Christian Love At Its Finest

Nan Uncategorized

The following is something I discovered in my SPAM folder (a VERY good place for it!) …

Nan, I fail to see why you cannot live out your life through your blog without being so incredibly offensive to Christians. You come across as incredibly egotistic, arrogant, brash, and holier than thou. You will never sway any true believer in Christ with this type of drivel.

Also, why don’t you spread the love and tell all the muslims how pathetic they are once in a while (or better yet publish insults against Allah), of course they may hunt you down and kill you for saying so…. but that’s par for the course.

I do not wish to give this person the satisfaction of a response; however, if any of my readers/followers would like to offer your thoughts, feel free.

62 thoughts on “Christian Love At Its Finest”

  2. Nan, you rude person, you! How DARE you say nasty, nasty things about Christians and not believe in the absolute divinity of all they say! Shame on you! Sounds like you must have forced this poor, poor persecuted, misunderstood, Christian by gunpoint to come onto your blog and read it just to offend him or her with your evil, arrogant disbelief in the thing they believe in. HOW DARE YOU NOT BELIEVE AS THEY DO!!!!! You’re persecuting this poor person! Can’t you see how awful you are for making them read your blog? It’s not like they had a friggin’ choice and could NOT have read it! You MADE them read it with violence, rage, and a gun, right? THEY HAD NO CHOICE!! DAMN YOU!!! What next, persecute them for saying Merry Christmas? Mocking them by publicly not believing as they do? SHAME on you! Christ, now I’m all upset, and I’m gonna cry just thinking about how horribly you treated this persecuted Christian. Please, stop forcing Christians to read your blog at gunpoint and, for God’s sake, STOP saying you do not believe as they do! That, my friend, is a form of abuse and bigotry the likes of which this world has never, ever seen. $Amen$

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  3. If I’ve read correctly, you comment on Christianity because you were once part of the faith, so have a knowledge of the teachings. In that case, why would you comment on any other faith?

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    • I was thinking the same thing. As a former Christian, I write about Christianity because that’s what I know about. The more familiar I am with a subject, the more confident I am when sharing my feelings on it.

      Also, I think people confuse criticizing a religion with attacking the people who follow it. We can agree to disagree on many subjects but we shouldn’t assume disagreements equal personal attacks.

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      • I’m also a former Christian, so feel I can confidently comment on certain parts of Christianity (I was a Catholic, so those are the teachings I feel I can talk about.)

        Its funny how people will instantly take offence at a critique of their religion, but feel quite free to judge and attack other people’s beliefs.

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        • Bingo. Im a former Catholic, and I’d not presume to dissect any other faith, and it isn’t the faith that annoys me, it’s the people who profess love and kindness and then attack someone in this terribly narrow, hypocritical way.
          So much for love thy neighbor.

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      • I too am a former Catholic
        Must religious people see their religion as part of their identify as part of what makes them a person. They don’t see their faith separate from their selves
        That is largely why the see a critique of their religion as an attack to them

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    • I liken this to a former drug addict will be more qualified to talk about the dangers and recovery process of drug addiction than lets say something like gaming addiction
      Both are addiction and the former drug addict could say a thing or two about addiction in general. But drug addiction would be his or her specialty

      Or an american who grew up and live in the US would be more qualified to comment about life in the US than he or she would do about lets say life in germany

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        • Boy are you guys spot on. As a gay male in a same sex marriage, I feel the brunt of their daily attacks to use their religion to take my rights, my marriage, and even my sexual orientation from me. These things have nothing to do with them personally, they do not suffer at all from my being gay, my being married to my husband, and for sure my sex life is not any of their business. Yet they insist they need to be not involved in my life but they demand the right to make me live by their 2000 year old ideas, while at the same time claiming I am somehow limiting their rights of expression. The only thing I am limiting of theirs is the right to persecute others like me. Hugs

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  5. gee Nan..I am now considering not stalking you anymore since you are such a bigly meanie to those self-righteous twits called “christians’ that would be the first to kick Jesus out of their homes and businesses should He dare to walk in! You awful person you! Possibly you could post the emails of those people? we could send them appreciative emails for showing us all the error of your ways. And just a question. why do they always end up[ saying something truly nasty about Muslims? Where is that Christian LOVE I keep hearing so much about?

