Ok, Din, I'm looking at things calmly, because otherwise I'd reply with the sarcasm I feel like using to reply to what you just said.
Din, I think you still don't understand what exactly you said that was so hurtful.
Maybe I should quote, to make it clearer:
I am not saying Nero was right, but sometimes I do wonder if he was wrong
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LOL, yes, that and his taste in garden decorations. A fine tradition userped by the Anglican communion to celebrate November 5th
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Religious folks
It was
not your comments on feeling persecuted by your colleagues, it was
not your saying you don't do anything for lent, it was not even just saying that talking about keeping lent annoyed you - as long as you said it was your colleagues who annoyed you, that's ok, too.
You did sound rather absolute in your condemnation, though, and I think that laureanna took your hatred for people talking about keeping lent to include the people posting in this thread.
For me (I don't presume to speak for others, although Ro said she also did a "double turn") what was hurtful, was a very deliberate and cruel joke on your part, which you posted twice, and which made it clear you think the world would be the better if Christians could be got rid of.
So, I think it's you who is being unfeeling. Not just by not realising how cruel your joke was. It's even more because you think "the thread had moved on", which means you haven't even noticed that with your repeated crass statements you made laureanna feel so bad about her keeping lent that she felt she had to justify herself to you, so you wouldn't despise her along with all the other people who keep lent that you hate so much.
If you had put yourself in other people's position at any time, rather than focusing on your own trouble with Christians, you'd have noticed and taken back what you said.
Ro and laureanna tried to point it out to you gently that maybe you were going a bit too far, they both agreed with you about being intrusive, Ro tried to turn your "joke" into something less hurtful, laureanna
apologized, but all this was of no avail, you went on with it, so I thought I'd have to speak a bit more clearly and unmistakably.
I suppose I could have e-mailed you rather than commenting in the thread, I understand that it is hurtful to be criticised in public. But it's difficult for me to react that subtly to an offense when it had taken place in public, too - the urge is simply to respond in the place where you are confronted with the problem.
I didn't mean to hurt you with my criticism, but I did mean to stop your taunts, and seeing they were hurtful not only to me, but to others as well, I don't think that's at all petty.
And if you have a problem with any of my opinions, feel free to contradict me, whenever you read them!
I'm a Christian by choice and although I normally want to be liked by everybody, I don't care a fig what other people think of me on account of that! No one should have to feel embarrassed for what they believe in, and for other people to try and make them feel embarrassed, and to point out that they look down on them for the beliefs they hold - well, in plain English, that sucks!
Which reminds me:
To be blunt, IMHO religion is a social and mental trick of the mind passed down through the generations (see The Retirement Plan) - a controller and comforter.
That so many people feel the need for such 'mental tricks' such as Lent to give up something, rather than having the strength of will to do it under our own steam, I find disappointing.
I think you have a rather limited view of religion, lidless, and you don't quite understand the concept of lent.
Lent is not about someone wanting to cut back on the alcohol (for example) and not being able to without an outward, artificial aid to make up for a lack of willpower - it's about taking a break from ordinary, daily life and trying to focus on something else. It's realising that all too easily the trifling desires and customs of everyday life take over and dominate all our thinking. And if you feel that this is happening - that something meaningless is dominating your life - it might be a good idea to let that be and try to focus on something else for a change.
Whether you take lent as a setting for that - if you are a Christian the religious context of lent makes it a meaningful period of the year - or any other part of the year that has some meaning to you personally - it's always useful, I think, to take a time out, have a look at your life, and think about whether you are still on a track that makes sense to you.
It's a practice which, as far as I know, all cultures that have developed any kind of spirituality include in their traditions. Western consumerist society is the only one that has banned any idea of abstention and indeed spirituality as such, for the simple reason that obviously it's not good for business. Indeed, the comeback of spirituality in recent times, IMO, is connected to business realising that you can make money with spirituality, too. That so many people are happy to go along with that uncritically is something I find disappointing.