Religious people who lack compassion

[Food Lady]

I have a coworker who is like this. He and his wife work with us and I know they are churchgoers. He had to wait for me the other day and I made a joke with him that I was sorry, had to go up front to get my "drugs" (pain meds). I said, "I'm doing an experiment to see how many pills I can take today," which usually gets a laugh from those who know me, and know I take 2 types of NSAIDs and a pill just for pain some days. He said, "I don't know why you should need all those." At that point I felt judged and simply said, "Because it's just that bad."

I decided to poke the bear and mentioned this weird response to his wife who told me that he's a marine and "has no tolerance for that" even though he suffers himself. (He has the exact same condition I do.) I responded "That's strange. You'd think it would make a person more compassionate because they sympathiize." It certainly engenders that response in me. It's not only my own suffering, but the fact that the Christ I follow was no stranger to suffering and spent his life serving the sick and poor and downtrodden.

If he's going to profess to follow Christ, I'd think his attitude might reflect that of Jesus. I can't imagine Jesus telling the lame or blind to suck it up.

[s_stabeler]

To be fair, in his case, it isn't necessarily his religion that is why he has little sympathy. IIRC, in the military, especially the Marines, there is an attitude that you should tough it out when dealing with things like pain (ph, not necessarily an official attitude- but an unofficial one. (sort of like how the biggest issue with rape in the military is in getting people to believe you). Combine that with an attitude that, if he can tough it out, others with the same condition should be able to as well...

[Food Lady]

Either way he has no right to condemn another person for how s/he deals with suffering. It's that attitude that turns people away.

[KabeRinnaul]

These sort of people always remind me of this comic I saw on Fark ages ago.

[mjr]

Of course, there's also this...

http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/04/...er-should-you/

[Food Lady]

No, Jesus wasn't nice and tolerant of sin. But having a medical condition isn't sin. In Jesus' day people asked what the afflicted did wrong in order to suffer this way. That was a false belief that Jesus refuted (John 9:1-3). In fact, He healed the man.

[Tama]

As I recall, wasn't there some mention of his having being made that way to test those around him, or am I wrong?

[mjr]

No, Jesus wasn't nice and tolerant of sin. But having a medical condition isn't sin.

True, very true.

[Food Lady]

As I recall, wasn't there some mention of his having being made that way to test those around him, or am I wrong?

You might be right. I know my condition tests me. And that's a good thing; it builds character.

[Rageaholic]

Reminds me off a time when my cousin's grandma in law said (within earshot of her) that she needed to "pull herself up by the bootstraps". I should mention that said cousin was suffering from bipolar disorder.

And that Matt Walsh guy, fuck him. He's the poster boy for smug, holier than thou Christians who feels he has the right and duty to tell others how to live. He is one of the biggest twats on the internet.

[s_stabeler]

No, Jesus wasn't nice and tolerant of sin. But having a medical condition isn't sin. In Jesus' day people asked what the afflicted did wrong in order to suffer this way. That was a false belief that Jesus refuted (John 9:1-3). In fact, He healed the man.

yes and no. Jesus DID say "whoever of you without sin should cast the first stone" when (IIRC) some people wanted to stone a woman for committing a sin. More or less, I think Jesus was of the opinion that Man should not judge if someone has committed sin. ( so, for example, you can punish someone for murdering someone else, but you can't punish them for the sin of murder)

[Gravekeeper]

Its particularly idiotic given that regardless of where any given religion started basically all major religions preach universal compassion in the modern era. Especially the Modern American Christian(tm).

Usually, the more intolerent/assholish a religious person is the louder they yell about their message. Something I believe Jesus actually spoke quite a bit about. ;p

[Tama]

I believe Jesus would call such a person a Pharisee?

[Hyena Dandy]

I think he'd probably call a Pharisee a Pharisee. :P

[Food Lady]

Reminds me off a time when my cousin's grandma in law said (within earshot of her) that she needed to "pull herself up by the bootstraps". I should mention that said cousin was suffering from bipolar disorder.

And that Matt Walsh guy, fuck him. He's the poster boy for smug, holier than thou Christians who feels he has the right and duty to tell others how to live. He is one of the biggest twats on the internet.

I see that bootstraps view as typical of the religious right (not all people in that group, but it's what they're known for). The trouble is that they are seen as representative of christianity when the view isn't entirely biblical. Sure, there are things we can do to help ourselves, but we're still imperfect non-omnipotent humans. The poor and afflicted will always exist. Jesus said that. And yet, they are debased often. And that Matt guy annoys me sometimes. I had to stop following my friend on fb because she references so much of his stuff. I rarely agree with him.