The little things that show how much religion is all about war.

Religious greeting cards are new best-sellers. Hallmark and American Greetings, the nation's two biggest card makers, say sales of religious cards, especially Christian ones, began picking up at the end of the last millennium and spiked more sharply after Sept. 11, 2001.

"Religion is part of that searching for security," said Tina Benavides, creative vice president for American Greetings, who attributes her company's higher sales of religious cards directly to terrorism and the war in Iraq. Others point to the growing profile of religion in popular culture and politics.

"Once upon a time you could casually send a religious greeting card and it didn't make a statement one way or the other. These things didn't send any red lights up," says Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor who studies popular culture. "For any number of reasons, pop culture was more secularized in that period. Then all of a sudden ... that changes around about the turn of the century."

One-fourth of all American Greetings cards sold last year were considered spiritual or religious, and the company has increased its offerings of such cards by 20 percent over the past three years. Even as church attendance has declined in the United States, interest in spirituality has remained steady or grown, with religion-themed books on best-seller lists and faith-based films leading at the box office. Faith-oriented retail items such as cards, novels and children's games that once sold only in niche stores can now be found in major department stores. Hallmark spokeswoman Deidre Parkes cited an increase, especially since Sept. 11, in sales of "overtly religious" cards -- those that offer a Bible verse or Nativity scene on their cover.


http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/faith_values/article/0,1426,MCA_4076_4249407,00.html

I don't see anything in the post that supports your subject title. How does the increased sale of religious-based cards after 9/11 support your assertion that "religion is all about war"? I could see where you could say "religion is all about drawing on faith in time of uncertainty" (even that would be a stretch though), but I don't see the link to "ALL about war". :shrug:

death, and terrorist actions have driven a lot of people to search for a higher being, a sense of security even if it is in the next life.

That's what I don't understand and really don't like about this place. I don't care about people here who don't have faith in 'God' in any form (male, female, whatever). That is strictly their business and who knows, they could be right. I don't have all the answers.

But the never ending ridicule and denigration of anyone who does believe, the incredible intolerance and mean-spirited posts of some here who think that they KNOW (which they don't) that they're right and all who believe in a higher power or however you chose to see it are full of shit just smacks are intolerant arrogance to me.

People here preach tolerance this and tolerance that, but regarding some subjects this is one of the least tolerant sites I've ever seen.

OH YEAH, BACK TO MY ORIGINAL POINT. Religion is not about war. Pay real close attention here because this is one thing that I know to be true. Religion is used and perverted by those who need to justify their greedy power-mad evil aggressive actions. Christ and Christianity have nothing to do with blood, death, greed, and war. Islam doesn't either. The Buddha did not spout death and destruction. Neither did the other great teachers of 'religions type' in the Orient. It is the liars and the purveyors of evil that pair religions and war and death.

DU can be every bit as intolerant as the freeper site, but when you consider the rule of extremes, that makes sense.

A person who insists he/she KNOWS something, doesn't acknowledge any plurality or even the mere possibility he/she might be wrong, is an extremist.

Now, personally, I think extremists are useful because they frame out ... well, the extremes! You can't find your place on the continuum without knowing where the extremes are.

What does intrigue me is how the folks never quite see that when they see "freepers" they are really looking into the looking glass and seeing themselves.

that station's listening audience went way up after 9/11. The station management's reading of the situation was that people wanted to listen to 1) meaningful and timeless music, and 2) BBC news instead of the usual lightweight radio news headlines.

Who knew that, by your analysis, classical music was all about war? :sarcasm: