"Fucking Christians"

The BBQ Pit
1

Those are the words I heard at a local gaming group last night. I’m ranting about a particular group of gamers that spent a good ten minutes or so bashing Christianity for no apparant reason.

Backstory: I don’t play D&D or any role-playing-games, but I just found all my Magic: The Gathering cards in storage and decided to start playing again. Surely, I thought, there is a gaming group in the area that I can join.

A quick look on the web was all it took to find just such a group. They played mostly role-playing games, but some of them played Magic as well. I decided I’d show up, introduce myself, and then proceed to kick some major ass with my Type 1 speed burn deck, then piss them all off with my counterspell / Capsize deck, then embarass them by crushing them with my all artifact deck.

And I did. And it was fun. In fact, overall the experience was a good one. Except for one thing …

These people just couldn’t stop bashing Christians.

I don’t know the context of this comment, because I was busy squashing my opponent like jello between the toes of an elephant, but it all started when I heard the sarcasm-drenched words, “Yeah, like Christians would ever kill people!” Then everyone (save me) laughed. I ignored it.

Then another person chimed in with words to the effect of, “Well, maybe they’re too stupid to figure out how to use a sword! ‘Which end is sharp again?’” Every (save me) laughed again.

There were several other cracks at the expense of Christians, which I don’t entirely remember. I do remember thinking they were unnecessarily cruel. I tried to ignore them and focus on the game I was winning. But they kept it up for quite a while.

These people didn’t know me. For all they knew, I was a born-again Southern Baptist preacher with stigmata wounds and Jesus’ cell-phone number on speed dial. I happen to be a firm atheist, but they didn’t know that, nor did they have any reason to be such assholes regardless.

I’m sure they’ve had bad encounters with particularly annoying Christians before. Many gamers have. But that is NOT an excuse for how they acted. I very nearly packed up my stuff and left, but I was having too much fun dismantling the carefully laid defenses of my opponent and slowly whittling away his life points with a Kird Ape.

If this happens at next week’s meeting, I will say something. It made me embarassed to be a geek.

2

That was very, very rude of them. I’m non-religious, but I wouldn’t dare say anything negative about any religion to people I barely knew. I don’t even know the religious affiliation of any of our D&D players (except one whose a relatively fundamentalist Christian), because it just isn’t necessary to the game.

I hope you do say something. They’re giving gamers a bad reputation, as if we needed a worse one. Not only that, but they’re turning off potential gamers who also happen to be Christian.

3

T1 sucks because the bastards with power 9 always win.
Why doncha try some brand new T2 with Onslaught, you only have to buy some singles, and maybe a booster just for fun, and…

ahem

But I agree with you, they were a bunch of asshats. Next time you should engage them in a GD-level debate on Christianity, and see their eyes glaze over.

4

Never met an asshole before? They’re everywhere!

Next time, ask them what their problem is with Christianity. You’ll likely get back something like, “Why, are you a fuckin’ Christian?” but hey, it’s worth a shot.

If you can’t get any meaningful response out of them, just ignore it and play the game. You can still make it clear that you think they’re morons though. Example:

Basher dude: “Hey, BlackKnight, want to hit Wendy’s after this?”

BlackKnight: “Not really. I personally find you to be an asshat, and have no use for you other than for your ability to move cards around.”

5

Forget about christians. Let’s talk about fucking magic card dweebs.

6

Fucking Christians

Is there a better kind?

7

Sadly, this doesn’t suprise me. There are some people who absolutely hate, and I mean hate religon and Christianity in particular. I’m baffled by the animosity.

You see it on the boards ocasionaly. There will be a thread about something innocuous, like the leaves changing, with a post of “you know, the church across the street has the most gorgeous young maples, I just wish they pruned them a bit more”. Just at the mere mention of church someone else will come in with something like “Maybe if they spent less time bashing homosexuals, they could take care of their property. Or maybe they are just not intelligent enough to work the pruning shears. Anybody who believes in something less real than the Magical Sky Pixie can’t be all that smart.”