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  7. I happen to enjoy your drivel. Even your book “The things I never learned in Sunday school” (shameless plug) was straightforward, nonaccusitory drivel of the most factual kind. Of course we get a little miffed at times having to win the same arguments over and over, but on we go. This person can’t possible defend the lines of the online apologetics if they’re truly mad at you.

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  8. I think most of us talk of and point out the flaws of Christianity more than any other religion is we more often run into problems caused by Christianity. Lets face it, here in the US it is the christian denominations that are pushing religion into the laws of the country. It is Christianity that is trying to get the right to discriminate freely against others regardless of civil rights. It is Christianity that has fought to restrict the rights of others and to promote their religion over the rights of people in the country. It is Christianity that is trying hard to make this country a theocracy and impose their preferred life style on everyone else. It is Christianity that is trying to get their religion forced into schools and science kicked out. So yes I direct most of my energy to debunking and pointing out the errors of Christianity.

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  9. Dear Christian (for you I am actually capitalizing the word, which I never do),
    I do not know if Nan is hoping to change a believer into a non-believer, but I doubt she really cares. She has made her choice. It is not your choice? C’est la vie! Meanwhile, please do not think any of these words are coming from her, or in defence of her, these words are mine, and mine alone.
    Christians and Muslims, not to mention Jews, all believe in the same god, no matter how they spell his name. Supposedly god said, Love they neighbour as thyself. If all god’s followers did this, there would be a lot less hatred and violence in the world, but it seems no one takes this command as seriously as god would have intended it. Christians hate muslims hate jews hate christians. That is the big picture. In the smaller picture, catholics hate protestants hate lutherans hate anglicans hate mormons hate catholics. I don’t know all the different sects of muslims or jews, but they all hate each other too. Why? What is it about each other that makes you hate those your god has commanded you to love? Is it because you believe you really don’t all wordhip the same god? That your god has chosen your belief-group over all others? Your god still rules way over half the peoples on Earth. Yet you cannot be happy with that. Why is that?
    I personally have no problem with you believing whatever it is you believe, as long as you keep it to yourself. You believe it, good for you. Others believe what they want to believe. Good for them. I believe what I choose to believe. Good for me. Live and let live. The keyword being, live. We are all living beings. We all have the same right to life. Because you think someone stoops low to change others’ beliefs, does this mean you have to stoop as low, or lower, than they to get back at them? If you are the better person you believe yourself to be, don’t stoop low, stand up straight. Stand up tall. But stand up and say, I love you. Can you do that? I can. I love you. And I don’t have anybody, or any god, telling me to do that. Hating is a waste of time and energy. Loving everyone equally is easy, if you try. I not only try, l do. Do you?

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    • We don’t have a people problem, we have a religion problem. Virtually everyone I know left the faith because of integrity and they’re better off with out it. They become human again and stop judging everyone that is not like them.

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      • Yes, but those still in the faith make the choice, consciously or subconsciously, to prove theirs is the better faith. It is a religious problem, but it is also a people problem, in my opinion. People can be nicer if they want to, but do they WANT to–I’m not so sure.
        Leaving the faith allows them to make different choices, be different people–to be THEMSELVES.
        Take it for what you will.

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    • Christians and Muslims, not to mention Jews, all believe in the same god, no matter how they spell his name.

      I wish more people understood this. “Allâh” is just the name for that same God in the Arabic language, the way the name is “Dieu” in French and “Gott” in German and “Dios” in Spanish, et cetera. Muslims who speak other languages have other names too (in Persian the name is “Khodâ”). I’ve seen Christian religious materials written in Arabic, by and for Arabic-speaking Christians (of which there are millions). They use the name “Allâh” even though there’s no doubt they mean the same God that American Christians do. Most of the stories in the Qur’ân are basically the same as in the Bible, though different in some details.

      Compared to unrelated religions like Hinduism or Shintô, Christianity and Islam and Judaism are so similar they’re practically just sects of the same broad religion. In its theology, Islam is probably less different from mainstream Christianity than Mormonism is.

