That didn’t take long did it?
Yesterday I wrote about various Christian groups that don’t seem to understand that anti-discrimination laws protect them not just from non-Christians, but from each other due in part to their constant battles over who’s a True Christian and the like.
Today I find a post over at A Whore in the Temple of Reason about an editorial in her home state that starts with this line:
They can’t be real Christians. They must be part of an atheist cabal.
Though this “they” is the Westboro Baptist Church which is virulently anti-gay, this is how a lot of individual Christians and sects act. No one but them and their own are the real deal. Everything else is either fake or a plot by the most hated group around which in this case happens to be atheists.
And this is exactly why all Christians should be thankful for anti-discrimination laws. Christians seem to hate each other more than any other group as their favorite sport is seriously attacking each other.
As someone who grew up in fundamentalism, let me put it this way. I was taught that there is more than one hell. I’ve forgotten how many, but I do remember that one of the worst of the hells is specially reserved for fake Christians. The Christian god is supposed to hate them with such a passion that he set up a special hell just for them.
I remember telling my six grade teacher, a catholic nun, that my brother was getting married in a lutheran church. She told me it was a “mortal sin” (meaning express ticket to hell) for anyone in my family who participated in the ceremony.
When I told my parents what she said, they told me not to worry, that that was an old teaching.
Apparently she didn’t get the memo.
Multiple hells? Fascinating! I guess the only thing better than one nonexistent place would be several.