Exploding religious myths...and correcting the unthinking

A friend o' mine—and one I consider a very good friend—posted an unthinkingly unkind post today on Facebook and, while I forgive him and love him dearly, it made me think about a lot o' myths that people seem to cling to. Especially about religion.

And so, here then, is a brief primer that explodes ridiculous prejudices about religion.

Let's start with the obvious (to me, anyway) since my friend who inspired this is a born Muslim.

Myth: "Most Islamic imams preach terrorism. In fact, most imams rejoiced over 9/11/01."

Not true. Most imams really do preach peace. Don't tell me I'm wrong...I've heard many and have known, and do know, many members of Islam. Yes indeed, it was fanatic Muslims who attacked America (which happens to be my country so I'm a little more than interested) and yes, indeed, it may well have been fanatic Muslims who murdered Coptic Christians a few days ago in Egypt (and I've a friend who's a Coptic Christian and so I'm a little more than interested) but still. It's a myth. The vast majority of imams do not preach "terrorism against The Infidel." And don't tell me about the Koran. Check out the Old Testament if you're interested in discovering violence.

Myth: "Most Hindu Brahmin priests once forced widows to face the suttee."

Nah. While yes,  a few hundred years ago, Hindu wives willingly allowed themselves to be burned after the death of their husbands, nobody—except perhaps Hindu society's societal niceties coupled with their own desires—forced them to.

Myth: "All Jewish Leaders Killed Christ!"

Sheesh.  Nope. My sins and yours did the deed, and Jesus was perfectly willing to go along. This one always bemuses me, since I know Jews who are more Christian than many Catholics are.

Myth: Atheists "Are Evil People"

Wrong again. Atheists are, perhaps, unfortunate, but they're not "evil." In fact, atheists have a harder time than most, in my opinion, to seek goodness because they're on their own. No God to guide them? That's gotta be really tough, but I know many unbelievers who manage to do the right thing.

I've saved the most odious "myth" for last, and do you know why? Why, I'll tell you!

These days, and for quite a while now, nobody in the PC world would dare to repeat the above myths among the Beautiful People. I didn't really have to come to the defense of Islam, Hinduism, Israel, or atheism. C'mon. Today, any negative comment about the above groups would be considered "hate speech." Sheesh, I might be jailed for doing so!

Still, I meant what I wrote. Myths about religions abound.

But you know? There's only one group that's still fair game for the mythology game. And so I bring you:

Catholicism...The Last Permissible Victim of Bigotry.

Myths—politically correct ones, to be sure—about Catholicism abound...'way too many to blog about here. But here's the one that got my ire up today:

Myth: Most Catholic priests lust sexually after children...particularly boys.

This is a damned lie. If you have a scintilla of common sense, you know this. Or, if you have no common sense, you have at least the brains God (or whomever you worship) gave you to do the math.

As I said, there are a lot of myths about the Catholic Church—far more than I'm willing to go into right now.

But let me say this: you go around spreading this myth or any others?

You've got me to contend with. And trust me on this one...I'm not alone.

I've got a Really Good Friend to help me.

So do be careful. I may—and in fact, I do—pray for you all the time.

But I'll defend my faith against you or anybody else. To the death.

May God continue to bless you.