Correct Me If I'm Wrong....., Tolerance is a wonderful thing

I'm sorry if I pissed anybody of it was not my intention. I was merely speaking from my own past. I was raised Catholic and Southern Baptist. 2 of the more "strick" religions I guess you could say. I befriended a pagan girl when I was 8 and mother went to our pastor and asked him if it was ok if I was friends with this girl. Our pastor went through the roof and made me come work for him everyday after school in his office for 3 yrs so I "would no longer stray from the flock". That is were I was getting my statement from.
Needless to say when he found out I was a pagan he vowed never to speak to me again (big loss).
To all those I offended please forgive me. Like I said this was not my intention.

Which was the purpose of my post. You will find fanatics in every group, be it religious or cultural. Your Pastor was of course a fanatic. A closed minded fellow. For every one of those, I'm sure you'll find a multitude of Christians like me. In order to prove my faith, I am open to all beliefs. If I felt threatened by other religions, wouldn't that just mean I was weak in my own? If I can't accept other religious beliefs then I've failed as a Christian.

Not offended here.... just making sure the peace is kept... and everyone is* respectful*

That's all.....

Celeste,

I hope you were able to keep your friendship going , even through the interference of the pastor. I agree that he was a fanatic, and **very wrong** to try to prevent you from learning about anything but what he personally believed. How can we all grow spiritually, with an honest and deeply-felt faith, if we aren't free to examine all religions to find our own home? (I hope this makes sense. )

Dreamer1

Well, I'm certainly not offended by anything I've read here. Neither offended or threatened. I think folks have been pretty well behaved and I am happy that everyone gets their say and can get their point across.

I've always taken an intellectual approach to the subject of religions and find it all most enlightening....please continue!

RON

Celeste,

No, I was not offended by anything you wrote . I just thought I saw a generalization about Christians that wasn't entirely balanced. It would be like me stating that when I was experimenting in Pagan religions, Pagans were self involved buggerbums ( a word invented by my 5-year old- I like it ). That would be totally unfair, as many of the Pagans I encountered were very helpful and considerate of a novice. There were some #@%$#&@ types, but they were in the minority.

I realize that some Christians are so narrow-minded that their breadth of thought could easily fit on the edge of a razor-blade. But many of us are a bit more comfortable in our beliefs than that. As oldraven said, if I can't accept someone for who they are and what they believe, then I've failed as a Christian. And if, by my personal example, I exude intolerance and bad will, then I betray the Christian ideals that I hold very dear.

Just my tuppence; let the debate continue.

Andy

Unfortunatly no. My mother wouldn't let me. She told all my teachers to make sure we were kept apart.