Do you get verbally attacked for being Christian?

[mygreatauntgriselda]

Does anyone else feel peer pressure not to be Christian (or at least not to mention it for fear of ridicule) or get verbally attacked for being a Christian?

I often feel I might be ridiculed so keep a low profile about it at social events, unless I am with other Christians. If I do mention it in conversation, I often get a very aggressive response.

On Friday I was out with some friends I have known on average 20 years each. Conversation turned to the Gaza conflict. One friend then started "ranting" about how all wars are caused by religion (a gross over simplification IMHO - wars are complex and involve disutes over rights, territory, resources etc).

She then started "ranting" about how faith shools are the root of all evil and I found myself being verbally lynched by four women, who had all had a glass or two, about the fact that I am Catholic and our children attend a Catholic school.

These were very PC fiends who wouldn't dream of making blanket statements about people from other faiths but felt fine about being very insulting about Christians.

Has this happened to anyone else - how did you react? I argued my corner but am feeling that I do not want to see any of these "friends" again if they have so little respect for my views, beliefs or feelings.

Scienceteacher is completely right and if I had £2 for every time I've explained this I would be rich.

I often talk about religion and politics in company or else the conversation tends to get very dull: schools or house prices or some such. Don't talk much about sex, though.

Although it does say that Mary was conceived in the normal way, ie with sex, but without sin, hence immaculate.

I guess people see it differently because in the Western world Christians (particularly the Roman Catholic church) are seen as powerful, so it's ok to mock them because they feel they are mocking a large faceless organisation rather than individual people. Whereas Jews and Muslims are a minority, and not in a powerful organisation (in the West) therefore people are more conscious that they are mocking individuals.

I think Jews are not mocked in this country out of respect for their suffering in the Holocaust.

just thinking about the op again - if you are upset about these friends - do you want to resolve it, or have you decided to let it go? If you would like to resolve it with them, perhaps you could bring it up if/when you discuss the evening sometime you may say 'i enjoyed it but i did think that not discussing religion and politics was not good manners these days' - something like that so you can avoid this clash of views again

i like a debate myself but i can understand that it must be very wearing all the time!

What about muslims then.

Back to the OP, I think it is useful if you could have a grounding in basic apologetics so that you can explain your faith to these people.

I'd love to see some hard evidence to back that one up.

Though I am not condoning their bigotry I think the reason why some people in the UK who you would consider to be PC in all other aspects are openly critical to christianity over and above other religions is because for millenia the church and the christians have been in a position of power.

Where as the majority of other religions (I'm thinking Judaism/Islam/hinduism) are practiced predominantly by people who have been persecuted for their race or faith in this country for a long time. Of course Christians have been and are persecuted around the world but in recent history they arent here.

Christianity is intrinsicly linked with some of the more shameful points of history of this country (crusades/missionaries link with colonialism)

Also christainity is viewed as old fashioned and quaint. It is unusal to meet people who openly go to church under the age of 30.

In the past I have scoffed at christianity, I now would never do the same, unless of course someone should be dismissive of my belief that god doesn't exist.

xpost with amum - gosh I type slowly!

there's horrible anti-catholic feeling in Scotland, totally unnecessary

I mean you are making claims about the propensity of one voting population against another.

So my charity-worker, writer friend who votes Tory and is friends with the Muslim GP in the flat below is more likely to be Islamophobic than a working class unemployed lad who can't get a council flat because (he thinks) they've all been given over to 'immigrants'?

Is the working class lad a leftie? Or are you making assumptions too?

'for millenia the church and the christians
have been in a position of power.'

Equally, in this country, they have been responsible for:

Running monasteries which were the only source of medical care for the poor.

Education of said poor.

And more recently:

Trying to reach out to senior figures opposing Hitler before WW2 in order to prevent a war.

Protesting against things like the widespread bombing of German cities.

Protesting against other social/political evils.

I agree abraid

power isnt always a bad thing.

OMG, that descripton of the immaculate conception reads very much like the male desire to control female fertility.

How do you see that, MT?

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception just says that Mary was conceived (via sexual intercourse) without the stain of Original Sin. There is nothing about controlling female fertility in it.

I thought that it was usually females who wanted to control their fertility, and men who wanted them not to be able to, so as to keep them at home with swarms of kiddies round their ankles and therefore too knackered to assert themselves. Maybe I have missed something?

But how does this apply to the Immaculate Conception, rev?