I apologize if this is not appropriate for this community. But, I find the main reason I feel this way is because of my Christian faith. I’ve gone on Reddit twice this month to check for specific discussions or questions I had. I only ever used Reddit on a third party app, so I was upset but what was happening.
But surprisingly, I feel even more alienated and hated on here than I did on Reddit. Pro Life communities seem to be banned. I think there were one or two at some point, but I can’t find any now. This community has very low engagement and content, which I understand.
I’m kinda in the middle politically, trying to let my faith guide my politics, but there doesn’t seem to be a place for that here. The people here seem to be further left than Reddit and more intolerant of Christianity.
I think it makes sense. Of course the most “activist-minded” people would leave Reddit. Perhaps the most outspoken people. I left Reddit because dislike browsing it outside of RIF.
I feel myself more and more drawn to Reddit lately. There’s obviously still a vast majority of people on there that my beliefs are still hated. But, there are enough people to carve out little communities of like-minded people.
Anyway, sorry for the long post. Apologies if it doesn’t fit.
This community is pro-life.
We’re Christians, though. Jesus said the world will hate us. Wherever we go, our views will not be embraced.
I’m not Christian, and I’m not pro life (I saw this post on the main feed), however I do understand this sentiment.
I feel like Reddit, due to its size, allowed a much wider diversity of opinions. As much as I personally disagree with yours, I do think this platform suffers due to the lack of such opinions.
I’ve seen some genuinely hateful comments on Lemmy which didn’t seem to be challenged, and some well articulated comments with interesting perspectives which didn’t get any attention (or only negative attention).
Honestly, when it comes to certain topics, Lemmy feels like much more of an echo chamber than Reddit ever was.
Open communities are naturally going to have more diverse opinions than closed communities. Some extremists (from both sides of the political spectrum) crop up. I value that diversity and the challenge of having my values potentially questioned.
I’m an outsider to this group so I just want to say I wish you well.
Sorry you feel like you get a lot of hate but know it’s not personal! Like some others have said, perhaps a bit harshly, nobody minds if you’re religious and want to follow religious rules, but they do mind if you want to force everyone to follow your religious rules. Unfortunately, being pro-life necessarily means you want to force people to follow your religious rules. That’s why people react so negatively to it.
As for religious groups on Lemmy, I haven’t seen many either. The cool part of Lemmy is that nothing can possibly be banned! You could run your own server dedicated to whatever you want free from any rules. It’s free open source software. You’re probably not going to connect up with many people however. The demographics of Lemmy skew heavily towards the type of people who want to try out some new peice of technology, free from outside control. There isn’t a lot of overlap with the type of people who want to live a traditional lifestyle dictated by a thousands year old book. Maybe try a Facebook group?
Thank you for your more reasonable response. Per my other comment, I wasn’t trying to force any beliefs. You say being pro-life necessitates that. I’m not sure how. Perhaps by voting? Though I tend to vote kinda 50/50 either U.S. parties. Again, just trying to follow my faith.
I’m not sure that I have the resources or know-how to run my own instance. You’re correct though, I could create my own community. I personally don’t think they would be very fruitful at the moment though, as per my post and your point about it not getting much traffic. I understand that. I understand I’m in a tiny tiny minority here on Lemmy. I don’t really want to go back to Reddit, and I don’t really use Facebook. Which is why I was hoping for a bit more discussion on Lemmy.
I understand why I’m hated here. It’s just that, as evidenced by this post, I can’t discuss this in obscurity with like-minded people. Perhaps that’s just gonna happen because of the small size of Lemmy. Perhaps I shouldn’t be here. I’m sorry for upsetting people. I figured this would be like Reddit, where I could at least have discussions with a few small communities.
I’m just shocked at the reaction from my post. I’m sorry for hurting anybody. I ask you all to recognize that I’m a human, just like you. I’m just trying to find my place in this world. I’m not trying to hurt anybody. At the same time, I recognize our worldviews are entirely different and can be easily misunderstood. If I’m not welcome here, I understand.
If you’re a Christian, I’d be happy to discuss what the Bible teaches about when life begins. If you’re not a Christian, there’s no point. I would argue against your point that “pro life” is not Christian tenet. 1. Christianity teaches the Bible is God’s word. 2. The Bible teaches about humans being alive before birth. 3. One of the 10 commandments is to not murder.
Obviously that’s a very simple argument and could be expanded upon a lot, but I’m not going to argue Christian ethics to someone who doesn’t have the same foundational beliefs (Not sure if you do or not).
To your point on forcing my beliefs on others though, I’m not understanding where that’s coming from. I posted this in a Reformed Christianity community, expecting it to only be seen by those in the Reformed tradition. Perhaps you came across it by looking at new posts? If that’s the case, I’m sorry. It wasn’t directed to you. Perhaps that’s one of the shortfalls of Lemmy, is that there’s not a ton of traffic, so it may be more likely that you see posts you dislike.
What I see though, is you coming and trying to force your beliefs on me. Like I said, I was just trying to post this on a tiny community of people with similar beliefs. I haven’t talked about this before on Lemmy. But you come in and post saying I don’t understand my own faith, and that I’m an extremist. You commented on my post to a practically inexistent, though public, community. I haven’t tried to force it onto anyone.
Thank you for your time.
Pro-life is a Christian tenet and the traditional Reformed view. Promoting other viewpoints would not be welcome on c/reformed, actually.
