The vatican just reported this weekend that there are now more Muslims than Catholics. Since Catholics are no longer the leading religion, will we lose our status in being the number one target? Will Catholic-bashing become a thing of the past? Or are we still targets?
Target of who or what?
But Catholics are just one subset of the overall religion, Christianity. Are there more Muslims than Christians?
And I’m always happy to bash anyone who believes in something without a shred of evidence, whether that’s Islam, 9/11 conspiracy theories, homeopathy, or Christianity. Over here in the US, something like 85% of the population belongs to the last category, and thinks their rights are being trampled if they’re not allowed to shanghai every aspect of our culture.
So, no, you’re still the main target.
There, there, Johnnie, Catholics are still the number-one target – deservedly hated by secularists, by Muslims, and by Christians (you know, the real ones).
I’ve already heard others mention that the Vatican is lumping the different sects of Islam (Sunni, Shiia, and smaller ones) into one big “Muslim” heading. Which seems like lumping Catholicism & Protestantism (and other flavors of Christianity) into one group. Except that they did the former and not the latter.
Is this legitimate? From what I understand, the Sunni/Shiia divide is theologically very minor but it’s ethnically been enough for centuries of animosity. I don’t know enough to intelligently compare it to the Catholic/Protestant or even Catholic/Orthodox divide.
Oh, I don’t know, I think we can always spare a little time for some Catholic-bashing, no matter how much of a has-been religion it may be. :dubious:
Seriously, though, what does relative popularity of a particular sect have to do with it? Bashing of religious beliefs, whether by adherents of competing sects or by non-believers, and whether justified or not, is common and occurs pretty much across the board.
Speaking as a Jew… HUH???
According to the article, it’s not even close:
The article says Muslims are 19 percent of the population. I thought it’d be much closer than that by now.
What does this mean? I’ll take “Nothing” for $400, Alex. Maybe some Catholics will be upset for a few days. Christians outnumber Muslims by a large amount (going by the article, it’s something like 2.1 billiion to 1.2 billion) and are more powerful and affluent. The general trend may mean something, but, uh, if you hadn’t noticed, Islam is gaining importance on the world stage anyway. The milestone itself means nothing. It won’t eliminate KKK-style hatred of Catholics, nor will it somehow knock Catholicism up the list to make it “the number one target.”
Number one target of what?
While Christians and Muslims clash in certain areas, what’s the deal with worrying about Catholics in particular? This isn’t the 16th or 17th Century, you know.
Of course it does! Thanks to this, Catholics will soon achieve the level of acceptance in mainstream American society and on the world stage previously held by Muslims. If you continue to decline in numbers , you’ll soon be as beloved as Jews, Mormons, and atheists!
I know what JE is getting at…
Don’t worry, y’all are still Mystery Babylon!
Not to worry. The article itself points out that there is an easy solution:
“Hint, hint,” the monsignor added, illustrating his remark with an intricate Italian hand gesture.
Other Christian faiths might seek to address this concern first through proselytism. But those other Christian faiths aren’t Catholic.
Let me echo - “number one target” of what? Outside Protestant parts of Northern Ireland and, I guess, Chick tracts, where the hey are Catholics the “number one target”? - I mean, even the KKK has blacks first, you know.
Sucks for the black Catholics, I bet.
The difference is that these days, when you say “all blacks are lazy” or “all Jews are greedy”, polite society gasps, but when you say “Catholics worship statues and molest little boys” everybody starts nodding along. I disagree with the “number one target” thing – I think, worldwide, the number one target of hatefulness and bigotry is women, but even aside from that, Catholics aren’t being actively persecuted anymore outside a few small areas where they’re fighting back so vigorously it’s kind of hard to feel bad for them. But I do think “picking on Catholics” is a very popular pastime these days. It’s just not that important. It hurts some feelings but it’s not like Catholics are actually in danger because of it.
Where do they do that?
I think you’re talking about Catholics priests, and it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering what the Church higher-ups did to conceal the problem they had.
John, if you don’t believe that Catholics are frequently bashed, especially by other kinds of Christians, and that there are a lot of places in this country at least where being Catholic and being gay are looked at with extremely similar suspicion at best, I don’t really know where to start explaining or proving it. I also don’t have the energy, because I don’t care enough about whether one clan of wizards thinks some other clan of wizards has the wrong kind of magic and how sometimes that leads to taunts and name-calling. I might point out, though, that you went from insisting that nobody does it to going “yeah but of course the Church does deserve this thing I just said doesn’t happen”. But I wasn’t talking about priests, no. Evangelical and fundamentalist types in particular tend to have not just a religious but a ‘cultural’ objection to Catholics, who even outside that are in general often seen as poor, shiftless, “low class” and so on especially by other kinds of Christians. And I don’t really care or think it rises to the level of persecution, I’m just saying, it does happen.
Oh, puhleeez. If you don’t have the inclination to back up your assertions in GD, then retract them. But don’t give me some BS about how you don’t know where to begin.
You made a claim that there is widespread disparaging of Catholics (by no less than “everybody”) as child molesters. I call Bullshit. I’ve never heard that in my life.
No, I didn’t mean to make that claim. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. My claim is as I’ve spelled it out in my subsequent reply – people talk a lot of shit about Catholics. It is true that the molestation thing is usually directed at priests, but there is also a general feeling that people who stay in the Church are complicit in molestation. This claim has been made seriously on this very board more than once. I also didn’t mean “everybody” and I think read in context you see the word doesn’t mean “everybody in the world” but “everybody present hearing the statement”. Regardless, of course I don’t actually think every single person does it, or even most people, which is why I explicitly spelled out the kinds of people who do. Seriously, why are you jumping on me? It’s not like I’m saying this is persecution. I don’t know how to “back up” with a single cite something which is common knowledge. Have you honestly never heard of fundamentalist types bashing Catholics?
Is it illegal to say “Merry Christmas” where you come from too? Where is this dark place Catholics go to be oppressed? And why don’t they just leave and come to the real world where that stuff doesn’t happen?
Every single post I’ve made has noted that I don’t think this is oppression, or persecution. I’ve specifically said that I don’t care because I think it’s nothing more than namecalling and hurt feelings, nothing like the real suffering that certain groups go through. It’s more like the way kids make fun of the teacher, and I agree that it gets blown way, way out of proportion by some people who seem to want to co-opt victim status or something. All I’m saying is, of course picking on Catholics is a real thing that happens, but who cares, it’s not that bad.