We Can't Wear Crosses

Recently I was reading Teach Not Preach (a great blog btw, a high school teacher has a comparative religion class and blogs about it). Included in a post he had a funny fake letter to Dr. Laura Schlessinger which I will include here. It attacks the idea of a biblically reasoning for being against homosexuality by pointing out many other things that could be argued for biblically. It was amusing, but also accurate based on the bible.

Not surprisingly, some Christians take issue with this type of thing, and one such person commented. I thought about responding, but I was afraid it would turn into quite an argument and I didn't want to do that on someone else's blog unless he got it started. Alas, he did not. But I'm going to complain here :) Let's get started

Do you show videos about “everyday Christians”? The ones who are prevalent, questioning, challenging, compassionate? The majority of Christians and not the extremists? I think a critical look (and sometimes a comical look is just fine) is important, but it’s also important to truly understand the person next door… or next desk.

I agree that most Christians are not extremists, but I don't think most do a lot of questioning about their faith. Of course this depends a lot of location, but I certainly know that the people I grew up around absolutely did not spend much time questioning, and this seems to be fairly common in a lot of places. But I understand, he doesn't want his group to be misrepresented. And honestly, most Christians don't really follow the bible, which is why the items brought up in this letter are such a surprise to them.

The many (most) Christians who(m?) I know who(m?) support marriage equality, who(m?) abhor discrimination?

Again, I think this depends on which population of Christians you look at, but I certainly don't see a lot of evidence that most Christians "abhor discrimination". Who is against marriage equality but the religious (and in America that pretty much means Christians). Sure, it's possible that most people he knows are all for gay marriage, but it seems this isn't typical.

What disturbs me most about curriculums today, is that it is not appropriate to reflect Christianity in a positive light, but it’s okay to discuss from a negative or comical perspective. 

Much to the chagrin of the religious right, I don't think there is officially much religion being taught in schools at all, which is exactly why this guy's class has a blog at all, because it is such a rarity. Plus, after following his blog for a fairly short time, it seems that his class looks at both the good and bad aspects of religion, both for Christianity and for other religions. But now he really loses it

We can’t wear a cross or call it Christmas, or use “God”, but we must accept and celebrate minority religions without discrimination or prejudice.

Are you kidding me? People wear crosses everywhere. The war on Christmas thing is utter bullshit, people just got up in arms when some businesses tried to be more inclusive and instructed their employees to say "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas". And what minority religions is he talking about? Because I don't know a single other religion that gets by without discrimination in this country. This statement is a perfect example of Christian privilege.