This topic contains 29 replies, has 20 voices, and was last updated by 
Danielle 4 months, 3 weeks ago.
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@Wayner – “Pineapple pizza.”
LMAO – Thanks Wayner, that provided a good chuckle this morning.
Anonymous“The inability to follow a logical train of thought, the extreme manipulation of my views in order to make them fit into their bias, and of course the blatant denial of factual evidence in order to preserve the bias at any and all cost.”
YES!!! That perfectly sums it up. Those things irritate me no matter what the topic is. I like discussion, and sometimes I like to argue from a different viewpoint just for the fun of it even though I don’t believe it. But even when I am arguing something I don’t actually believe, those things still annoy me to death.
My berserk button is when the church hurts suffering people instead of helping them, whether that involves shaming them, ignoring them, or (most often) giving them bad advice. (My anger at homophobia falls in this category.) Most of the time the hurt is unintentional, and the church truly believes they are helping, but you know the cliche about good intentions.
It infuriates me how the church usually responds to complex problems like addiction and depression. “Oh, you’re just not spiritual enough. If you read the Bible more, pray more, and trust God, this will all go away soon.” Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! Those things may help some, but the church acts like spiritual health is the only thing that matters, when in reality, emotional, social, mental, and physical health are just as important. Being super-spiritual isn’t going to help me much if I ignore every other area of my life. Also, the church should encourage struggling people to go to counseling instead of shaming them for not being to fix the problem on their own. They are crippling people instead of helping them. I am probably sensitive to this because I grew up in this world, and most of my addiction and depression started because I was trying to survive in it, but I take full responsibility. I also know not all churches are like this, but there are too many that are.
@Alyson – “My berserk button is when the church hurts suffering people instead of helping them, whether that involves shaming them, ignoring them, or (most often) giving them bad advice. (My anger at homophobia falls in this category.) ”
Yes absolutely. And going even further by attempting to shame the victim into silence in order to protect the image of the church. This one I have experienced multiple times in horribly abusive ways.
The deceitful use of scripture on forgiveness used by leadership, to avoid accountabilty.
Anonymoushmm interesting thread. Most of the stuff mentioned here will push my button. Also legalism, women in the church, daily confession.
The lack of teaching from church on healthy sexuality and intimacy (sex only exists for procreation, don’t you know
“Reverend” Phelps and his band of assholes.
- homosexuality
– Hell
– Women (ex. saying they shouldn’t preach, etc)
– Saying people “reject” or “rebel” against GodI feel I’m pretty cool headed about most everything else, but those topics particularly get me hot and I have to bite my tongue.
Great question and great responses.
I think I’d add a few more:
People who pretend to be Pro-Life when all they are are just Anti-Abortion.
Spiritual “Calling”
The push of right wing, political agendas in American churches.
Religious programs that become more important than the people they were designed to minister to.
Scandalous teaching on money and tithing attached to God’s blessing.Yes yes yes! My list seems to grow with each post.
oh ya, and Sarah Palin.
@Chad Estes, your last comment made me laugh out loud. Yes, indeedy!!
My latest hot button has to do with the concept of “modesty”, which as near as I can figure out, means women hide as much of their femininity as possible so that men aren’t “tempted”. It’s been my husband of 17 years who has, over the years and with much patience, helped me understand that how I dress is my business and mine alone, and what men’s imaginations do with it from there is *their* responsibility and theirs alone.
For some reason, the idea that a individual man, and only that man, bears the responsibility for what goes on his brain absolutely and utterly freaks out the Christian Religious.
@Al Cruise“The deceitful use of scripture on forgiveness used by leadership, to avoid accountability.”
That is SO true!!! And it was used on me! And it allows the narcissist pastors to continue on their merry little abusive way.
They lie, cheat and steal; but they say I was the one who wouldn’t forgive.When a church leader is caught doing stuff they shouldn’t be doing – acts that harms others- and the majority of the members in the community (including leaders) stick their heads so far up their asses so that they ‘can’t’ see the devastation around them- so that they don’t have to deal with it… in short because: How things look is more important than what’s real. grr…
Well, quite a lot of what’s already been said pushes my buttons. I’ve gotten good at ignoring discussions of hell/salvation/doctrine, because I just honestly don’t care anymore. I don’t even care if someone wants to be a young-earth creationist, so long as they don’t try to teach my kids that crappy theology.
What really gets me raging is anything to do with sex/sexuality/gender/gender roles/modesty/purity. ANY of it. What people do in their bedrooms, alone or with however many people they want in there with them, is their (and their partners’) business–NO ONE else’s. And after studying public health, I am just so sick and tired of conservative agenda driving everything. Really good research says that a combination of comprehensive sex education and nurturing of healthy parent/child interactions is the best way to help young people develop healthy, responsible sexuality. I’ve just about had it with the online drama over modesty/purity, because both sides are missing the damn point. Obviously, I’d like to do away with all that purity crap (pledging one’s virginity to one’s father really weirds me out). But sometimes, Christians on the other end of the spectrum annoy me too, because they don’t seem to have much of a clue what it is they think we SHOULD do–only what we SHOULDN’T do. And also? While I agree that comprehensive care for women is important, I wish all the people going on about women taking charge of their fertility with birth control realized what a totally crappy that idea is unless you’re completely monogamous. Geez, you’d think no one had ever heard of women carrying a freakin’ condom.
Ok, rant over.
It is a well-known tactic to leverage one issue that people care about in order to get what you want on some other issue. Both liberals and conservatives do this. But it does push my buttons when the religious right leverages the concept of freedom to try to perpetuate or gain back Christian privilege. For instance claiming they want the freedom to do each of the following:
teach creationism in public school,
recite bible verses over the morning announcements in public school,
proselytize in public school,
have religious displays on government property,
saying under God in the pledge and having it on the currency,
encourage the Boy Scout organization to continue to require all adult leaders to be a member of a church (I wonder if TLS counts),
not cover certain procedures on health-care insurance,
deny distributing certain doctor prescriptions,
discriminate based on passages in the bible,
get religious exemptions,
be active in politics and still not pay taxes,
etc.I care deeply about personal freedom and I think each of these (and more) actually constrains personal freedom. It just empowers a majority to push their will on the full population. When the religious right agenda is framed as a freedom agenda, it pushes my buttons because I care deeply about freedom.
Family members who try to convince me of their (even in Christian terms, extreme) beliefs.
My mother has been a Christian since the 1970s. Her faith has changed, but she’s still a Christian.
A while ago she got leukaemia and was told she had a month to live if she didn’t get treatment (8 months later she’s still with us – praise God).
A cousin of mine kept sending her letters (my mother calls them “theses” – that’s how thick they are) sharing even the most basic things about the gospel with my mom.
Me, she would txt: “I want to help you help your mother before it’s too late”.
Just because my mother doesn’t believe EXACTLY the way she does – faith healing always works, Holy Spirit everything, etc.
Her own mother also became a Christian in the 1970s, through the death of her first husband.
She considers the mother’s testimony null and void, as the man should have been healed, and God can’t work though pain.
I’m so sick of that kind of arrogant thinking.
That’s what still pushes my buttons.
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