OP >I'm just really angry that people think its ok to insult me/my religion like that, when I haven't once preached or insulted others.<
Right. Back to basics. Off the top of my head :
I suppose we should be grateful to be in a country of ?free speech?, where anyone can within reason say anything. Though unkind things said to or about us is part of the price we pay for having the freedom to say what we want, too (whether or not we use it).
Insulting is a bit harsh, but making fun of others may be helpful, if done in the right spirit.
IMU Religion, as opposed to faith, is a man-made ( includes women, of course) system devised or imposed to bring some order to groups of people of a common faith, with regard to establishing common ground in what they believe and how they express it, in word and action. Most human activity of this nature or any other, because it is conducted by humans, is flawed.
Religion has much to answer for. Not just at the level of ridicule, but at the level of serious accusations of wrongdoing. So people are right to challenge it and hold religions to account.
However, 'being religious' is not the same as having faith or believing.
Outsiders see ?religion? and hear religious pronouncements, but less often do they encounter individual believers as people. (A bit like watching PMQs then meeting your own MP - they're often quite humanitarian on their own)
Jesus himself used irony and poked fun at times. As a young believer I did not realise this; indeed it came as rather a shock.
Others may suggest additional examples, but I just take Jesus saying it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven.
IMU Jesus was talking to a group of people in sight of, or who would know of one of the gates of the city of Jerusalem, which was quite narrow and nicknamed ?the needle? but would from time to time be used by a merchant driving a heavily-laden camel train from the countryside in to he city markets.
There would be a struggle, and maybe the camels? loads had to be shed in order for the camel to get in. Jesus?s listeners would witness the situation, see the joke, and possibly take on the message in reference to their own attitude to wealth. Jesus was definitely a match for Ian Hislop.
Jesus was absolutely scathing about the established church ? the church he had actually been brought up in.
He called its leaders the Pharisees ?a brood of vipers? ? no innuendo there. And 'whitewashed sepulchres' i.e. stinking tombs with only a layer of white paint to counteract the smell.
He called them hypocrites. He accused them of oppressing the poor, and the ordinary people by imposing impossible religious burdens on them. He was no friend of the high priests. Hence their giving Judas a bribe to betray Jesus' whereabouts - so that they could have him killed. No CCTV cameras or Indentikit photos then. 'The man I kiss, he is the one.'
Now coming back to the FB ?insults?.
People attacked Jesus for two main reasons :
a) claiming, directly or indirectly, to be God himself.
(This was rightly forbidden by their Scriptures)
b) challenging their behaviour by making them realize that, if not absolutely ?wicked?, they were not as ?good? in their behaviour and attitudes as they knew they should be.
It made them uncomfortable, and they hoped that by killing him, chasing him away or just stopping their ears they could make the accusation vanish.
Obviously, none of us should set ourselves up for challenge a); nevertheless it is easy by our attitude to others to come over as too ?goody goody?, and of course people may attack us because of their perception of what a ?religious? person is, and is like.
When we are attacked for b) then surely that is what Jesus was getting at when he said Blessed are ye when ? etc. We continue to carry His cross, long after he has died.
It comes with the territory.
"Bless them that persecute you, and pray for them who despitefully use you"