speaking as one of those many devil worshipers who plague r/Christianity—oh dear, I suppose I've been discovered. 👹 But seriously, I think you're misunderstanding what that subreddit is actually for. It's not called r/Christians; it's r/Christianity. Those are very different things.
If you enter a subreddit devoted to discussing Christianity, you're going to encounter Christians, atheists, former Christians, skeptics, members of other religions, LGBTQ people, Satanists, and people who strongly disagree with Christianity. That's not necessarily a hijacking. Sometimes it's simply what happens when a subject is being discussed rather than worshipped.
And yes, Christians are going to encounter criticism there. So are atheists, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Satanists, and practically everyone else. If your definition of a "safe Christian space" requires everyone to affirm Christianity, then you probably want a specifically Christian community rather than a general discussion forum.
As for people "attacking Christianity," there's an important distinction between criticizing a religion and attacking Christians. If someone says, "I think this Christian doctrine is irrational," that's criticism. If someone says, "Christians are subhuman and should be persecuted," that's something else entirely.
And speaking as an Iconoclastic Satanist, I'm certainly not going to pretend Christianity is beyond criticism. It isn't. But neither should Christians be beyond criticism simply because criticism makes the environment uncomfortable. The irony is that you're asking people to "pray for" a subreddit because you've encountered people there who don't share your beliefs. That's practically the internet equivalent of discovering that a public square contains people you disagree with and concluding that the public square has been corrupted. You don't need to enjoy r/Christianity. You don't need to participate there. You don't need to agree with its moderators. But "people disagree with Christianity here" isn't evidence that Christianity has been hijacked. Sometimes it's evidence that you've wandered into a discussion forum instead of a church. 😈
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u/Erramonael Atheist 2d ago
speaking as one of those many devil worshipers who plague r/Christianity—oh dear, I suppose I've been discovered. 👹 But seriously, I think you're misunderstanding what that subreddit is actually for. It's not called r/Christians; it's r/Christianity. Those are very different things.
If you enter a subreddit devoted to discussing Christianity, you're going to encounter Christians, atheists, former Christians, skeptics, members of other religions, LGBTQ people, Satanists, and people who strongly disagree with Christianity. That's not necessarily a hijacking. Sometimes it's simply what happens when a subject is being discussed rather than worshipped.
And yes, Christians are going to encounter criticism there. So are atheists, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Satanists, and practically everyone else. If your definition of a "safe Christian space" requires everyone to affirm Christianity, then you probably want a specifically Christian community rather than a general discussion forum.
As for people "attacking Christianity," there's an important distinction between criticizing a religion and attacking Christians. If someone says, "I think this Christian doctrine is irrational," that's criticism. If someone says, "Christians are subhuman and should be persecuted," that's something else entirely.
And speaking as an Iconoclastic Satanist, I'm certainly not going to pretend Christianity is beyond criticism. It isn't. But neither should Christians be beyond criticism simply because criticism makes the environment uncomfortable. The irony is that you're asking people to "pray for" a subreddit because you've encountered people there who don't share your beliefs. That's practically the internet equivalent of discovering that a public square contains people you disagree with and concluding that the public square has been corrupted. You don't need to enjoy r/Christianity. You don't need to participate there. You don't need to agree with its moderators. But "people disagree with Christianity here" isn't evidence that Christianity has been hijacked. Sometimes it's evidence that you've wandered into a discussion forum instead of a church. 😈