You are more than entitled to rip on Christians, especially Christians in America. I am a Christian and am regularly sickened by other Christians. The main problems are three-fold:
1) Many Christians in this country think they are experts on the Bible even if they never read it.
2) Many Christians in this country think that everyone should live according to a Judeo-Christian moral code.
3) Many Christians in this country are absolutely convinced that everything they believe is true, and take for granted the fact that God exists.
All of these probably frustrate me equally.
1) I am really interested in biblical scholarship (research about the Bible and the historical formation of the Bible). Most people need some kind of way to feel connected with their religion, and going to church and singing bullshit songs and listening to a boring preacher doesn't do it for me (although some preachers are extremely cogent and knowledgeable, but they are rare).
For me, understanding who wrote different parts of scripture, why they were written, and who they were written for really motivates me to learn more about the Bible. The words seem much less like a foreign language and I am able to understand what parts of the Bible are more "authentic" than others (such as Paul's letters than almost all scholars agree that Paul wrote versus the ones that no one thinks he actually wrote). The Bible feels so much more real to me if I understand it as a historical text.
Very few Christians could even tell you which translations of the Bible are more faithful than others, and many Protestants will just look puzzled if you ask them what they think about the Apocrypha. Christianity has in many ways substituted image for substance, the ritual of worship rather than the thorough investigation of religion that worship should be.
2) This one speaks for itself. The Bible itself (in Paul's letters) tells Christians not to worry so much about what people outside of the church are doing, as the church has no control over them and they are not attempting to abide by the churches laws. Unless they claim to abide by Christianity, Christians should try to live in peace with them and Christians shouldn't be unnecessarily disruptive within the social order, since Christianity is a religion, not a political philosophy (although to deny that Christianity has no political elements is also pretty foolish).
It mainly boils down to being humble. Its selfish to ask schools to incorporate prayer when not everyone believes in God. It is selfish to ask the government to give money to churches even though not everyone believes in God (though this at least produces some tangible benefits if the churches help the poor). It is selfish to tell gay people that they can't marry because God does not recognize there lifestyle. It is selfish to tell people that they can't get an abortion because God does not agree with their decision. Christianity has intertwined itself with the political system to so much of a degree that it has demeaned Christianity itself in some ways.
3) This is also a problem of being humble. Way too many Christians are just plain arrogant. They think that there is no question that God exists (which kind of defeats the whole purpose of having FAITH in God if you have no option whether or not to believe in him). This causes them to impose all kinds of ridiculous burdens on other people and act as if all of their actions are justified. Religion can be an important way to justify decisions you make, but justifying everything in the name of religion is like justifying everything in the name of the government, or in the name of fascism, communism, etc. Its a self-defeating goal which at the end of the day speaks very badly of the Christians who take such a simplistic viewpoint of the existence of God.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
