Are Christians ostracized in Seattle? (suburbs, atheist, metro area)

[sean98125]

"The world 3000 years ago is nothing like we have today."


Exactly.

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by fnh

Some of you seem to be missing the salient point that the OP self-identifies as a "born again" evangelical from Oklahoma. I live in both Seattle and Houston, do you have any experience around evangelicals? Do you know what that means? The OP sounds like a very nice, reasonable person who respects boundaries, but many evangelicals speak VERY FREQUENTLY about their religion and in my experience interject talking points in almost every conversation. I'm just trying to be helpful and let him know that Seattle is not Oklahoma and such overt talk is generally frowned upon whereas in the South it is much more common thus accepted. But I suspected he already knew that and perhaps was a little too cheeky in my response. For that I'm sorry.

Now, none of you can presume to know whether I am Christian or not (since it's private!) But I can recognize hypocrisy when I see it, among both religious and non-religious people. I remember a conversation with a friend of mine who was complaining about Muslims putting their religion "in your face" with headscarves etc. while at that very moment wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a giant rhinestone cross, a diamond cross around her neck, and a baseball cap with yet another rhinestone cross.

There is no war on Christianity in this country anywhere and to suggest otherwise is foolish hyperbole. Christians enjoy being the majority in the United States but being Christian fail to notice the Christian environment surrounding all of us, Christian or no, because of its very pervasiveness. Don't make something out of nothing. Seattleites are no more or less bigoted than anyone else, just perhaps more secular in public.

Have a blessed day!

This might sound like I am contradicting my earlier post, but I agree with most of what you say. Not all, but most.

1. Evangelicals can indeed be like you describe. It's not as if they are always trying to recruit or convert people. They talk about religion a lot even when amongst themselves. It's simply that they are very passionate about their beliefs and love to talk about them. Nonetheless, I know more than a few people who would be turned off by someone always discussing religion.

2. Inside all of us is a hypocrite trying to get out, and often does. I'm an extremist moderate largely for that reason. I've observed that the further you are ideologically to the left or right, the more that little hypocrite gets out and takes over your body. It makes you say things that are quite illogical. Yes, many Christians do not really believe in freedom of religion. What they believe in is freedom of Christianity and Judaism. I believe in true freedom of religion. I have some pretty good reasons to hate muslims but I don't. I respect their beliefs and don't expect them to keep their beliefs out of sight.

3. I'll partially disagree with you regarding the war on Christianity. I'll agree that "war" is too strong a term, and is hyperbole. "War" seems to be an overused term nowadays (e.g. war on women). There is however, a persistent effort by progressives and activist atheists to morph freedom of religion into freedom from religion. Removing nativity scenes, eliminating the word Christmas (holiday tree?), suing to stop prayer, are good examples of this. Even in Kuwait the headlines read "Merry Christmas" on Christmas day. Freedom of religion does not mean we have to keep it at home, but that we should all be free to publicly exercise our faith.

[seattlenextyear]

Originally Posted by sean98125

Being Christian isn't going to be that big of a deal.

If you're the kind of Christian who thinks women are subordinate to men,

then you join Mars Hill

Originally Posted by sean98125

or that Genesis is an accurate account of the creation of the world,

Seattle is home to the Discovery Institute


There's a huge conservative element here. Tons of those branded megachurches with their own coffeeshops. I think a Christian will SOMEHOW be able to avoid persecution in Seattle.

[rockyinyourradio]

Originally Posted by seattlenextyear

then you join Mars Hill

Seattle is home to the Discovery Institute


There's a huge conservative element here. Tons of those branded megachurches with their own coffeeshops. I think a Christian will SOMEHOW be able to avoid persecution in Seattle.

I am very acquainted with Mars Hill and Pastor Mark Driscoll and I never have heard him preach that women are below men.. at least not in a serious way that I'm aware of.

[tolvak]

The best numbers I could find: Top 10 Seattle-Tacoma

72% of the population in Seattle identify as Christian (vs 84% on average nationally). So that is still far and away the most popular belief system. Even more interesting the percentage of protestants in Seattle in the overall population is right on par with the national average, and seemingly its just a smaller percentage of Catholics than most of the country. So as for identifying as Christian or not Christian, you would be in the vast majority identifying as Christian. There may be a more even spread of the churches across the spectrum from liberal to conservative here than you may be used to (though there are still plenty of conservative options). My family back south considers people who attend a more liberal church to not be Christian at all, so if that is how you felt, you may feel less than in the majority than you are used to.

I think most Christians in the US, especially those from the south or other conservative areas, are just really used to being almost uncontested religiously on the most basic tenants. For example, my home state is near 95% Christian. So, when someone from an area like that visits here, they go from rarely being around someone that has radically different beliefs, to seeing it a lot more. So I honestly think its more of a shock at there being more diverse beliefs present in the community at all.

I also think it is human nature to want to feel like we are persecuted (in the religious world), or have a lot of haters (if you are a music artist or athlete), etc. I don't mean that to disparage people who say this, but more of a commentary on how we often perceive things as humans, and magnify any negative reactions we get, while not noticing all the neutral or positive reactions.

[Cinema Cat]

>> Christians get ostracized here if they're the type that try to shove their values and beliefs upon others. <<

One problem is that when Christians "express" their views, many non-Christians see it as "shoving" those views.

People we agree with "express" their views. People we disagree with "shove" their views.

[burgerbun]

There is a lot of irony on this thread.

I don't see Seattle as particularly welcoming OR unwelcoming to religion. it seems to be a non-issue for the most part.

I am personally a somewhat progressive, somewhat liberal atheist. I don't give a crap about anyone's religion. I don't want to be witnessed to, and I have no desire to set foot in a church unless someone is dead or getting married, but otherwise I don't care. It's not a topic that interests me. If you want to spend all your time talking about God and Jesus and church, good for you. What do I care? I probably won't sit at the lunch table with you, but I also won't sit with you if you spend all your time talking about football or cars or all the different kinds of pot you smoked in college. No one likes a one trick pony.

[Count David]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/sp...anted=all&_r=0

Card-counting Christians from Seattle. There's an interesting documentary I watched on Current about them.

Even as a non-practicing whatsoever Christian, I was mildly offended, and tried to reconcile what they were doing, but couldn't do it even in my secular mind (given, I am a poker player, but like I said, religion is no part of my life). I felt they were tailoring their religion to their beliefs, instead of the other way around. Corner-cutting, or even hypocrisy, if you will.

[Ira500]

Post number 12 links to a site that states that 37% of Seattleites consider themselves Christian. Post number 35 links to a site that states that 72% of Seattleites consider themselves Christian. Which is it?
I am not saying that Christians are or aren't being ostracized. It's something not in my reality, but I also don't witness the Seattle Freeze thing. But there's enough people who claim to experience it that I can't say "I don't feel it, therefore it doesn't exist."
Still, maybe 5% call themselves atheist in Seattle. How did they get into such a powerful position that they, a very small minority, are ostracizing a group that could range from 35-72%.?

[burgerbun]

Ira, the 35% is the number who are Christians and go to church. It would seem that the other half of people who self identify as Christians simply don't belong to a church (but that's fairly common all over the us. A very large number of believers don't attend regular church services. It's not just a Seattle thing).