Dumbasses who have never talked to a non-christian in their life will say that religions are cults because they preach salvation and give you rules to keep you in line like y’all do realize that hell isn’t a universal belief???? That Judaism teaches that god wants his people to be just and compassionate??? That Buddhism is about liberation from suffering??? That Hinduism teaches reincarnation? That Islam believes in a just and merciful god? That there are an endless number of diverse and nuanced beliefs that various indigenous peoples struggle to reclaim every day? And you all have the nerve to lump us all in together with the likes of catholicism and jehovah’s witnesses just because you’re too fucking smug and lazy to get off your ass leave your own bubble and read a god damn wikipedia article?
Okay one last clarification, apology, etc. And then I'm deleting the original post because this is too stressful.
As I've said to a few people in the replies, this was an off the cuff vent post aboutone person during a specific fight. I never expected it to reach more than a few mutuals. I have less than 500 followers. Nothing I've posted has ever broken 1000 before. This is my half dead blog for a fully dead fandom that I only use to reblog memes when I'm waiting in line at the store.
That said, yes. If this post were intended for a wider audience or to be reblogged by anyone at all, I would've included additional nuance. My intention wasn't to romanticize or hold up any of the religions mentioned as infallible. It was to highlight differences between the beliefs of these religions and the beliefs of christianity, during a heated conversation with someone who was using christian specific buzz words to pass judgment on other religions. However I see how it came off that way. Every religion has the capacity to hurt, and every religion (including christianity) has the capacity to help. As a jew, Judaism as a whole isn't a cult, but orthodox judaism certainly pushes the boundaries of being one, and such is the case with many religions. Which is something I would’ve spoken about had I been making an actual nuanced across the board analysis of religion but i wasn’t. I was having an argument with someone.
People in the notes have taken issue with this post on the grounds that it romanticizes non christian religions, and cited their own religious trauma. I want to apologize to anyone who felt invalidated or like I was blindly championing an institution that abused or harmed them specifically. While that wasn't what I was trying to do, I can understand that other people's feelings are more important than my intentions.
While yes I intended to highlight distinctions between christianity and other religions, I understand that those distinctions all being positives does give the impression that I'm blindly championing religions that do have faults of their own. It was also poorly worded, giving the impression that none of the religions listed believe in hell (The hell thing was a separate point of its own but reading back that is what the framing does imply) that Islam has its own god separate from christianity (this was moreso specifically directed at the person I was arguing with and their view on christianity’s concept of salvation, but again this was poorly worded.)
At the end of the day, what you put on the internet is there. I can't exactly blame people for reblogging this post and interpreting it how they will. However, the post really is what it is and nothing more. I was just telling an ex christian and their friends to stop saying the words "all religions are cults" without irony for the sake of perpetuating antisemitism and hate toward other religions. If I could go back I would be more specific in clarifying that I wasn’t pedestalizing all non christian religions but hindsight is 20/20. That’s it.
