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?

I've never had any overt religious discrimination against me, but this is partially because I am cautious and in the broom closet for the most part. I only come out to people who I've evaluated and figured that the risk was small that they would react badly. At the worksplace I've never mentioned my religion although they have an idea that my spiritual beliefs probably aren't mainstream Christian. One woman I worked with for years and am good friends with asked me point blank what I believed. Years ago she asked me the same thing. She is heavily Christian and at the time I was a deist, but not Christian. She was fine about it when I explained my beliefs of the time. It wasn't an uncalled for question because I was doing energy work treatment on her. I can understand how she wanted to make sure that what I was doing wasn't demonically based. My beliefs have changed and evolved since then and she asked me again recently. I am still treating her so I could understand her questioning me. But to me, energy work is a technique, not really a religious practice. Apparently she had forgotten asking me a long time ago. But by this time I was polytheistic and this time I fudged the truth, saying that I was still a deist. I suppose I still am in a sense, but with more than one deity. I didn't feel too good about it, but I didn't feel that she could handle the whole truth. And I've had enough fundies pushing their religion on me at work that I have taken the position that it isn't anyone else's business at work what I believe. I also know that if I told her, the information would get out to others in the workplace. I suppose I did wrong, placing practical matters above ideals. But weighing her right to know and my right not to tell her I came down on the side of discretion. British Traditionals tend tobe secretive in any case. I'd probably do it again. Dorren Valiente used to say that wicca doesn't pay for broken windows and the principle still holds. To me it was the lesser of two evils.