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      • You are correct in that comparison, in my mind. Just like jainism, hinduism, and buddhism are three parts of one religion to me, depending on what perspective you look at them from. Hinduism might be farther away from the other two than one might like, yet IMO at its base lie the same propositions. But this is of no matter. Abrahamic religions are all based on the stories the bible tells. The difference is in their interpretations.
        And the sooner muslims, jews and christians get their acts together, the sooner peace will come, for that part of the world. For the rest of the world, we are al;ready working on it…

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      • Hate was probably too strong a word, and I know that Jewish people are very forgiving, they prefrr to live and let live, as a non-stated rule. Yet when figurative push comes to figurative shove, most Jewish people will circle the wagons to protect themselves from all others.
        I am not out to make a big issue, the order of the words could have been any combination of the three Abrahamic religions. The point I wss trying to make was that there are differences, and nothing will ever negate those diffrences, not as long as religion survives.

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        • Differences aren’t necessarily a bad thing though. I also think ANY group of people will circle the wagons to protect themselves from others. In other words, that’s not exclusively a Jewish quality or Religious one for that matter.

          Jews don’t hate Christians, but rather they understand that there is a history of persecution and oppression that makes up a part of their history and their lives today, but otherwise most Jews just want to live and let live for the most part.

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          • Rawgod: Yet when figurative push comes to figurative shove, most Jewish people will circle the wagons to protect themselves from all others.

            In view of history, you can hardly blame them for that. Frankly I’m glad they do. I couldn’t blame them for being profoundly suspicious of Christians (and Muslims), even if not hateful.

            Consoledreader: Differences aren’t necessarily a bad thing though.

            Indeed, differences make life interesting. Just think how much the world’s variety of food, clothing styles, languages, sexual practices, etc. enriches life, compared to how a single global culture would be. The problem with religions is that each religion thinks it has the one true way of life that everybody should conform to, even condemning such harmless variants as homosexuality. Each religion seeks what would essentially be a monoculture, and reacts with anger and violence to anything that transgresses its taboos.

            I’m curious about your username. Why do you dread consoles?

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          • Why do you dread consoles?

            😄 Smarty-pants! Consoles and heads-up displays are a very good thing! They keep us “fighter pilots” well informed. 😉 😛 But since I’ve known CR he is 98.5% an excelled Peacemaker, especially when it comes to Judaism. 🙂

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          • For some religions that might be true for some of its adherents. It’s unclear, however, that out of the thousands of religions that exist on this planet, from big to small, that each one desires to be the One True Religion to Rule Them All and that all others must be eliminated. Is that how someone in some small tribe with little contact with modern society conceives of their religious beliefs? Likewise, ancient pagan religions were pretty good at adopting to other ancient pagan religions via syncretism (your deity is the same as our deity just with a different name and you know some different stories about him). Judaism over time adopted to the existence of the other forms of monotheism. I can generally say I have had friends from every major religious tradition in the world (Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists), and we all got along just fine with each other. There are also many religions (or at least variants) that accept homosexuality, accept science with little conflict (for the most part), and have generally liberal views.

            Judaism generally fits this pattern (with the exception of some forms of Orthodoxy), Quakerism, Unitarianism Universalism.

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          • Likewise, ancient pagan religions were pretty good at adopting to other ancient pagan religions via syncretism (your deity is the same as our deity just with a different name and you know some different stories about him).

            Generally polytheism have no problem if you worship another god, the whole talk about which god is true is more of a monotheism thing.
            A polytheist would have no problem living with a monotheist, the same can not be said for the monotheist

            I can generally say I have had friends from every major religious tradition in the world (Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists), and we all got along just fine with each other.

            I don’t know for you, but in my case, there is no issue as long as you keep your religion or lack of to yourself

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  10. LOL… 😄 Oh dear my. Cry me a river. 😢 A very common and overused “victimized” tactic also used in political circles against adversaries. Flip the table back on your perceived enemy. What’s so ironic is that this also shows how very little “faith” they have in their claimed omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent God, who’s supposed to have everything in “perfect order.” Why so scared of little ole Nan? 😉

    You’re right, it definitely deserves to go straight into Spam/Trash, then “Delete Permanently.”

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  11. You know Nan, I just remembered a documenatary I watched about people climbing Mt. Everest, in particular the Himalayan Sherpas who traverse the climb some 30-times a season as opposed to tourist-climbers once, maybe twice a year(?). It is far and away the riskiest occupation on the planet per capita. Period. An unbelievable death-rate.

