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Have Christians Ever Defended Any Other Religion's Rights?
Christians often like to use phrases like "religious freedoms", but, beneath the surface they only mean christian rights. Exclusively. I think that christians would be the first to trample upon the rights of any other religion.
My parents did and they are Christian. When I was a child and my school taught Christianity in the public school system they and a few other families took on the school system to have the weekly christian teaching taken out of the school. They believed that religion had no place in public schools as everyone wasn't Christian or that particular brand of Christianity. I have always been really proud of them for that. I am not Christian now.
So far...
Not much of substance. Socially acceptable posts. Wonderful virtues, enough to get one all bleary eyed at the goodness.
When creating this thread I considered writing Judeo-Christianity, assuming that posters would point out instances of Christians defending Jews.
However, aren't Christianity and the Jewish religion very similar?
I was wondering if anyone can point out any instances where Christians have defended the rights of other religions, like Islam, Hinduism, etc.
Actually I mentioned Baha'i, which is maybe relational but in a more distant manner. The US Catholic Bishops have discussed persecution of Tibetan Buddhists in China.
Actually I mentioned Baha'i, which is maybe relational but in a more distant manner. The US Catholic Bishops have discussed persecution of Tibetan Buddhists in China.
Organizations devoted to religious liberty, in general terms, contain many Christians. Even some atheists here aren't agreeing with you.
Are the catholic bishops really concerned about the persecution of Tibetan Buddhists in China, or just interested in being critical of China? Many of America's religious view China as an enemy.
I'd still like to hear some examples of Christians defending the rights of other religions.
Religions don't defend freedom of belief - people of conscience (of all stripes) do that.
The problem with the Abrahamic belief systems is that they tend to support a view that God may send great tragedy (judgements) if it's definition of 'sin' is condoned by the government.
Remember I said they "tend" to.
Modern mainstream Christians believe in free will, but yet some fundamentalists also have that constant threat of wrath filled vials hanging over the land ready to spill their angry contents onto the country if things go to far (for instance - if gay marriage is 'endorsed' as valid).
What we see happening now it that constitutional issues are being voted down in states by popular opinion which eventually must stop. That's the safeguard and strength of the constitution. That's what keeps 51% of those in a democracy voting to enslave the other 49%.
Are the catholic bishops really concerned about the persecution of Tibetan Buddhists in China, or just interested in being critical of China? Many of America's religious view China as an enemy.
I'd still like to hear some examples of Christians defending the rights of other religions.
The Vatican has Swiss guards, so I'm guessing they don't have a bitter hostility to Switzerland, but they did criticize the Swiss minaret ban.
If that doesn't work because its "self-interest they're banning Catholic symbols too" than there's the Christian-created Beckett Fund. They have apparently done litigation on behalf of several non-Christian groups including Lakota Sioux traditional religion and a Hindu temple.
If that doesn't work because they're "anti-atheist" and only doing it as an "agenda to weaken church-state separation" than okay I give up.
Not because I'm saying such arguments would be totally invalid, but using them you could argue pretty much no one ever really defends the rights of group they disagree with themselves. Example by these kinds of arguments I could say atheists who defend the rights of Christians in Iran are only doing it because they dislike Islam more and are the kind of atheists who like to criticize Iran. Or because they hope that an Iran that gives unregistered Protestants more rights will eventually give atheists rights. That it's simply self-interest. Or atheists who defend religious people persecuted by Communists, if such atheists exist. I mean I'm certain they do, but I don't know if I can name one offhand so who knows? And if they're doing it I could just argue it's in the hopes of freer expression for non-Marxist atheists.
Last edited by Thomas R.; 12-08-2009 at 10:51 PM..
It's always possible to argue that some religion will leap to the defence of another if it sees its own privileges threatened. Thom. R mentioned the recent defence of the minaret.
It is possible to argue that there were worries that if it's minarets today couldn't it be church spires tomorrow? And yet someone also pointed out that minarets are not traditional Swiss but church spires are, so it's hardly likely that banning minarets would be followed by the call to demolish church towers. So it looks a lot more like altruism, and, though one could postulate some more subtle agenda, perhaps they could be given the benefit of the doubt. So, yes, Christianity has, for one reason or another, defended other religions at times.
Last edited by TRANSPONDER; 12-09-2009 at 06:10 AM..
So far...
Not much of substance. Socially acceptable posts. Wonderful virtues, enough to get one all bleary eyed at the goodness.
When creating this thread I considered writing Judeo-Christianity, assuming that posters would point out instances of Christians defending Jews.
However, aren't Christianity and the Jewish religion very similar?
I was wondering if anyone can point out any instances where Christians have defended the rights of other religions, like Islam, Hinduism, etc.
1. Here is a recent example of Catholics who are standing up for the rights of persecuted Muslims in India:
The Catholic Bishops of India have appealed for justice for the country’s Muslim minority which, in recent years, has been targeted by Hindu fundamentalists in various states of the federation, reported Fides. The Muslim community forms about 10 percent of the whole population.
2. Father Rasshaert in 1964 gave his life to save a group of Muslims from rioters:
In early 1964, the pestering of the largely christianized Garo tribals in East Pakistan by the Muslim majority culminated in bloody terror, killing many hundreds, which sent the survivors fleeing to their brethren in India. Their arrival sparked off a wave of "revenge" against Muslims in Chotanagpur and Orissa, killing hundreds. On 24 March 1964, Father Rasschaert tried to intervene in the siege of a mosque (which served as shelter for hundreds of Muslims) by an armed mob of tribals.... He was hit on the head, fell down, and was finished off with knives and axes. His parishioners in the mob took his body away and gave it a Christian burial.
Many catholic missionaries have been murdered in Brazil for defending the rights of Indian peoples. Lately, several death threats have been uttered against dom Aldo Mongiano, bishop of Roraima
Read more....
Demonstration is Held to Support Death-Threatened Bishop (http://forests.org/archive/brazil/moredie.htm - broken link)
4. The Vatican explicitly declared in Dignitatis Humanae that all persons have an innate right to religious freedom:
This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits. The council further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person as this dignity is known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself.(2) This right of the human person to religious freedom is to be recognized in the constitutional law whereby society is governed and thus it is to become a civil right.
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