Christian family moving to Eugene..what are we in for??? (Portland: real estate market, crime rate)

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by 1208

nah, lets shoot RPGs at each other from behind the coburg hills

No way. You might overshoot and set fire to my pot plants.

[Zlynn]

Thanks everyone for the good discussion! I have no intention to homeschool (no patience),nor do I intend to shove anything about my faith down anyones throats; not my style. I simply wanted a feel for the Christian environment there in Eugene. My husband is from Portland and most of his family lives near Salem. I've heard Eugene is tough for conservatives. I think it is a good mix of diversity from what I have gotten here anyway. I love what Nell said!!! That is great!! Keep the discussion going!

[Woof]

christian school near eugene, or - Google Maps

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

Originally Posted by Jeramie D

Well are you talking "conservative" or "Christian"? They weren't always automatically synonymous, you know. For instance, Jesus was a hardcore liberal.

That's a good point, but you have to realize that the institutional ideology that drives the Religious Right DOES strive to convince its adherents that Christianity and conservativism are two facets of an indivisible whole. Those who have drunk the Kool-Aid frequently believe that a "true Christian" is necessarily a strong conservative, the politics of Jesus of Nazareth not withstanding.

Evangelical pulpits strongly reinforce this view. You are much more likely to hear evangelical ministers spinning contemporary conservative views out of Bible readings than giving an unbiased exegesis that reflects the time in which it was written. As has been said so many times, Protestant evangelicalism is 1% GOD and 99% GOP.

I think you guys are hitting on the point I was trying to make earlier. Christians of the "I've read the Bible and follow the teachings of Jesus as best I can" variety aren't going to have any problems around western OR. Christians of the "I'm going to contort my claimed religion to fit my view that we should all be Republicans" variety are going to feel out of place.

[Zlynn]

I was wondering where the confusion was and Jason said it perfectly....I am the "I read the bible and try to follow the teaching of Jesus..." not the political conservative, the biblical conservative. I think some of you are making this way too complicated or using this as a platform. It's simple-I am a Christian my husband might move us to Eugene, and I am wondering how the environment is there. I want to make friends regardless of how you live your personal life and I want the same respect. I think there will be no problems.

[Zlynn]

One last thought; if you are NOT a Christian and you moved to a 90% christian populated town you would want to know the environment you are moving too right?

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by Zlynn

One last thought; if you are NOT a Christian and you moved to a 90% christian populated town you would want to know the environment you are moving too right?

Depends on the type of Christian. It wouldn't matter to me that they were Christian as long as they weren't judgemental and didn't get in people's faces about belief, and treated people as they should be treated--with dignity and respect regardless of their belief system (or lack thereof). Now point me to where this magical Christian community exists--bet you can't!

Zlynn, if you choose to move to Eugene you'll be just fine as long as you don't feel the need to push your belief system on other people. People don't look twice at a Jesus fish on the car or even overtly religious Christmas decorations. But if you start a campaign to boycott a local store because they say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," you're not going to get many recruits.

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by Jeramie D

Meh, democratic protests are fine.

I have no problem with democratic protests either. Just saying the OP wouldn't get very many signatures on that petition in Eugene.

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

Originally Posted by Zlynn

One last thought; if you are NOT a Christian and you moved to a 90% christian populated town you would want to know the environment you are moving too right?

The incidence of Christians -- in the literal sense of that word -- is 70-90% in most of American towns. But I think we all know that you use that word in a way that is both exclusionary and sanctimonious. You're not talking about the Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Catholics, Congregationalists and other mainstream church-goers whose political world view can't be known by their faith. You're talking about those for whom a conservative world view and religiosity are fused together: fundamentalists...Protestant evangelicals...Born-Agains...the Religious Right...those who believe that America is "a Christian Country."

Fundamentalists don't like to call themselves "fundamentalists" and so they try to expropriate the label "Christian" in an exclusive way to mean "people like me...true Christians...conservatives...not all you false-prophet folks who go to church on Sunday and think you're Christians but who really aren't because you haven't been washed in the blood of the Lamb and carried your cross in a way that meets my criteria for wearing that label."

And as for tolerance, well, ideology is not like ethnic identity, age or gender. It's not an immutable characteristic and it isn't automatically entitled to acceptance. The Islamic fundamentalists who gave up their lives to fly jumbo jets into the World Trade Center towers ten years ago were acting out of a deeply-held religious conviction that required great personal sacrifice in order to defeat the Great Satan. But the mere fact that such an ideology exists in the great mix of thoughts out there doesn't necessarily mean it is one of the ones that should be tolerated. Tolerating a dogma of intolerance quickly becomes an irresolvable paradox.

If you're going to move to Eugene, I would drop the hubris-laden usage of the label "Christian" that you've grown accustomed to in your sectarian microcosm. Use it in its traditional fashion. Most Christians are NOT evangelicals and a good many hold to a progressive world view...which after all, was good enough for Jesus.