Religious Stereotyping Is Bullying [View all]

[rug]

Posted: 06/03/2015 5:36 pm EDT
Warren J. Blumenfeld
College of Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Imagine this: You read on a Facebook page that people opposing your religion have planned a large-scale protest rally at the major Christian church in your home town on your Sabbath day of prayer. The organizers instruct their supporters to bring posters denouncing Christianity and pictures of Jesus on the cross wearing a Hitler-style mustache with captions reading: "He Deserved To Die," and "He Was a False Messiah," because, as stated on Facebook, "...it's what needs to take place in order to expose the true colors of Christianity."

At the protest rally, organizers will be selling and wearing T-shirts announcing: "F--- Christianity." "Everyone is encouraged to bring American Flags and any message that you would like to send to Christians," continued the message on Facebook. Though organizers have promoted the demonstration as a First Amendment "Freedom of Speech" rally, they urge supporters to carry weapons to express their Second Amendment rights as well.

Organizers say they are calling the rally because they "have had enough" of Christianity and people like Timothy McVey, Fred Phelps and his flock, Pat Robertson, and members of the Ku Klux Klan, who, rally planners claim, are not extreme outliers as media reports indicate. They are, rather, expressing the true sentiments in their book, The Christian Testaments (a.k.a. "The New Testament&quot . Organizers stated that they don't want Christianity to spread any further in the United States of America. Argued the protest organizer on his Facebook page, "I am far from politically correct....I'm outspoken, and I've just had it!"

How are you feeling emotionally reading this? What are your reactions about the way rally organizers represented your religion if you are Christian? If this were your house of worship, how safe would you feel attending Sabbath services with your family, including young children with a group of protesters waving American flags in your face as they pack guns in clear view?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/warren-j-blumenfeld/religious-stereotyping-is_b_7486776.html

It's also the height of stupidity.