Just completely out of the blue like that. I see it and think, “where the fuck did that come from?”

What’s sad is that these same people will sometimes decry the lack of tolerance, yet they don’t seem to realize that their blind hatred is the very thing they are criticizing. I do not know the religous beliefs of these gamers, but I’d be willing to bet that deep down they are not all that comfortable with whatever they believe in. It is this insecurity that creates the venom they spray. By trying to tear down others, they hope to elevate themselves. Their false, and sometimes feigned, sense of superiority gives them a modicum of comfort.

But it’s hollow.

8

Geeks are particularly bad about this. I was in a game store one day, just browsing the books, and the guy behind the counter and his buddy start in on all of this religion-bashin, heavily laced with profanity.

Neither of them has any idea who I am or what I may or may not believe in, but they’re ready to spout off on their idiot beliefs in front of me, even though it may mean I walk out without buying anything, annoyed. Which I did - not because I was offended by anything they were saying, but because I thought it was a shitty way to run a business and they didn’t deserve to get any cash for it. I probably should have told them something about it but come on, how hard is it to know that you don’t say stuff like that in front of customers?

A lot of geeks are assholes, that’s just a plain fact. They have no sense of social customs, and thier only peer group is the same way, so they never learn them. They also are extremely interested in being accepted by their peers - they’ll talk all day about how individual they are and how they don’t follow any trends, but you can damn sure bet they wear the right t-shirts, watch the right animes and play the right games. It’s very important to them to talk long and loud about their politics, religion, views on women, views on race, and whatever – no matter how idiotic those views are – because they assume that everyone else in the room shares those views and because it’s a way to reaffirm their place in the group. I’ve seen this happen a million times.

Since I am a geek and have been around them often, I’ve had the pleasure of having to endure more people who are obnoxious about their atheism than I have people who are obnoxious about their religion. As a result, if someone in a trenchcoat starts talking to me, it takes me a while to remember NOT to ignore them right at hand.

I usually don’t say anything because I figure if you made it to age 20 or so without learning how to not be a dickhead, there’s not much I can tell you in five minutes that’ll change that, and five minutes is about all the time I’m willing to spend trying.

9

Amen to that. And they also don’t see the connection between the obnoxious “preaching” that they despise in some Christians, and the obnoxious “preaching” that they indulge in. Hey—newsflash—IT’S THE SAME. It’s OBNOXIOUS.

But somehow, when they are venomous and preachy, it’s “different”. Because they are automatically “better” than those why are despising. How? Why should I see any difference? Especially when I haven’t started anything with them, and have no inclination to do so?

But oh…I forget…it’s just somehow different.

10

Cry me a river. After reading this thread, I’m not much in the mood to listen to a pity party on behalf of Christians. If I have this straight, the OP is not a Christian, nor was any gamer in the room, so where is the offense? Would you have been so angry if they were mocking Republicans or astrologers? Making fun of systems of belief is not the same as mocking ethnicity or gender, especially when the system being mocked is the 500-pound behemoth that is the dominant religion in the US. Unlike Muslims or Jews, whicxh are both minority relgions in this country, Christians don’t get harrassed–they do the harrassing, so if a bunch of atheists want to slag religion in private, especially when there were no Christians in hearing range, I say, good for them.

11

Wow GoBear, I have seen steaming piles of poo that were more worthwhile than your post.

You say that it’s OK to make fun of a belief system because it’s not “race or ethnicity”, then you contradict yourself and say “oh wait, it’s not OK to make fun of Jews or Muslims”

Then you have the gall to say that christians don’t get harrassed in A THREAD ABOUT CHRISTIANS BEING HARRASSED?!?!?!

I wish there was a smiley for MORON, because you are more than deserving.

12

Damn, I forgot this was the Pit, so let me bring my post up to snuff:

gobear you are a worthless syphillitic donkey fucker. Your post has as much merit as all the shit you suck through a straw out of a dog’s ass.