    If “Christians” or “True Christians ™ ” lived their lives like them, putting “faith” in fate, luck, or providence of their God like that, THEN I might listen to them. Otherwise, they’re just another member of a Sales & Marketing Team with a 2,000 year old Ponzi scam. 😒

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  12. being so incredibly offensive to Christians

    Nan, to paraphrase Harry Truman, you’re not incredibly offensive. You just tell them the truth and they think it’s incredibly offensive.

    why don’t you spread the love and tell all the muslims how pathetic they are once in a while

    A common Christian taunt, but misinformed. If the commenter read prominent atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens and Harris, he’d see that they have a great deal to say about Islam. If his challenge is to bloggers specifically, he’s welcome to stop by mine. I’ve had plenty to say about Islam over the years too. For the average US atheist blogger, who (a) grew up Christian and (b) lives in a society where Christianity is the main threat to their freedom and civil rights, it makes sense to focus on Christianity — and most Americans aren’t as knowledgeable about Islam anyway. I’m unusual in that I grew up without religion, and my area of academic specialization was the Middle East. So I’m in a better position to talk about Islam.

    You come across as incredibly egotistic, arrogant, brash, and holier than thou.

    Sorry, commenter, this is rubbish. I’ve read Nan’s book and have been reading this blog for some time. None of those adjectives fit. You are just so used to having even atheists treat your superstitious nonsense with undeserved respect that it shocks you to see someone talk about it in an ordinary way, the way people normally talk about ordinary subjects like movies or novels. When people read a novel and find it doesn’t make sense, or they watch a movie and realize it’s crap, they say so. People increasingly realize there’s no reason to refrain from being equally honest about religions. I recommend making an effort to get used to it.

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  13. It’s not limited to only Christianity, all roads lead to Rome. However, degree of stringency to follow can differ among them. As already once I have said, as it involves with third party(Almighty) injection, human behavior becomes unpredictable and inconsistent.
    NAN- in your country, people still are less violent because of geographical and other reasons,,,otherwise country like India where I belong- it’s considered as severe crime if one attempts to justify a religion(Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jain, Shikh, Buddhism and what not!!!). And here “Mass attack” OR “Public attack” is very popularl!

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    • Yes, you’re correct. Most Christians in America have no clue how fortunate they are to be able to spout verbal ugliness in defense of their religion … and not suffer dire consequences.

      But even beyond that … it vividly demonstrates the core character of a person who speaks this way.

      Thank you for your thoughts.

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      • Indeed it does reveal the core character. I can’t even quote directly straight from the 4th-century CE canonical New Testament without drawing personal attacks while the passage(s) or content are ignored. What is it? Are my heathen devil horns and forked tail showing? 😈😄😖

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  14. Just found this in my own spam folder as a response to one of my posts:

    “This really is actually fascinating, That you are a quite specialist blogger. Ive joined your rss feed and sit up for looking for more of your excellent post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks! egkgdfcadcgk”

    It’s not quite as interesting as what you found in your spam folder, but I was in awe that someone could write such beautiful words and with flawless English too. To know that there is someone out there that would “sit up for looking for more of” my writing is quite flattering. Still trying to figure out what ” egkgdfcadcgk” means though. Perhaps someone was speaking in tongues. 🙂

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    • I’ve had a few such emails, maybe not as nice as yours, but nice. So I went to their word press blogs, for both writers had them, and discovered they were doing studies for school or university about blog-writers, and somehow landed on mine. Exactly what they were hoping to accomplish, I don’t know, but it certainly had nothing to do with the content of the blog, or my writing ability, so it made no sense to me. But writing them back shut them both up real quick. I guess they didn’t expect to be discovered.

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    • I suspect these are trolls or spam (sorry, Ben)–the clue is the anonymous name, or the generic tone of the post. I get about one a week like this and they head straight for the delete bin. “I just finished reading your last post. What a great writer you are! Could you give me some tips on how to write like that?” No…

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  15. To expand….abrahamic religions are poison..
    And they are hate disguised as love…

    Nan, in no way are you rude. People don’t like to hear the truth as it shakes their core beliefs which will leave them unmoored.

