To some Christians, why do you insist on enforcing your beliefs upon others?

[OpusAtrum]

Many Christian believers insist that their beliefs and rules should be subjected upon people of other beliefs (and lack thereof). What makes you believe that your faith is more important than the freedom of your non-believing counterparts?
To clarify, I'm mostly referring to the assertion that America is based on Christian values, and the laws that have been invoked on behalf of that assertion. For example, gay marriage, the fight against the teaching of evolution, the fight against a woman's rights over her own anatomy, the fight for prayer in schools, etc. America was founded on the right, not only of freedom of religion, but freedom FROM religion, i.e. the separation of church and state.

 

[markl67]

Many Christian believers insist that their beliefs and rules should be subjected upon people of other beliefs (and lack thereof). What makes you believe that your faith is more important than the freedom of your non-believing counterparts?
To clarify, I'm mostly referring to the assertion that America is based on Christian values, and the laws that have been invoked on behalf of that assertion. For example, gay marriage, the fight against the teaching of evolution, the fight against a woman's rights over her own anatomy, the fight for prayer in schools, etc. America was founded on the right, not only of freedom of religion, but freedom FROM religion, i.e. the separation of church and state.

Excellent question. As a Christian, I'm not always pleased with how some fellow christians go about showing or telling others about our faith. God values freedom of choice aka free will which is why a place called hell exists because of His love and respect of our free will. I think the phrase "separation of church and state" has been abused or misinterpreted to a certain degree by some. According to the Bible, our holy book, Jesus tells believers to spread the good news of salvation to all. Again, how some go about this is less than desirable shall we say. I have come to really dislike the term "religion" because true Christianity is really not founded on rules and do's and don'ts...its founded first upon a wonderful relationship with Him. Now here's where you're probably gonna take offense to my comments and I understand...America was founded by Christians who fled from tyranny and to freely practice Christianity...so I believe it was founded on Christian values. Therefore we believe that while the state should not impose a certain religion we also believe that tolerance has been abused. We believe the state should not grant special rights to homosexuals or call them a class of people because to do so is condoning the act and brings our nation closer to moral ruin. However, to bash homosexuals is absolutely wrong and not Christ like. We believe that creationism should be taught in public schools along with evolution as explanations of life in a fair and balanced manner which allows freedom of choice. Here is where we believe separation of church and state is abused. Creationism is not "church" and is just as much a religion as is evolutionism. We believe that abortion is murder both theologically and scientifically. We believe abortion gives many an escape clause from personal responsibility and poor choices, and is proven harmful to the woman and our nation. We believe that humanity must rely upon truth and absolute right and wrong, and as fallible beings are not capable of creating moral standards on our own without consulting the "owners manual". Sorry for the dissertation...

 

[MatthewT]

I live in a democracy. How is it that I have enforced my beliefs upon others?

No one has to give a reason why they vote one way or the other.

 

[Ella]

Because to radical Christians, it's still 1680 and we're living in a christian theocracy.