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People burn and vandalize churches and other places of worship because they hate the religion that is practiced there, they hate the religion, or they hate religion in general.
Sometimes, it is racist, as with the black churches that have been burnt down in the south.
To their credit, some atheists have raised money to repair the damage. Some atheist signs and bilboards have been vandalized as well. Roadside memorials and war memorials that feature crosses have also been stolen and vandalized.
I just got a phone call from a member of the church we attended when we lived in NM. It seems someone decided to take a match to the trailers that were the offices and Sunday school of St Philips Episcopal church last Friday. All the records are gone, the Sunday school is damaged and the food that was used for the food pantry was destroyed. I can understand some crimes, and I can understand people not believing in God, but I can not understand why someone would do something like this? Luckily the priest was not in the office at the time.
My prayers go out to all my friends involved in the church. I did hear the community has come forward with help, especially in rebuilding the supply of food for food pantry.
Arson is a terrible crime but what one learns here is that the people are the church not a building, all of that stuff can be retrieved eventually and find a different place or places to congregate until then. Glad that no lives were lost.
Sometimes it is atheist in tone, like the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" tagging at this church in Bend: Unusual Vandals Tag Two Bend Churches | News - Home
Sometimes you can actually feel sympathy for these folks. I have no desire to see churches and statuary vandalized or destroyed.
(You see, that's empathy, Vizio, one way to realize when something is immoral).
BUT ...
All too often my empathy and sympathy evaporates immediately when someone says something like this:
"Yeah, it's a bummer what we have to go through and redo all this for a brand new facility," said Rod Kirk, the director of facilities for Westside Church. "But the bottom line is that God is the one that's going to get revenge -- we aren't."
Of course, if the person responsible repents, well, sorry Mr. Kirk, but no revenge will be forthcoming. You can then go back to worshiping your God of Wrath.
Quote:
People should respect other's beliefs.
Beliefs should be respected in the sense that people shouldn't be going around vandalizing, terrorizing, destroying, or disturbing other people's places of worship. Yeah, that I agree with.
But I'm long past accepting the old tradition whereby religion automatically receives respect and deference.
Sometimes you can actually feel sympathy for these folks. I have no desire to see churches and statuary vandalized or destroyed.
(You see, that's empathy, Vizio, one way to realize when something is immoral).
BUT ...
All too often my empathy and sympathy evaporates immediately when someone says something like this:
"Yeah, it's a bummer what we have to go through and redo all this for a brand new facility," said Rod Kirk, the director of facilities for Westside Church. "But the bottom line is that God is the one that's going to get revenge -- we aren't."
Of course, if the person responsible repents, well, sorry Mr. Kirk, but no revenge will be forthcoming. You can then go back to worshiping your God of Wrath.
Beliefs should be respected in the sense that people shouldn't be going around vandalizing, terrorizing, destroying, or disturbing other people's places of worship. Yeah, that I agree with.
But I'm long past accepting the old tradition whereby religion automatically receives respect and deference.
I feel the same way about atheism. Foolish ideas should always be mocked, and atheism is a foolish idea. But while I discard their beliefs as preposterous, I would not vandalize one of the atheist "churches" that have sprung up, nor would I burn a copy of one of Dawkins' books (or any books).
Yes. In other words, people burn churches, or they burn by accident, for much the same reason any other public building burns.
BUT they also might burn them for deliberate reasons (not listed). And a couple of the things on that list could qualify as disagreements with the religion.
same reason they would urinate and defecate on a church, same reason they would tag a church or deface its images.
hatred of good
jesus did not just rub people the wrong way, they hated his goodness.
they killed him. nothing less will satisfy the carnal mind.
i bet you still dont think there is such a thing as satan do you?
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