Religous tolerance About This Page:

[fluffybunny]

I have a vent about a friend. She moved to Charlotte a few years ago and absolutely hates it. I'm not too fond of the place either. She's from NYC and is jewish. Not a religious problem for me. Of course there are many more jewish people in NYC than in Charlotte. We do have 2 synagoges (sp). She thinks everyone here is hateful to jews. She's even pulled her son out of middle school to homeschool him (which I don't think she does a good job). The kid is pretty much a whiney baby. A few kids in her neighborhood had made some comments to her som that were derogatory towards jews. I know the South is very christian based religious wise and has a history of being intolerant. But Charlotte is basically a town made of transplants and most of us are from the North. I haven't found any religious prejudice. We believe in god but do not believe in organized religon. We believe that not any one religion is correct in their god being the only god. We belong to cub scouts which has a religious base. My husband is a den leader and we tell the parents to do the religous based activites at home because everyone has different beliefs. My friend was commenting that last night at taekwondo class (I was the one who convinced her to join the school) the moms were talking about the upcoming xmas parade. She commented loudly that why isn't there a Hunakah parade? To my knowledge I have never heard of one anywhere. I think she is more prejudiged against non jews than other religous people. Thanks for letting me vent.

[Huntermom]

Although I am not Jewish, I have several family members who are, including my sister, to whom I am very close. Her Jewish husband is godfather to one of my sons (you only need one Catholic)

I have consistently heard complaints of anti-Semitism in the south from them. One of my colleague's DD even had slurs screamed at her when she attended a well known university.

I wouldn't downplay the comments made by other kids. That should not be tolerated. And where are the kids hearing the negativity about Judaism? I think people forget that Christianity has a Jewish basis.

And why can't there be a Hanakkuh float in the Christmas parade? My kids went to a preschool run my the Church of the Nazarene. They always celebrated the Jewish Holidays (as well as those of other religions). I chose the school because of it's attitude towards other religions.

You haven't found any religious prejudice because you are not Jewish (or any other minority religion).

[Tonichelle]

Christians aren't the ones with the issue. Christianity does not tolerate anti-semitism. I wish people would differentiate between the two.

Jews aren't teh only ones that get hit with religious intolerance. It's getting to where you have to hide your Christianity, too. So I feel her pain. I don't live in the South, never have never will, but considering lots of places still fly the confederate flag and celebrate its leaders like they were martyrs, one can bet their views are skewed. They had religious leaders full of hate, but that's not the norm, there are many other great Christian leaders down there who aren't anti-semetic. Let's try not to group everyone together.

[pflamingo]

The first question most people in this town ask when they meet someone is, "which church do you go to?" Then they try to convince you to come to theirs. And if your answer is a non-Christian house of worship, they either back away like you have the plague or begin explaining to you why your faith (or lack thereof) is wrong. Not a week goes by that there isn't an letter to the editor in the paper about how the city/state/country is going to ruin because of all the non-Christians and everything would be fine if our government based everything on the Bible.

As a non-Christian, I find all that very offensive (not the letters - that's their right to free speech, even if I do find their tone offensive). If someone asks about my beliefs, I may or may not tell them, depending on whether or not I think they will listen openly or lecture me about why I'm wrong. Besides, I think religion is a private matter. I don't try to convert anyone else, because I respect their choice. I wish the people who try to convert me would understand that I didn't just wake up one morning and decide this is what I believe. In fact, this was very difficult for me because I come from a Christian background and my family had a tough time accepting my change.

Fortunately, I have a group of friends (mostly Christian) who accept me as I am. I think the comment about the "Hanukkah parade" is a bit much, though I understand her frustration. I have to agree with Huntermom, though - it's tough to understand how this feels if you aren't one of the "non-believers".

[JoanneS]

We lived in Charlotte for a year and I couldn't wait to get out of there. The prejudice is everywhere, not just religious, race, and sexual preference. Growing up in New England, the "n" word was a swear word worse than the "f" word in my school and home. In the south, I heard it everyday, and even though I'm not black, I was offended by it. There is no religious tolerance at all from what I encountered. As a Catholic, on Ash Wednesday, I spent my lunch hour at Mass. When I returned with ashes on my forehead (under thick bangs) I was sent home and told to come back when my face was clean. And they hadn't even seen the ashes, they just heard me tell a co-worker that I had gone to Mass. No, I don't blame your friend, I couldn't live there either.

[MichaelF]

The problem now days is that some people want to be offended and they look for any excuse they can find to be offended. This way they can be the poor victim and draw attention toward themselves. Many people desire to come to US but when they get here they want our culture to change to fit theirs. I am totally against that. Such as the use of the word holiday. There are some people that say they are offended by Christmas. I say too bad. I will never refer to Christmas as holiday so I don't offend anyone. I am not offended by anything so I don't understand why these people get worked up.
I would like to continue but I have to go put up my Christmas lights, write my Christmas cards, make some Christmas cookies, decorate the Christmas tree and wrap some Christmas presents.....Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

[Dave Marx]

Folks, my apologies, but our guidelines specifically address discussions of religion. While the discussion has been civil, it wouldn't take much for it to go from venting to something worse.

I trust you understand why I am closing this thread.

Thanks.