Opinion of the people in Iran's underground house churches

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I was thinking that based on the logic a lot of people here seem to adhere to you'd think the regime's persecution of them is in some way justifiable (or at least..."well they shouldn't be persecuted but it's still horrible how they abandon their culture or adhere to Americanized imported religion.")

[DavidB.]

wut

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

wut

[Zioneer]

I have to say, I like them while they're still underground. /hipster

[Mike Thick]

Of course, FF.

[Vosem]

How is this even a question

[Antonio the Sixth]

How is this even a question

Because BRTD. That's why.

[DavidB.]

Perhaps you should make this point a little bit more explicit so that we know what (and what Atlasians) you are talking about, BRTD, because I believe this thread has the potential to be more interesting than this, even if the answer to this specific question is of course "FFs (literally normal)".

[dead0man]

better than the people in Iran's above ground religious buildings

[DC Al Fine]

Perhaps you should make this point a little bit more explicit so that we know what (and what Atlasians) you are talking about, BRTD, because I believe this thread has the potential to be more interesting than this, even if the answer to this specific question is of course "FFs (literally normal)".

Let's put it another way and leave out the talk of "deserving to be persecuted".

Given that these people presumably practice an "Americanized" Protestantism which is often criticized heavily on Atlas, instead of one of the more liturgical faiths, is it fair to say that their FF status is entirely contingent on their being persecuted?

Or put another way, would most of Atlas be supportive if they practiced their faith openly and their ministers were expressing conservative views on gay marriage and abortion?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'll elaborate. There's two things many people on Atlas seem to hate:

-People who belong to religions with "cultural" bases to them as well converting to something outside of that and thus abandoning the culture. Islam in Iran would certainly seem to apply.
-People outside the US, even Christians, converting to "Americanized" Christianity.

People in illegal churches in Iran would fall into both categories.

For another example, the Ukraine separatist rebels are also staunchly anti-Protestant, as Vice did a report on. They want to stomp out any church that's not Russian Orthodox. I'd be surprised if many rebels are actually truly practicing Orthodox, but they want to do so on the basis of CULTURE, and since you have people in Ukraine converting from the local culture and church to some American export, isn't that bad? Like I said, I'm not saying anyone here would defend the rebels here in their actions, but they are taking the same mindset just to a far more extreme level.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

They shouldn't be underground, What the Iranians and sadly many other Muslims countries aren't adhering to what they're supposed to do, allow Christians and Jews to freely attend their religious services

They should be allowed to freely attend worship.

[DavidB.]

They shouldn't be underground, What the Iranians and sadly many other Muslims countries aren't adhering to what they're supposed to do, allow Christians and Jews to freely attend their religious services

They should be allowed to freely attend worship.

You implicitly seem to refer to the Islamic principle of allowing people of the book to practice their religion, but I doubt this principle applies to people who converted from Islam to Christianity (or, theoretically, to Judaism) as well? Or am I wrong and do you simply state your own opinion (in which case we, of course, fully agree)?

[ingemann]

better than the people in Iran's above ground religious buildings

What do have against Armenians, Assyrians and Chaldeans? Haven't those people suffered enough?

[ingemann]

Perhaps you should make this point a little bit more explicit so that we know what (and what Atlasians) you are talking about, BRTD, because I believe this thread has the potential to be more interesting than this, even if the answer to this specific question is of course "FFs (literally normal)".

Let's put it another way and leave out the talk of "deserving to be persecuted".

Given that these people presumably practice an "Americanized" Protestantism which is often criticized heavily on Atlas, instead of one of the more liturgical faiths, is it fair to say that their FF status is entirely contingent on their being persecuted?

It's unavoidable that underground churches will belong to more decentralistic faiths. The aspect of Americanised protestantism, which is usual critised are usual megachurches, prosperity theology and when they in the 3rd world push for persecution of other groups. House churches on the other hand are rarely criticised (and not something I find especially American), and while I'm sure I won't agree with these people's theology, there's nothing which indicate that I should find these people especially offensive. In fact we (Denmark) often receive House Church refugees from the Middle East, and their beliefs or behaviour have not caused any trouble (something we can't say about their Muslim countrymen)

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Do you have enough information about these people, so that you know how they would behave if they were in the open?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The idea that megachurches or prosperity theology are defining traits of American Protestantism is pretty insane. I'd be surprised if even 1% of American Protestants belong to prosperity theology-preaching churches. Even with megachurches I'd be surprised if it's over 10%.

[NeverAgain]

I don't like religion, but I do support the freedom of it. These people are expressing their freedom of religion, or lack their of.

[Young Conservative]

My mother went on a secret mission trip and say these people, bringing bibles sown into the sides of her suitcase so they could finally have some in Farsi. THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY FREEDOM FIGHTERS TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE