Religious intolerance, or intolerance caused by religion, bothers me. It bothers me alot, because the religions that are doing the discriminating have 'holy texts' which say they should act otherwise. Quite hypocritical, really.

For example, the other day I was walking up the escalator in the metro (Quebecois for subway, in case you're wondering) and two guys were handing out pamphlets about Jesus. The pamphlets went so far as to say that Jesus was the only answer and if we did not believe in him, we would wind up in some sorry hell somewhere. I asked them if this meant I was going to hell because I don't believe in Jesus, and they gave me the waffling type of answer, which can basically be summed up as "Yes".

Another time, a club at the CEGEP I attended hired a guy who does this type of 'performance art', where he paints on an easel while he's talking. He usually 'performs' on Ste. Catherine street, the main street downtown, and talks to the people watching him. His premise, again, is that Jesus is the Lord and Saviour and that all must find redemption in him or be doomed to burn in Hell. He actually told a Jewish student who asked about this, that this student was going to hell. Suffice it to say people don't really take this lightly, and the club that hired the guy lost their funding & office for the rest of the year (it caused quite the commotion).

What do you think of this? Do you think it was right to cut off their funding? I personally believe that it wasn't strictly their fault, although any time you hire someone to do an activity in a school, you have to screen the person beforehand and make sure they're not going to offend a whole bunch of people. I think my point is that religious groups often seem to exhibit the least tolerance, despite the proclamations in their Scripture which point to other, tolerant actions.