like to lump the ones who practice their religion and are good people and not use the faith as an excuse to harm others into the groups that do harm others physically and mentally. It's just a shame to see that considering they are poor representatives. Of course we should judge less and listen more and that goes without saying.

No there is no group of Druidic Witches "on paper" anyway. But who knows there might be a secretive group like that, that meets in caves or other places. It's not likely but the idea isn't impossible. And of course you aren't the only Druidic Witch on the entire planet either. There is always a chance someone out there shares the same title, yet does the opposite of what you do.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

...yeeeaaah, there's some things I really want to say in response to that....

I'll simply stand by what I said earlier. Each person is a religion of one. What that person does is only a reflection of their religion and nobody else's. And shame on those who judge individuals by behavior that is not their own.

A person's beliefs are their own; since a religion is a community of shared belief, there's no such thing as a one-person religion.

And when a religion proclaims its beliefs and values, and an individual stands up and says "yes - that's me. I want to be part of that", that is individual behaviour that relates the group and what it stands for to the individual believer.

Even morseo when the individual believer gives support (material or not) to it: "oh, no - I don't support that aspect of my religion. That's extremism; it doesn't reflect me. Just ignore the fact that I help to fund it with my tithes and pledge my support every week for the religious leader who sanctions it."

 

[Quintessence]

Really the whole thing is about pointing out which groups that are clearly corrupt and revel in it.

I don't think the groups that "revel" in what they are feel that they are corrupt, though. That's something we are projecting onto them. I guess I ask the question again - what purpose does this finger-pointing serve? Are there other ways to accomplish that same objective that may be more in keeping with your ideals? Not questions for me to answer for you or anyone else, of course. Just something to mull over.

We know which groups are out there, and some people like to lump the ones who practice their religion and are good people and not use the faith as an excuse to harm others into the groups that do harm others physically and mentally. It's just a shame to see that considering they are poor representatives. Of course we should judge less and listen more and that goes without saying.

Unfortunately, it seems these things can't go without saying. There is more than enough bigotry and prejudice in the human world to be indicative of that.

No there is no group of Druidic Witches "on paper" anyway. But who knows there might be a secretive group like that, that meets in caves or other places. It's not likely but the idea isn't impossible. And of course you aren't the only Druidic Witch on the entire planet either. There is always a chance someone out there shares the same title, yet does the opposite of what you do.

Sure, but I view this as analogous to people sharing the same first name or something. If two people happen to share the same name, there should be no expectation of them being similar persons. Though oddly, there are people who judge people on such bases ("I've never met an X that I liked!").

A person's beliefs are their own; since a religion is a community of shared belief, there's no such thing as a one-person religion.

I'm not going to argue this point at length, but it should be rather apparent from previous posts in this thread that I disagree with this assertion (along with this notion that "belief" is central, but that's probably neither here nor there). An important distinction can (and should) be made between individual identity and group identity, whether we're talking religion or any other aspect of personal and cultural identity. Being social animals, humans usually have both of these identities, but not always. And, to a strong extent, notions of identity are all constructs; where we draw the lines is arbitrary.

 

[Sundance]

The Westboro Baptist Church is the most obvious one to me...though Christianity is not my religion so I'm just providing an example of a group that makes the Christian religion look bad. Most Chrisitans aren't insane bigots who force their children to hold disgusting signs on street corners, and protest American soldiers funerals because they think God is killing our soldiers because of America's tolerance of homosexuality.

Most Christians I know hate the WBC because of how it makes their religion look.

Awww...Demonslayer, I think you just took the words out of my mouth.

 

[Twilight Hue]

There are a number of groups that misrepresent Zen practices quite well.

SGI, Osho, Numerous New Age caf'e type groups that promote Zen as a type of trendy marketable fad etc.

 

[Augustus]

For vastly different reasons, "new" Atheists and communists have given atheism a bad name. Atheism and communism are almost synonymous in some parts of the world (as in many people perceive them to be synonymous).

I stopped using the word atheist to describe myself due to Dawkins et al though.

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

All of us.

 

[Sand Dancer]

You don't seriously think Druidism is immune to corruption do you...?

Any ideology can be corrupted. That's obvious. However there are some groups that might give you a bad name and that's really bad considering when people see stuff like that on the news, some will come to the conclusion that all who have the title of Druid or Jew or Christian is bad and should not be trusted. If you want to be technical, yeah, everyone is different in how they express their faith, even if the two share the same faith and denomination. Everyone is different and that's a no brainer.

But this is kind of important when people see groups like The Lord's Resistance Army and ignorant people see it and think that Christians themselves are bad and not the group itself.

I think it's easier for religions with lots of dogma to be corrupted, since taking a law and twisting it, disregarding it or taking it to a literal extreme would be easy to spot. Paganism tends not to have much in the way of dogma, so it would be somewhat harder to distort.

 

[Smart_Guy]

ISIS is a group that fits in this category, but there are individuals with certain beliefs that I believe give Islam and Muslims a bad name. Some Muslims seek refuge and help from dead humans and some others cover themselves in feces and urine of religious people, cut them selves violently in huge masses in public as religious rituals.