Organized religion breeds hate?

You are right; organized religion definitely breeds hate. As far as I know, religions like Buddhism and Taoism are not so judgemental. They are inclined more to the spiritual side.

There was a very high ranking clerical figure in my country, his name was Teoctist, I'm not sure whether he's still among us at this time, but regardless. I was visiting a monastery, very nice place, and 3 christian monks were singing some religious songs. Exceptional voices, amazing sound, I was very impressed. Then Teoctist came along to give his Sunday speech to the Christian congregation gathered there. And I couldn't believe my ears. He sounded exactly like Hitler! He was going on about people that don't come to mass on Sunday, but regardless of the content, the energy was just horrible. Screaming, threatening, hatred, I can tell you for anyone not speaking Romanian in that crowd, that was the pure sound of a maniac. The stuff that genocide is made of. And this was one of the highest religious figures in my country. I had a low opinion of Christianity even before that, but experiences of that sort just reinforce everything I think of this institution. Personal opinion: Look into churches that use psychoactive plants for communion. Native American Church, or Uniao do Vegetal. I guarantee that your son will no be learning hatred while frlying on the colorful wings of the psychoactives, in a proper religious context. The rest are mostly just waste of time. You want to experience spirituality, you must make the journey, not just listen to a guy that reads from a book about how some other guy made it, a long time ago. Peace :D

I think it depends on what you mean. I am in a church that teaches homosexual acts are sinful, but also teaches us to hate the sin but not the sinner. There is no justification anywhere in the scriptures to hate another person, even if what they are doing is a sin. As far as preaching hate for people in other churches, again, it depends. I know that a lot of churches put out tracts and pamphlets supposedly "teaching" about other churches. I think most of these are based on a sincere hope to "save" people from joining the wrong church, but there are also some who have nothing but Satanic hatred as their motive. Jesus never hated anyone, not even the "moneychangers" he cast out of the temple. He didn't condone what they were doing, but he also never held up a sign that said anything like, "God Hates Moneychangers". ;~D

I don't think that organized religion breeds hate directly. Indirectly there is a link. To explain: It is human nature to succeed. We all succeed at something, being a profession, sports, or any endeavor. Society as a whole also has that need to feel that they succeed (or feel better about themselves) over other groups. When it comes to religion, one 'church' will feel that need to pronounce itself better or to be the one 'true' religion. Setting up either confrontation or competitiveness with other religions or churches. With the priest being the leader of the church or religion, the more people in his group, the more 'powerful' he feels. This can lead to that same feeling of needing to be better, succeed more, or be more powerful that another relligion. Again, up comes the confrontation and/or competitiveness. At some point, that power corrupts....the priest and his group diverge from God's message of love and peace. In the quest to become 'the best' or better than thou, putting down and demeaning other religions or churches begin, which, in due time, leads to the hatred so apparent between believers of the separate religions today. Will we ever learn?

You could make the argument that anything in the world breeds hate. Money breeds hate. Politics breeds hate. Heck, you could even make a pretty strong argument that love breeds hate, because it fosters things like jealousy and broken hearts. The fact of the matter is that human nature can make bad out of anything in the world. I think it is important for people to judge religion without factoring in the human element, because while God is perfect in his judgment and his love, people are not even CLOSE to perfect in anything. Also, just because the church says that certain things are wrong and sinful does not mean they are preaching hate. Everyone has a definition of right and wrong, and that is a right that every single person has. I personally think that it is not hateful or self-righteous to stand up for and defend the things that you think are right and to denounce the things that you think are wrong, so long as you are not mean, hateful, and violent when you do it. You can disagree and explain your reasoning without being mean. Perhaps your church is a little more zealous than they should be, but it up to you to define what you believe, not your church. It is true that the Bible says to love others, and maybe if your church is not showing that love, you should consider raising your son with the help of a different church. Keep in mind though that love is not synonymous with apathy. If you love someone and they do something you think is harmful to their spirit, the only loving thing to do is to tell them that you think they are wrong. This is not judgmental or hateful. This is being a loving neighbor.