Religious Discrimination Options

Please keep this respectful. Any slurs or attacks against other members because of their beliefs will be deleted.

I'm curious to see what members have to say. In my life time I've been riddiculed by my family, who are Catholic both on my mom and dad's side. I've been picked on in grade school too, thats not surprising growing up in a small town with small minded people. But I've never really enountered discrimination in a work environment or otherwise had my rights overtly broken. In college, well mine at least, people either don't really care or are openly curious. I guess there have been a few religious nuts I've banged heads with, but nothing that really impeded my rights.

Now I do hold a certain level of resentment for religious fanatics of any sort, be they Evangelicals, Jehova's Witnesses, KKK, Pagan knights or cults that I percieve as dangerous. My main resentment towards Christianity in general stems from the idea of conversion. I do not think it is right for any religion to pressure or coerce any other denomination to convert. In prision I did not openly discuss my belief either. But in that kind of environment thats a good choice regardless of one's beliefs. I'm also bitter from just the general "holier than thou" attitude I've encountered in grade school and day to day life. All these aspects have formed a kind of prejudice in me against Christians. Not because all Christians are closeminded fanatics, but because a few roten apples spoiled my pie, so to speak.

For me, this manifests as a messure of mis-trust and disdain. I don't often talk about my beliefs with strangers because I don't want to be oustrasized in my community. And yet a portion of me finds pleasure in pissing off fundies. I've been known to challenge the various Mormons or whoever who periodically come to my front door and try to tell me I'm going to hell and need to accept Christ into my heart, under their banner no doubt.

Of course I do try to be respectful, usually, in these "debates" that get stired up. And I always respect people's beliefs in day to day life.

So where have you, if ever, experienced prejudice or discrimination because of your beliefs?

Do you hold any prejudice against a particular religion?

When I was court ordered to take out patient drug classes there was only one treatment center in my area that I could really go to. When I finally did start my classes nobody seemed to care about the pentagram necklace I wore. Nobody ever mentioned it or ever indicated any kind of discontent about it.

Then when I started the second level of the program I had a new councelor, I had two prior who did not have a problem with my necklace. This one did. She told me it was against the center's policy to allow people to wear non-Christian icons. She said it was because of two reasons - 1) they could be gang related, or 2) Such non-Christian icons could potentially disrupt the treatment of other clients, supposedly endangering them or myself. I looked her straight in the face and said "Don't think I put myself at some amount of risk just for wearing this in public?" She was contended it was the center's rules, not her. I then proceeded to ask the group I was in if my necklace offended any of them. Nobody really cared. In fact one guy said he thought it was great as long as my religion helped me in my "recovery".

So I took the issue up with a friend of my mother's who's pretty keen on pagan rights. She told me that the treatment center was actually privately owned. And because it was privately owned, it was not headed by any government/public agency, she said they could refuse treatment to anybody for any reason. There was nothing I could do to trump their rules. Now had it been the courts, the DMV or the jail who infringed on my religious rights then I'd have somewhat of a case - there was still the gang factor that I couldn't dispute though.

Another thing that pissed me off was at the end of each group session we had to recite the serenity prayer while in a big ole group hug. That really up set me and drew right from my issues with Christians trying to shove their shit down non-conformist throats. But I really only had two options - jump through their hoops and complete the required matterial. Jail actually sounded better at the time until I realized that in order to get my license back I'd still have to complete my "Jedi training" and learn the ways of the "Christian force" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/starwars.gif) . The end result was I ended up getting booted out for some really dumb shit on the councelors hands. Went to jail again then had to complete my classes anyways.

I also had to participate in some AA meetings. Now there is an organization that claims to not be religiously motivated. Yet if one looks at the social set up of the group - spirituallity is a huge part of the recovery and relapse provention - its always Christian oriented (97% of all American's are of some Christian group) and everybody has to talk about how great God is and how much God has saved their lives and I should learn to accept Christ in my heart too. Now bravo that these people have found a way to live their lives gracefully, but don't tell me how to live my life or put the fear of God in me. It also fraustrated me on how from then on the people in the group seemed to look down on me for not being one of them. Needless to say I only completed my required session and got out of there.

All this, plus that in my original post, has contributed to my bitterness in life in general, not just towards religions, but how I view common everyday people. So in that respect I think I do hold some prejudice against Christians. I almost wish it was out of dumb ignorance. But in situation, its because of my past experiences.

Such as life. Thanks sharing your "war stories" too people.

Such as life. Thanks sharing your "war stories" too people.

If you can ever find a copy of "The Pipe and the Cross" by Harlan W. Draper, you'll hear something of real war story in the classic sense. This guy claims to practice traditional Cherokee shamanism, pipe tobacco and sweat lodge type of stuff. I've known him for years and consider him legitimate, but I met him during the final stages of his ongoing battle with Christian radicals.

He lived in Rossville, TN, population 250, in a rickety old swamp shack stuffed to the brim with a veritable museum of guns, knives, and occult artifacts from the past few thousand years of Native occupation. Aside from one or two semi-sympathetic individuals, I think the whole town wanted his head on a stick. Anyone who has never lived in a place like this can hardly imagine the lack of accountability that the local yokels enjoy and often abuse. I would like to think thgat it is this lack of accountability, not Christianity itself, that motivated the Rossvillians, but Harlan was never thus persuaded.

They tried arson, poison, hired criminals, theft, and a whole array of legal maneuvers designed to keep him from operating the sweat lodge. They deputised his brother, living next door, and kept 24/7 surveillance. The mayor and aldermen conspired in public town meetings and in private. Draper spent years in court, winning a few small victories regarding the sweat lodge, and eventually a full victory over the entire town. With his settlement completed (thanks to the Masons, who had a much better conspiracy going in his favor), he moved away.