Let's ignore the homophobia. Let's ignore the scriptural condoning of slavery, the sex slaves, that the Bible sets pretty high limits on how much you are allowed to beat your slaves. Let's ignore that the entire point of the entire point of the Book of Job is that God doesn't answer prayers or reward righteous men on Earth.
I'm not talking about how Christianity can lead people to commit evil deeds, like the fire bombing of abortion clinics or how Chic-fil-A fired an employee for refusing to take part in Christian prayer.
There is no point in claiming any of those things because there are easy responses that are impossible to argue against; that the people who try to murder medical doctors aren't really Christian (I never thought there were any true Scots anyway), that the Old Testament somehow doesn't really apply, or that the references to slavery in the New Testament are translated incorrectly. There's no reason to bring up obscure scripture to show that Christianity is hateful.
You don't have to look any further than the core message; that Jesus saves. There is literally nothing that could be more hateful than this message, what could be more hateful than the idea that all others deserve and will receive an unimaginably bad punishment for all eternity?
This is somehow perceived as an upbeat message, that all you have to do is have faith and you will be rewarded with eternal salvation. All these songs that people sing on Christmas about how great it is that Christ the Savior is here are directly songs about how anyone of any other religion is going to burn eternally. Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Agnostics, Atheists; all going to burn forever, even the ones who devote their entire lives to helping the needy.
I have been asked by friends of mine (even ones who are openly atheist) why I do not go to church with my family on Christmas Eve. I have also had a few less friendly quasi-allegations that I am neglecting my filial obligations solely to avoid an hour of tedium. I cannot understand how people feel this way, how anyone can go along and sing songs that are implicitly about how your neighbors, your friends, your family, or (in the case of atheists who don't want to make waves) you will be burning in hell. It is a completely absurd scene, people literally damning themselves, shaking hands with other people who are there explicitly to pat themselves on the back for their salvation and your damnation, and doing it all with a big smile on their face.
So what? Why can I not accept that churches are a force for good in their community and that no person or organization is perfect? It is totally irrelevant to my point if churches today are a net positive force. No one can dispute that churches give people amazing consolation in times of need or that they provide impressive sense of community.
That is simply not enough for me. I can't just ignore the core message of damnation just because the organization also organizes food drives. The modern KKK also does community service, and I personally wouldn't consider it to be moral to be a member of the KKK even if you only gave lip service to the core hatred because you were able to achieve net good through their charitable acts. The core beliefs that an organization stands for are not simply erased by a few good deeds.
It is every man's imperative to be as moral as possible in this short life we have. I happen to be blessed enough with the life that I have that I have the luxury to stand up for what I believe in. I have sufficient luxury that I do not have to accept that hate is necessary to achieve good in the world.
Even if I could stomach sitting in a crowd of friends and neighbors cheering for a message that is condemning me to hell, even if I accepted Jesus Christ and my lord and savior, I still cannot imagine myself sitting through the another minute of the average church service. It would be a betrayal to all of my non-Christian friends and neighbors, how could I look them in the eyes on the same day that I condemned them to ultimate pain?
There is no reason why you have to accept hatred into your heart just to be a member of a community. The only reason why this continues in perpetuity is because people are unwilling to speak against the institutional hatred that they see every Sunday.
Aside: I am specifically thinking of sola fide (that you are saved by faith alone), which is I know is a mostly a Protestant belief, though from what I know about Catholicism they aren't exactly running handing out salvation to Buddhists. If there really are Christian churches that are teaching salvation purely through good works regardless of accepting Christ, then I am very surprised to hear it.
