I knew that last post of mine would bring people out of the woodwork lookin' for a fight...
ATO, I agree with your assessment of people who show up at public events and start hatin' on everyone. Personally, I don't believe they represent Christianity in an actual Biblical sense. I'd challenge them to show me the verse(s) that backs their behaviour, which I agree is doing more harm than good.
I will "boycott" sites whose parent companies support reprehensible behaviours because I cannot in good conscience knowingly fund an organization that also creates and profits from something I find highly objectionable.
I used to frequent bondage.com; I know the people who founded and ran it. But I would have certain ethical problems with supporting them now, knowing they are owned by a company that also promotes Christianity, which is morally reprehensible to me.
You find reprehensible a faith whose text tells the followers to provide for the poor/widows/orphans, that the follower cannot (and should not try to)
force anyone else to follow it, and that the greatest commandment is love?
I'm not saying there aren't bad things done by people who
profess to be Christian. I am saying the text itself does not advocate those behaviours.
Now, if you just don't like your Creator telling you that certain behaviours are bad for you (lust, greed, drunkeness, etc)... well, that's between you and Him. I'm not sure I'd call a whole faith "reprehensible" because of that.
Or... were you just being tongue-in-cheek, playing devil's advocate?
And lastly, sleestak, no, I don't have cable. I do have internet. While my provider might profit from people who buy the service to go do their own thing, to my knowledge said provider is not the one creating, maintaining, and selling ad space on those sites (key difference). The service provider isn't making moral choices for the people who buy the service. To judge Verizon, Qwest, or other service providers for the misuse of their service would be like passing judgement on Snap-on when a criminal uses a breaker bar to bash a victim's head in. The responsibility lies with the user at that point.
Same goes for people who misuse Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, etc, as justification for evildoing. The fault lies not with the religion, the fault lies squarely on the shoulders of the individual misusing it.
Mods: if we're way over the religion line, just say so, and I'll bow out. My goal here is to answer questions and clarify misunderstandings.