So earlier today, I posted this:

Okay, yeah. I've tolerated enough nasty, snide remarks about Muslims from certain people in my news feed. I don't much give a shit what your excuses are, bigotry is bigotry, and I won't stand for it.

In the ensuing thread, I made some further remarks that were highly critical of Christians – not all Christians, but the hypocritical, self-righteous types that I’m always railing about.

Unfortunately I didn’t make the distinction between the people I was criticizing and “all Christians” entirely clear, and as a result I got a flood of responses in my private messages ranging from quite reasonable notice that it’s rather hypocritical of me to bitch about people making rude comments about Islam and then turn around and make rude comments about Christianity, to flouncing, huffy, OMG THIS FRIENDSHIP IS OVAR declarations.

So let’s clear some things up, shall we?

(Note:  Some of the below is taken from a private response I wrote to one person in particular who was quite lucid and polite; I want to go on record as saying that nothing in this article should be construed by that person as being directed particularly at them.)

I often hear this line of reasoning - "Islam is no religion of peace, have you read the Koran? All kinds of terrible, terrible things."

Yet there is *nothing* in the Koran that is not also in the Bible, in terms of "kill the infidel," "conquer the world," "you the believer are God's Chosen and anyone not of this belief is evil." Even Jesus Himself is quoted as saying that if you don't hate your own mother and father, you aren't good enough to love Him.

Nearly all religions teach these things, in some form or another, because in large part religions - especially those "of the book," Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - are simply tools by which large numbers of people are manipulated to obtain and preserve power for small numbers of people.

I understand and even agree that there is a rather marked tendency among those in this country who think of themselves as "enlightened" to defend Muslims while offending Christians. At the same time, there is a marked tendency among those in this country who are not Muslim to insist that Islam is a violent, hateful religion while Christianity is a loving and peaceful one.

I think both of these points of view are in error, and I think it's for the same reason: you and I might have read the Koran a couple of times and tried to understand a little bit of what Islam is all about...but we weren't *immersed* in it from birth the way pretty much anyone born in this country is with Christianity.

We don't *understand* it.

We read in the Koran, "kill the non-believer" and because we are unfamiliar with Islam we see "OMG KILL THE NON-BELIEVER?! WHAT A VIOLENT HATEFUL RELIGION!"

Yet we read in the Bible "kill the non-believer" (and I don't have chapter and verse at hand right now, but it's in there in several places and variants, along with plenty of other nastiness that has been addressed ad nauseam both by this writer and millions of others) and because we are familiar with and identify with Christianity (even those of us who are not actually Christians) we think "Well, that is just allegory or metaphor," or "But Jesus' words in the New Testament rescind those orders of the Old Testament" or some other rationalization that to our minds makes the Christian "kill the unbeliever" somehow different and less vile and onerous than the Islamic "kill the unbeliever."

I think the simple reality is that we're more prone to forgive or excuse that with which we are more familiar...and I think most Muslims are the same way. They see "kill the unbeliever" and think the same thing we do when we see it in the Bible - no modern, faithful, sane Muslim would take that as a literal imprecation to kill another human being. Just like no modern, faithful, sane Christian will run around murdering Wiccans because "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

By that same token, it is MUCH easier for me to criticize "bad Christianity" than "bad Islam" or "bad Judaism," because I've been surrounded by "bad Christianity" all my life AND I was raised as a Christian AND I've not only read the Bible front to back several times but I've also discussed and debated and considered and argued about it for...jeez, probably thousands of hours by now, if not approaching or exceeding ten thousand.

On the other hand even though I was pitching against radical Islam long before 9-11, the truth is still that, like most Americans, it wasn't until that point that I took a really close look at it, and even if I spent all the rest of my life studying it, it still would not be as familiar to me as Christianity...and therefore it would not be as easy to criticize.

With all that said:

I accept the rebuke. It is hypocritical of me to get all pissed off when someone runs down Islam yet I sit here running down Christianity myself. The underlying reasons for that which I've described above are no more excuse for my own actions than for those I have criticized.

Of course we're all hypocrites to some degree, right? Such is the human condition.

Yet I’m still troubled, because here I am conceding my own hypocrisy yet I’m flooded with indignant messages from people who either identify more with Christianity or who just plain are afraid of Muslims with all kinds of profound and powerful words, like “holocaust” and “genocide” and “hate.”

I’m really not trying to hurt anybody’s feelings here, but we really need to get this plain fact through our heads:  Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are all filled to overflowing with violent, hateful, ignorant dogma and behavior throughout their history, and so is every other religion known to man at some point, even Buddhism and Wicca.  Not one little part of any of them either in practice or in ideology is any more or less hateful or violent than the other, if one chooses to only focus on the hateful, violent aspects of them.

It would be quite easy for me to rail off a bunch of Bible verses that tell us to kill non-believers and sinners, hate even our families if they do not adhere, and get involved in all kinds of hateful, murderous, ugly behavior.  It would be easy in part for the reasons I’ve outlined above – because that’s what I’m most familiar with.

I am not trying to make apologies or grant exception to radical, violent Islamists for their behavior any more than I would try to make apologies or grant exception to Christians who bomb abortion clinics – or entire countries – for theirs.

