Religious beliefs that are prejudiced against women, LGBT, races should be judged as harshly as... [View all]

[CreekDog]

Those beliefs if they were held for non-religious reasons.

Inside and outside that religion, intolerant religious beliefs should be held to the same standard as intolerance anywhere.

It is no more acceptable if you believe in discrimination against gays, or those of other races, or women based on a religious tenet, than if you came up with that belief yourself, without any religious motivation.

As someone formerly in a conservative religion, one of the most useful moments growing up was when a relative said to me, "so what if your church told you to believe that way, what kind of excuse is that?"

She was right. It was an educational moment.

We do a disservice to those in intolerant religions when we accept that they believe something intolerant and don't ask them to question what they have accepted.

And as a former member of a conservative church, it was really important for me to deal with whether I believed or did not believe that God wanted me to believe the intolerant thing (or not).

I ultimately answered that question, "no, God doesn't want me to believe that way, no matter what the others say..."

Later though, I'd leave and decide even if I didn't believe those intolerant things, I didn't want to be a part of a place that was advertising those beliefs.