
We believe (or should believe) in freedom of religion, because “forced faith” is not true faith. We might (and should) disagree with other religions that according to our beliefs are wrong, but we SHOULD NOT be hateful in any way, we are called to love them and treat them as humans made in the image of God, and to share the Gospel with them.
Christians believe that Jesus is God the Son, but fully God. It’s the concept of the Trinity, three gods in one, and yes it’s very confusing and seems to make no sense but it is backed by Scripture. Muslims do not believe that Jesus is God the Son, just that he was another prophet like Moses and Elijah and “Muhammad” although that would mean about half of what Jesus said as “just a prophet” would have been blasphemy, so…
They believe in their own religious liberty, in my experience being raised in an evangelical church that largely doesn’t consider itself to be “extremist”. They won’t say these religions need to be banned but the belief that people should not practice any other religion then Christianity is extremely pervasive even if it’s said through a lens of evangelicalism, trying to get people to convert or “see the truth” “know the love of Jesus” etc
Just for example Quebec has legislation being introduced that would ban religious symbols in public/governmental spheres like schools and city government. This bill was actually supported by a few large evangelical groups, up until they realized that the cross was included as religious symbolism. Even now, they aren’t leading much in the court battle against the bill either, that’s mostly secular civil liberties groups and Muslims who are concerned about the ban of religious head coverings.
There are in fact large denominations that hold these beliefs, especially in more rural and conservative areas in the US. I grew up in one lol. The church I attended as a child holds two Sunday services in an auditorium that can hold >200 people and both are packed, in a zip code with a population of 10,000.
I think they’re needs to be a larger statistical study done to determine whether or not it is as prevalent as this, but this was just what I am able to see in front of my own face. I know it’s not the only one like this. And the 400 people are just the regular attendees, not even talking about the slightly more moderate, sporadic attendance, and C+E crowd. You said there weren’t any serious groups or denoms that thought this way. Maybe they aren’t the majority but they do exist.
400 regular attendees is not a large church, focus on the family supports religious liberty/freedom at least in their official messaging and publications, and your personal experience is not representative to the way any legitimate or large scale groups think or act I'm sorry you've experienced a church like that, but i invite you to go anywhere else and ask a church member their thoughts on rules about what religion is or isnt allowed, you'll realize your experience is an outlier pretty quick
I’m going based on shit I saw on this app. If I see people saying “only my religion is valid and to believe in any other religion or to not believe in one at all is discriminatory because only my religion should be believed in”, I’m going to call that extremism. To REFUSE to tolerate the belief of religions other than your own is extreme, so I’m calling it extremism
Dang, well since yik yak is a very thorough and accurate representation of reality, I guess I have no way to argue against this (If people are saying its discrimination to not agree with them then those people are probably both extremists and idiots, but this is not how most Christians and certainly not how any large scale or mainstream Christian organizations think or act)
And again that’s just one church, I know of two others of a similar size just within two small counties. To act as if these beliefs just don’t exist or are just so obscure that not enough people are involved with them to have any impact is naive at best. Focus on the family is a lot more than that, there is an extensive money trail that tells how far reaching Christian nationalist movements in the US go.