Most Persecuted religion Besides the Jews

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Next to the Jews, what religon do you think is the most persecuted, or hated even?

My top two are:
1. Mormons. Why? Do your history on them, you will see what I'm talking about. I am mormon or LDS, what ever you want to call us, so I know what I'm talking about.
2. Muslims, just because of 9/11, everyone seems to blame their religon

Lamest Religon:
1. Southern Baptist. Why, three years ago they came up to Salt Lake City to "Save the Mormons"

 

Yep, Mormons have taken a lot of flack over the years since they made up their own religion. Joseph Smith could well have been president before he was murdered. And the Mormons got run out of their settlement in Illinois (which they're now moving back into and turning into a Mormon Mecca, much to the consternation of the people who live there). On top of that, the U.S. wouldn't let Utah into the Union until it made polygamy illegal.

But, as people here in DC are fond of saying when it comes up, "at least they vote right."

It's not surprising that the Baptists are trying to Christianize the Mormons. It's what evangelicals do. (Uh... and don't the Mormons require a year of missionary work from their teenagers? You can't get upset with Baptists for doing the same thing to you that you do to others.)

 

Is scientology a religion officially? Anyway, they seem to be taking a lot of flak these days - not sure why though...

 

Because it's a scam, Vukodlak. They barely hang on to their tax-exempt status from year to year -- and one day, they will lose it.

The Mormons are persecuted, certainly. But I often say that if I were to ever get religion (as everyone predicts I will) I would choose LDS -- what a bunch of happy, contented, centered people. The religion seems to meet people's needs, and create happy children and strong communities. You guys must be doing something right.

But actually I think mine is the most persecuted religion -- and the Jews have nothing on me. I'm an atheist. "Under God" everywhere I go -- gerroff me, God.

 

Kinda hard to find a religion to compare with the jews the ones you have mentioned are quite small and the persecution hasnt involved that many deaths atleast. I would like to put my two cents on the churches in communist countries during their 'reddest' era. The russian orthodox church was illegal and the priests were shot or sent to siberia under Stalins rule. I have had quite a big problem with ressurrecting itself after the fall of the dictators. Same thing goes for China but with various religions (Buddhis, naturereligion and other small ones.)

 

Yup, you're right there. Also, now, that we got rid of communism - there's an awful backlash - everyone getting rampantly religious, especially politicians, And the worst are the people who never even saw the inside of a church until 10 years ago...

 

Shralp - I asked my wife, and LDS teens are not required to do missionary work. It's strongly encouraged, yes, but is not required. And BTW, it's 24 months for men and 18 for women. I can also say that they don't seem to be as insistent as Southern Baptists (at least not in my experience, and I've been on the recieving end of both).

As far as voting right, I'm not really sure what you mean exactly, but my wife also said that as far as she knows, she and our 18 year-old daughter are the only Democrats in their ward (parish-equivalent).

Violet - I'm kinda the same way, but agnostic (yeah...I can't make a decision to save my life. ) I was raised Catholic, but due to reasons I won't go into now, I rejected it. Since then, I have not been involved in any church or religion.

My wife is obviously Mormon, as well as her (our) 18-year old and 8-year-old. My 15-year-old lives with her mom, and as far as I can tell is like me in that she chooses no religion. My 10-year-old....well....I haven't seen her in two years, so I don't know what religion she's with, if any.

The three boys, 5, 4, and 2, are too young to decide yet.

Joacqin - Do a little research and I think you'll find that the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) are one of the fastest growing religions in the world, and possibly in the top five for number of members. I wouldn't call that "quite small". And besides, the topic isn't for comparing other religions' persecution to what the Jews have gone through - it was "Next to the Jews..."

On topic - I agree with Kitrax. The muslims have taken a lot of unnecessary flak from a good portion of the world, simply because of 9/11.

The early Christians were also persecuted quite a bit - feed 'em to the lions and all that.

But if you really think about it, most religions have been through hell at one time or another. Usually, the predominant religion of any area will attempt to put down any lesser religions - in the past, rather violently (and in some areas today, still violently). Seems to me that if you look at the overall history of religion in general, it's a wonder anyone gets involved with any religion. All that bloodshed over (mostly) minor differences in belief...

[This message has been edited by MaxxQ (edited July 13, 2002).]

[This message has been edited by MaxxQ (edited July 13, 2002).]

 

But not, MaxxQ, as a friend calls himself -- a Miliant Agnostic?

Motto: "I don't know, AND NEITHER DO YOU!!!"

 

LOL, Violet...no, not really. I figure why should I force my beliefs (or non-beliefs, as the case may be) on someone, when I would object to them doing the same to me?

Although I've seen bumper stickers that say something like "If you don't believe in Jesus, consider this: what if you're wrong?"...and I can't help but think, "What if you're wrong?" and it never fails to give me a slightly evil chuckle.

 

I'm non-religious but i think the two non-evil religions in the world are Budhism and Hinduism.

 

You Know, satanist are hated by a lot of people, since everybody thinks that they are evil, and only want to harm others. But this is far from true, Satanism is a way of living, it is all about respect, respect for your self your family and everybody else, and they should have respect for you.

It is also against those lame followers of god, who commit sin after sin, asking there god for forgiveness and then sin again.

No I am not a satanist, but some of my closest friends are, and I agree whit them on most points.

 

Look, I'm unsure what's the point of this thread.

I'll never accept points that spit on other religions, other nations or other types of people (by any classification) - just because you're not a part of that group. You can't force me to hate general religion. Unless you're a member of it and you have valid arguments from first place what's going wrong there. And unless you consider me as not-worth-to-respect person just because I don't behave as your "group" would expect from me.

