Why is it so difficult for people to see when religious teachings are being used to promote hatred, discrimination and bigotry?

[Anonymous]

[beefcakebradybatson]

Fundamentalist religions promote intolerance of non-believers as wicked, inferior or both, sometimes leading to extermination and/or enslavement of the hated individuals.

[DrPepper12]

Because religious people are intolerant dangerous bigots?

Especially the christo-fascists!!

[BCRanger10]

Wow. Where do I begin?

I'll address your question directly first. Believe it or not, you did make a key distinction, that being that religious doctrines "are being used" to promoted hatred and bigotry. I freely grant that sometimes, yes, doctrines can be announced in scandalous ways. But then, you'd also have to concede that the opposite is true, that the doctrines can be announced or explained clearly and with charity. A thing can be used for either good or ill, whether it's money, a weapon, or yes, a religious doctrine. Disagreement or contradiction does not - DOES. NOT. - automatically mean hatred.

With that having been said, if I were to say that I don't believe in same-sex marriage (which, for the record, I don't) or that I oppose abortion (which again, for the record, I do), what would your first thought be? There are many people out there whose first thoughts would be "homophobia and sexism." My question though is what makes that so? It's a false dichotomy to say "you either like or approve of x, y, and z or you're a hateful, bigoted x-y-z-phobe." It also doesn't lend itself well to the notions of tolerance, inclusion, or open-mindedness.

As a case in point, I'll challenge you to read then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's (later Pope Benedict XVI) 1986 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons and tell me one thing that is objectively homophobic about it.

And lastly, I assure you, AOC is most certainly not a reliable or credible source of commentary on the Catholic Faith, which she claims to profess. Many of the things she said in this video, likewise in speeches, public statements, and votes are either in stark contrast with what the Church teaches (I know, because I am myself a practicing Catholic and a certified Catechist) or demonstrate major inconsistencies in her own thinking. And I have yet to see any evidence that she attends Mass regularly, let alone knows anything about the Faith beyond surface-level cursory reading of a few lines in the Gospels.

Likewise, though they don't realize it (or do, but don't care), the same hatred, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy that AOC supposedly condemns here could be very easily, if not in many ways more easily pointed at her and those who think like her.

So the bottom line is that it's not hard for me at all to see when, where, and how religious doctrine is used to promote hatred. I just disagree that it often is.

[strateguy632]

Because those words "hatred, discrimination and bigotry" have been twisted so much, that they lost any meaning.

When legitimate criticism is bigotry than nothing is really bigotry.

Liberals need to stop hating Christians.

[Asker]

So, apparently, you can't be liberal and a Christian at the same time? Where's that in the New Testament?

[jshm2]

The same way irreligious people don't see when science and "reasoning" are being weaponised to promote hatred, discrimination and bigotry.

People are people. They will pull any mask and recruit others to push their political and personal agendas. It's laughable to think religion has any sort of monopoly on the issue when it's people YOU vote on that are doing this.

If it were priests or rabbi's, you could have a case. But you don't.

[Asker]

The fact that they are clergy or not is completely irrelevant.

[jshm2]

You clearly don't know history, then. When all this was in Europe - before the first immigrants left to make what is now called "America" - these same debates were had back then and were shut down as the clergy held all the power.

[Asker]

"If it were priests or rabbi's, you could have a case. But you don't." Again, that's irrelevant... ANYONE can do this!

[LiamJHayden]

Because many of them do not even follow their own teachings.