    As far as not including Islam…when I mention religious ridiculousness, I mean all religions in their beliefs. Some are less harmless…maybe some Native American beliefs or deism as an example. But the big three are truly the most dangerous thing facing our very survival because of the way it can pervert people’s minds and lead to so much dangerous destruction, hate, wars…etc.
    I personally wouldn’t care if they thought I was rude. I’d rather be rude than blinded by fantasy that could prove to be our total destruction.

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  17. One problem is that most atheists in my experience tend not to have enough background knowledge of Judaism or Islam to really be able to effectively critique them. Most of the time when I’ve seen comments that attempt to do so the person doesn’t really understand well what these groups do or don’t believe or value.

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    • I should give an example. Most Jews, especially those in the USA, think of Judaism more in terms of a culture or heritage rather than specifically a religion.

      http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/

      “Secularism has a long tradition in Jewish life in America, and most U.S. Jews seem to recognize this: 62% say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while just 15% say it is mainly a matter of religion. Even among Jews by religion, more than half (55%) say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, and two-thirds say it is not necessary to believe in God to be Jewish.”

      Basically many Jews are saying they understand being Jewish as being closer to someone talking about being Japanese or French, etc. rather than it being like Christianity. Whether a God exists or not is sort of beside the point (as evidenced by the 2/3rds who say it is Not necessary to believe in God to be Jewish); it’s the values that matter, and those values match up pretty well with many secular humanist ones. In other words, for many in this group it’s not primarily about supernatural beliefs, and this is a point that I find sometimes goes over people’s heads.

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      • Generally CR I have to agree with you. As I went deeper into my study of Second Temple Judaism — as best as is possible beyond the Dead Sea Scrolls — I began recognizing the very deep schism and conflict (at least Sectarian) Judaism had with Hellenistic culture. Add on top of that bottle of nitroglycerin the differences between 1st century Israelites to the North (Samaria, Syria?) and (Herodian?) Judeans in the south and Jerusalem, excluding sects outside of Jerusalem (Essenes, etc.) and you have a ticking time-bomb that Rome was just literally getting fed up with! What I see currently among Christians today is a HORRIBLE lack of contextual understanding of the very first roots of their Hellenistic Apotheotic Christology severing all ties with Second Temple Judaism/Messianism… i.e. the serious birth of anti-Semitism.

        Anyway, that’s my novice take on it. 😉

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  18. I’m often mistaken so bare with me please.

    It is possible that some theists sense the incredulity emanating from free thought discussions as being demeaning, condescending, belittling, threatening and certainly disrespectful to their god claim. It’s also possible they don’t consider to question why this would be.

    I self identify as a Secular Humanest/Anti-theist and have been for most of my life. This is why I blog. I want theists to feel their beliefs demeaned, condescended, belittled, threatened and certainly disrespected.

    An atheist anarchist, that’s me. I won’t respect your deeply held beliefs because they don’t deserve my respect. I admit to being a gutless bully. No, I don’t have intellectual chops nor a particular skilled debater. Don’t need to be. Once it became clear how vacuous the theists postition is I felt the assurance one gets when knowing the outcome in advance.

    “Why should anyone feel compelled to be subservient to a benevolent benefactor? Put another way, what kind of jerk expects to be worshipped for doing what came naturally?”

    Nationofnope.

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    • I won’t respect your deeply held beliefs because they don’t deserve my respect.

      That is certainly true, considering the content of those beliefs. Abrahamic beliefs condemn gay people. They condemn those who believe in a different religion or are free of religion. They relegate women to a subservient role. They reject established scientific fact and condemn forms of scientific investigation such as stem-cell research that could bring vast benefits to humanity. In the past they have defended slavery, segregation, destruction of non-Abrahamic cultures, and even genocide.

      Why should we respect beliefs which so flagrantly disrespect us?

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      • Hey Infidel. There are some groups (sects) of Judaism who do not condemn the LGBTQ community, even over in Israel. I have discovered that the zealous, ultra-Conservative, Zionist(?) Jews are the ones who won’t tolerate ANYTHING disobeying their Mosaic Laws. Just FYI. 😉

        CR, you can correct me if I’m wrong or not clear enough on all that. Your knowledge of Judaism is far better than mine.

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