Yes, I don't hate religions because of terrorists.

Kitrax, your question should also contain the detail what kind of people are responsible for the persecution. Ignorant? Stubborn? Maniacs? Or?

[This message has been edited by Extremist (edited July 15, 2002).]

 

I totally agree with Extremist. I can't hate a religion based on the actions of one person or one group of that religion.

[This message has been edited by Uytuun (edited July 14, 2002).]

 

I think one of the more persecuted, is the Agnostics. Because most of them are indesisive and wont try to if something exists. Then there are Agnostics like me, who just dont care if anything is out there.
One reason I am agnostic is because I dont care about any "god" or "supreme being" that might exist, and I honestly hate the idea that someone other than myself has controll, or could have control over me if "he" so desided.

 

I could have my facts wrong here (correct me if so):

Didn't the Armenien Christians (Catholics?) get nearly obliterated by the Ottomans in the first half of the 20th century? I remember learning something like that in Human Geography. If that's correct, then I'd have to go with them as the second most persecuted religion.

 

If this is applying throughout history, then how about the way the Roman empire treated Christians before it converted? Crucifixion of all members of it that were caught.

While Jews have definitely been the most persecuted religion, I'd say any religion that was not the same as someone else's has been persecuted.

 

SleepleSS:

And Satanism is about respect, right?


Look, I'm a Christian, and Christians (especially the Roman Catholic Church) have all done some damned awful things in the time. Wars have gone on over if a country was Catholic or Protestant. Catholics killed and raped plenty of Jews, Muslims, and even Greek Orthodox Christians in the Crusades. Torture and blind accusations were part of the Inquisition. And look at the modern "jihad" Islamic extremists are waging right now. Everywhere in history, you'll see fellow people slaughtering, beating, torturing others just because of creed.

My point here is that just about every religion has, at some point, crticized, attacked, etc. something else based on their beliefs. (Maybe Buddhists here are an exception) Atheists will go around and denounce gnostics. Christians will denounce RPGs and Harry Potter. Muslims will denounce the West. (Note that I'm talking about some people, rather than people as a whole.)

But do you really think that the basic, fundamental ethics that religions teach is separation and hate of others. Does it say anywhere in the Bible or Qu'ran, "Go kill whoever is unlike you."? Did Christ, Mohammed, or Moses, promote mass slaughter of people of different creeds? No, people, people with flaws and bad habits, just like everyone else, went too far and killed others out of prejudice. I doubt any religion wants to persecute others and just persecute. Religion teaches prinicples and ethics, and understanding and enlightenment. There's no need to blame anyone for their religion. But it's good to believe in a God, IMHO, and that acceptance that one has flaws like everyone else makes the world a better place.

But then again, it's not my position to denounce beliefs and attack others for them.

I know, I know.


Besides the Jews, the most persecuted religion in general would probably be Christians. Plenty of nations and tortured and persecuted them in the modern age, like the former Soviet Union, or northern African countries. Even in terms of just saying "I'm a Christian and I'm proud of it and I recommend you try my religion.", it gets harder, as more and more people are not only indifferent to religion, but critical of it. Sometimes ya just need to sit down and think about your life, your death, and just plain ol' spirituality.

[This message has been edited by C'Jakob (edited July 18, 2002).]

[This message has been edited by C'Jakob (edited July 18, 2002).]

 

Totally ff: That was so smart, C'Jacob -- I could not agree more with (almost) everything you said. Every religion that I know of -- with the possible exception of Satanism, which preaches a kind of Ayn Rand/Nietsche selfishness, as I understand it -- does not preach to our baser instincts, but to our better, higher selves, and tries, by giving people an ethical framework in which to live, to make people better. It is our fallible human natures that revert to type.

"Even in terms of just saying "I'm a Christian and I'm proud of it and I recommend you try my religion.", it gets harder, as more and more people are not only indifferent to religion, but critical of it."

Well, here's my take. So many of these fallible human beings have professed one thing and done another that, say, Evangelical Christians, and Arab Muslims, for example, have gotten a bad rap. But not only this. One begins to think that, say, Jim Bakker's religion did not make him better -- perhaps it doesn't *work*. In a purely functional sense, if a religion does not make its believers (a) happier, and (b) better, more honorable individuals -- then it is ineffective, IMHO.

So, though I am not really qualified to speak on "witnessing" in the context of faith, I say: maybe don't talk -- just let your little light shine. One happy, friendly, together Mormon coming to my party and being the only sober one there (but never appearing to notice) is a better witness than ten wide-eyed prosletysers (who may or may not be all talk) or a hundred sour-faced intolerants.

By their fruits ye shall know them, someone said.

 

Look. I am a Christian, and i think we got so much stick. I got dog turd thrown at me in the middle of an open air service once.

I've been called:

-Bible basker
-Hippy
-Religious B*tch
-God's a** wiper
-Bible sh*gger
-Christian scum
-Holy (my name here)
-A dumbo

So I get a really hard time, plus every year there's like, thousands of Christians slaughtered.

Ok. I'm crying now. I am very sorry.

 

How did this turn into a debate about religion itself? But as it did I have to give my take on it
As Violet and Jakob said all the big religions are basicly about being a decent and good human, that is all very nice things. What I cannot condone nor forgive and is the reason why I spit on most things called religion is what the organisations that exist around the nice core beliefs have done. There isnt any church that have clean hands. They are all evil in my hands. People may belive whatever they like but that they belong to those evil organinasations that claim to follow an in the core nice belief but that the church leaders have twisted and used to evil purposes through history. This is especially true for the monoteistic religions.