Phew, that was much more cathartic.

13

And gobear, would you be so tolerant if the title of the OP was “fucking faggots”?

Let’s see, I’m not gay, and if the guy I’m talking to isn’t either, where’s the offense in making fun of queers?

“No harm, no foul” doesn’t quite work here, does it? I know you put the inborn ethnicity and gender exceptions in your post, and I think sexual orientation goes with those two, but that doesn’t matter here. (though I find it interesting that you also except the “belief systems” of Jews and Muslims). What we are talking about is the blind hatred and vitriol that these guys possess. They could be talking about any group and the level of their hatred would still be wrong.

You might want to check your toolbox for a smaller brush there, gobear, you can’t seem to get a handle on the one you’re using.

You seem to have the mistaken impression that no member of a majority can be harrassed. You could not be more wrong. Even members of the 500-pound behemoth, as you so tolerantly put is, can be harrased. What if BlackKnight was Christian? He’s outnumbered. He’s the minority member of the group. He’s being ridiculed through no fault of his own by members hostile to who he is. That’s harassment. That’s the fucking definition of harassment.

14

Ahem, reread the OP, genius. There were no actual Christians in the room to be offended, thus no Christians were harrassed.

You can mock Judaism and Islam til you turn blue, and I don’t care, but since Jews and Muslims are linked with race and ethnicity, mocking them is not the same thing as mocking the oppressive hegemonic control that Chrisitanity exerts in this country.

The day that homosexual preachers urge discrimination against Christians, the day that fundamentalist gay parents reject their Christian children, the day that gay groups write legislation to discriminate against Christians, the day that gay people attack fundies in the same manner and fashion that fundies target gay folks, I’ll reconsider. Until then, blow me.

On second thought, don’t. I’m way out of your league, Poindexter.

15

So, because some Christians are assholes, that make sit okay for people to harass Christians?

Ooookay, gobear. Whatever makes sense to you in your little world.

16

Islam is linked to ethnicity? That’s a new one on me.

17

I think I have to somewhat agree with Gobear here. Christians are not an oppressed minority. When I was in college I used to study a lot in a coffee shop on campus. As luck would have it, this seemed to also be a favorite meeting place for a certain Bible study group. These guys would get into these really serious discussions about why homosexuality was an “abomination,” or why Hindus worshipped demons. True, they didn’t say FUCKING Hindus, but their ignorance and bigotry was stunning.

Now, I wasn’t at the table or anything. It was a private discussion on their part, but it was a small coffee shop and it was pretty much impossible not to hear them. Something else that I knew, but these guys apparently didn’t know was that the guy serving them coffee and petit fours was gay. They didn’t stop their conversations when he was at the table, they just rambled right along with their “Adam and Steve” cliches.

These guys also used to hand out anti-gay pamphlets on campus and leave them lying around at the Student union. They had other pamphlets too, but it seemed like they were mainly obssessed with homosexuality.

Some people would bitch about these guys once in a while, but most would just write them off as idiots and ignore them, which is what I tried to do too. But in the coffee shop, I had no choice but to listen to it. it was very distracting and made it hard to study.

It is people like this who make other people say “fucking christians.” Is this fair? Probably not. The vast majority of Christians are not bigots, are not idiots, are not assholes, but the most vocal ones are. I think that mainstream Christians need to do a better job of telling the asshats to shut the fuck up. They need to rehabilitate their own image a little bit. A lot of people (like those gaming geeks) really think that all Christians are like Jerry Falwell and Jack Chick. The media erroneously portrays Falwell, and Pat Robertson, and Billy Graham as being these hugely important and influential Christian leaders which they are not. Mainstream Christians need to tell these guys to sit the fuck down and then star correcting some public perceptions.

18

Of course it isn’t. But you know very well that most people in the US believe it is.

19

Including gobear, apparently.

20

I don’t think Gobear is that stupid. I think he was talking about the very real public backlash against Arab muslims.