Why don’t you copy and paste one or two that you think particularly illustrate your point? Don’t just tell us to read the thread.
Not sure I follow you here. Virtually every American politician claims to be a Christian; Lieberman being the most obvious exception. If the word were a disparagement in and of itself, I would venture to guess that it would apply to over 90% of all holders of political office. I’ve heard people complain about Bush trying to advance a Christian agenda in violation of the Establishment Clause, but that’s not the same as saying that the word “Christian” itself is pejorative.
I haven’t seen any of these “born again” comments to which you refer. Maybe you could share one with us. I did see a thread where people were discussing the prayer meetings, and the objection was not that Bush is a Christian, but that he is supposedly holding prayer meetings in government offices, and expecting other government officials to participate. I haven’t heard anyone complain about Bush praying at home in his bedroom. Objecting to the President endorsing Christianity is not the same thing as saying that the word “Christian” itself is an insult. It’s not his being a Christian that’s the problem, it’s the inappropriate use of his political position; the problem would be the same if he were inviting other elected officials to worship the devil, sacrifice a goat, or cast magic spells with him.
Your observations, BJB stem more from the people you associate with and their associated connotations with the word “Christian” rather than from what is true over the large population. As is pointed out before, most Americans are self-identified Christian, and I would hardly consider Christian a pejorative. If you hang out in agnostic/atheist circles or with people mostly of other religions who may have a negative interpretation of Christianity, then of course, “Christian” is probably being used in a negative sense. Over the population at large, I would not say this is the case.
There are many words in American politics that can be substituted for “Christian” in your question. “Liberal,” for instance. Or “Conservative.”
PULYKAMEL WROTE: "Your observations, BJB stem more from the people you associate with and their associated connotations with the word “Christian” rather than from what is true over the large population. "
There is some truth in what you say. Most of the people place “Christianity” in the same category as baseball, college basketball, car racing, country music, and Brittany Spears - something only of interest and concern to Americans.
However, the reason for my initial post was that a large number of U.S.-based posters seemed to use “Christian” as an insult or sign of ignorance. In an earlier post, I identified a couple threads where these posts could be found. Perhaps I will identify some specific quotes.
“Christian” seems to be a pejorative to the people who want it to be a pejorative. And I admit, I have been guilty of that myself, though not altogether vocally here on the boards.
A similar phenomenon would be the pejoritivizing (love those made up words) of “liberal”.
A liberal, such as myself, is proud to be one. A conservative may use the word to try to insult me. I never got that myself.
If you turned up even one hundred American posters on this board that have used such an expression without qualifiers of some sort ( and I doubt you could ), you still wouldn’t have a large number relative to this board’s population.
So I do wonder if it is more perception than reality in this case. “Christian” is a perjorative in some circles, but hardly most in my experience.
Color me whooshed! I didn’t even pay attention to your location. When you mentioned Bush, I assumed you were talking about the U.S.A. - oops.
I think you will find that the SDMB is considerably more eclectic than the general population of the U.S. - there are parts of this country* where not only is it acceptable to be a Christian, it’s not acceptable to be anything else.