What I am trying to do is make two simple points:

1. “Us guys” are just as bad as “them guys,” and every single bit of argument to the contrary comes down to local prejudice and confirmation bias.
2. “Them guys” aren’t nearly as bad as you think.  We are constantly flooded with images of suicide bombers and stories about radical, fundamentalist Muslim leaders who preach hate.  You know what?  If the only thing you ever saw about Christians was Fred Phelps, Eric Rudolph, Scott Roeder, and Timothy McVeigh, you’d think Christianity was pretty violent, too.

Now, I understand that the nature of my rhetoric makes it hard to see sometimes, so I’m going to lay this out as clearly as I can and hope that it puts the matter to rest for a while, at least as it relates to my own view on religion.

• I don’t like organized religion for many reasons, some of which include:
  • A deliberate effort to discourage independent thought;
  • Hateful, divisive rhetoric directed at non-adherents;
  • Hypocritical, self-righteous, arrogant, self-serving “faithful” who deem themselves “saved” or “blessed” or “in a state of grace” because they are “smart” enough to believe something that other people don’t;
  • Picking and choosing scripture to justify one’s own unjustifiable behavior and attitudes, rather than the more difficult job of adjusting one’s behavior and attitudes to fall in line more often with the beliefs one espouses.
• I believe that nearly all religions , not even just the Abrahamic tree, are broadly guilty of these hypocrisies, even within their own scripture.
• I believe that many people only make a show of adherence to their chosen belief system for the purpose of gaining the approbation of their social peers who are also part of that religion.
• I believe that it is unconscionably evil that we dare refer to ourselves as a “Christian Nation” – setting aside the historical debate over the matter, our collective behavior, towards ourselves and towards other countries, is absolutely NOT Christ-like, in the least.  Not even a tiny, little bit.
• I have many friends and family who are religious adherents one way or the other, mostly but not exclusively some form of Christianity.  They are often fine people and many even do make a genuine effort to practice what they preach.  With that said, what they are taught by their own religious leaders is often at direct odds with the teachings of their religion.  Primary among these heretical dogmas is the continuing assertion that we as human beings should EVER pass judgment or seek vengeance.  In EVERY religion, those things are specifically reserved as the privilege of Deity.
• I believe that whether we speak of Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, or any other –ism, whatever divine or pious messages and precepts contained therein have been almost entirely subverted over a period of centuries by power-hungry human beings using authoritarian ideology to control other human beings over whom that select group wishes to exercise their will.  I don’t believe any “god” is going to punish me for looking at the vast array of possible “right answers” and deciding I really don’t like any of them.  I don’t believe any “god” is going to send me to a lake of fire for eternity if I kiss a guy – or for that matter if I fuck one.
• I don’t think I’m any “better” than anyone else simply based on whether or not they have a religion.  I *do* think that my own position – agnosticism – is the only position which can be completely supported by available objective evidence:  there simply is no way of knowing as fact what Gods there may be or what the natures and prerogatives of those Gods are.
• I believe that while it is true that we are all human and imperfect, all too often that is used as a petty excuse for us to be hateful and violent toward each other.  “Well, I’m not perfect, but I’m forgiven, so that means even though I just raped your four year old and killed your wife in cold blood, I’m still better than you.”  With all due respect, anyone who thinks like this is welcome to kiss my ass.  THAT is the kind of thinking that really makes me angry…

…and when I’m angry and get to ranting, sometimes I’m not as careful with my words as I should be.  Hey, I’m human too, right?

What it all comes down to is this:  we must stop using religion – ours or anyone else’s – as an excuse to justify our own fears and hatreds.  We do this a great deal, most often because it’s simply easier to lie to ourselves and justify our behaviors that we know are wrong, than it is to face ourselves and change our attitudes and behavior to more reflect our “religion of peace” or our “forgiveness” or our “tolerance.”  An example from Islam here – this whole nonsense of getting all pissed off and threatening to kill people for drawing pictures of Mohammed because it’s a “sin.”  Guess what, asshole?  I don’t believe in your religion, and I don’t have to, and you know what you accomplish by killing me for my refusal?  You convince other people that your religion is filled with murderous batshit-crazy assholes.

And that’s the really hard part for me, because I really do try to be even-handed and fair all around, but then you get some crap like that and it’s like…gee, thanks guys.  Here I am trying to help you out and you not only shove it up my ass but you make me look like a damned fool for even trying.  That doesn’t just apply to Islam, either.

So in conclusion, for those of you who are regular readers:  please understand that yes, my own personal context, history, and particular knowledge is more often than not going to lead my religious criticism to revolve around Christianity.

That doesn’t mean I think any other religion is any less broken and wrong.  It only means that’s the one I’m most familiar with.  It’s just like criticizing music – I’m a rock musician who enjoys blues, non-electronic pop, lighter shades of metal and punk, and occasionally a little country and rap.  So when I criticize the state of music, it’s going to focus on those genres rather than jazz or R&B or classical, because those are not my contexts.

I hope this clears some things up.  Thanks for reading, please don’t forget to share, like, and comment.