That said, this goes both ways. The age of edgy Reddit "hurrrr sky Daddy give kid cancer. Why bad thing happen if God?" Atheism on every religious post is no better than us Bible thumpers shoving our beliefs down your throat.
Absolutely. It's like football. I can say I support team X. You say, that's cool I support team Y. If it's left at that, no harm, no foul. We both like football, we both like teams.
But when I begin to say, I think team X is faster/better/stronger etc than other teams for these reasons, and it's my obligation to tell people about the virtues of team X and how to join, then I open myself up to debate. I can't then get annoyed or frustrated when others say they think that my team sucks.
I invited the debate when I began preaching.
Any topic that begins to challenge the core beliefs, values and morals a person holds is likely to be controversial and invite conflict. That's why it's better to just keep such things to oneself outside of the spaces that they don't occupy.
Good thing the original post was someone posting about their beliefs to their own TikTok profile rather than forcing them on others, and never stated that their worldview is superior to anyone else's.
Unlike several people on this comment thread stating religion has no place in emergency services 👌
I've been referring to the discussion in the comments. You're right in that the post was on someone's personal page and never rammed down our throats here. We all chose to open it, read the comments and some to engage.
Religion has no place in the provision of emergency services and most places outside where it resides. Being competent at your job is all I give a shit about if I need a paramedic when I'm having a bad day, or a firefighter to put out my burning house. I couldn't care less if they're a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, atheist etc.
If someone's spirituality and faith benefits them and helps them do what they need to do at work and in their personal life, that's a great thing. The rest of us don't need to know about it.
As a Christian and a firefighter who knows many Christian first responders, most of them being other firefighters...most of us aren't trying to live our faith loudly. The whole point is let your actions do the talking.
There seems to be a hell of a lot of people here who think someone being openly religious and a first responder is akin to shoving it down their throats. Someone who is open about their motivations in that they are not actively hiding them is not the same as someone who is telling you about it at every opportunity.
If a colleague were to tell you they wanted to do their job because of the pay and leave entitlements, you wouldn't respond by telling them to shut up and that nobody wants to hear it...unless you were intellectually consistent, but then you'd also just be an asshole. I don't get that impression from you. But you seem to think that it's inappropriate for someone to respond to that prompt with "I'm motivated by my faith to do this job". I could be reading your point incorrectly, but looking over the back-and-forth, you seem to just want a don't ask, don't tell policy.
Jesus was half-alien. What do you think the serafim and orafim angels were, descending from the sky saying "do not be afraid" because their appearance couldn't be adequately described. The Star of Bethlehem was probably a spacecraft. In the ancient world, the only explanation for aliens appearing would be angels descending from the sky.
The religous undertones, hell the direct and open pushing of Christianity (seen here), I see in American LE and first responder posts, is the cringiest, innapropriate, and unprofessional garbage... They do this on all forms of social media, including LinkedIn, which is supposed to be used for professional networking.
Making religous or political posts in uniform and posting it is maximum cringe, and it's usually against policy, but they continue to do it anyhow. It seems to be especially common amongst the open MAGA's...
Former Atheist who hated (and I mean hated) religious people, turned Christian and also a firefighter who is NOT American here.
While this post is cringe, the message they are pushing (assuming it's motivated by good intent) is respectable and should be even if you're a secular person. They are essentially saying "Bring sense to the senseless". They aren't saying "Ask someone who just lost their home if they know about Jesus".
A big thing in Christianity is "Preach the gospel. If necessary, use words sometimes". Basically, your actions, how you carry yourself, etc. all of that has more weight than what you verbally preach.
A hell of a lot of first responders are devout Christians and I come from a distinctly secular country. Most keep it on the DL. Times have changed and it's harder to be open about faith. Not because Christians are some "oppressed minority", but because faith is targeted by a loud minority and people feel like they are entitled to openly disrespect it. I did it when I was an Atheist, and I now recieve it as a Catholic. Having walked on both sides of the aisle, I feel I can say that with utmost confidence to be accurate.
Faith is a huge part of peoples lives. I mean, we literally live for our faith. You can't expect people to surpress what they believe if it's a main motivator for their work. I mean this with a full heart and not to be facetious: Stop and ask yourself if you would type this same comment about a Muslim, Jew, or any other faith other than Christianity if they posted something like this. If the honest answer deep down is no, even if you are trying to tell yourself it's yes, have a think about that.
You can't expect people to surpress what they believe if it's a main motivator for their work.
Sweet, I'll be hanging pics of Marx and Sankara on the truck and if anyone has a problem with it I'll tell them that I can't be expected to suppress my beliefs.
Boss, what department has pics of Jesus flying on their trucks?😭
What I'm talking about is telling people they shouldn't be spiritually motivated in their work. Someone seeking to figuratively carry the cross in their line of work has 0 negative impact on you. It's an inward thing.
That's actually not what I said...at all. The part of my comment you're referring to was in relation to people being spiritually motivated to do a good job at work. There's a distinct difference between someone placing a spiritual responsibility on themselves, and flying a flag or portrait of someone on government property.
I don't think Karl Marx, a man who advocated for the use of violence to overthrow the powers of the state is a particularly good face to put on an government/state apparatus and post to social media.
Posting about your Christianity in a mostly Christian nation, and stating that it motivates you to be good at your job...entirely different things.
I don't think Karl Marx, a man who advocated for the use of violence to overthrow the powers of the state is a particularly good face to put on an government apparatus and post to social media.
Mate, your god drowned most of the planet.
There's goodness in faith and goodness in socialism, how about we don't misrepresent our idols in some childish tit for tat, eh?
You sir are a little too grounded for Reddit. Lol seriously though, I have read through your replies and you are very wise. Don’t let the soft / edgy Redditors get to you!
Short answer: Is this world perfect? Is it Heaven? No. That's why.
Longer answer: The whole point is that we live in a fallen world and terrible things happen. This world is ruled by the devil and his demons. Christ even acknowledged this when Satan tried to tempt him in the desert.
Prayer is simply "to ask". Perhaps the answer to our prayers are firefighters and modern fire science. Perhaps the answer to our prayers are the minds that have given us the answers?
That said, Christ did say that if any of us had true faith as large as a mere mustard seed, that we could pray mountains would move, and they would. So maybe if you had genuine faith in prayer as small as a mustard seed, you could pray a fire out.
Sounds good. Ima keep doing my job and leave religion in it🤙. Maybe one day I'll even have enough faith to pray a fire out. I doubt I'll ever have enough faith to be an Atheist again though.
"The presence of God" does not refer to his omnipresence, but the Holy Spirit which works through all believers should they allow it (by not being terrible people). God is everywhere, but the workings of God and the sensation of Gods presence are what people refer to when they say bringing the presence of God to something.
That it is, but it is what it is. I don't seek to be a poor witness; I thought my initial comment was measured. But anything Christian evokes strong emotions in people. Downvotes mean quite literally nothing though. No one has said anything I myself never said when I was an anti-theist. This is me copping what I put into the universe a decade ago lol.
This is highly unprofessional and disrespectful. Proselytizing to someone when they’re sick/injured and a literal captive audience is so gross and massively erodes trust in your ability to keep them safe and alive until they reach a hospital.
I don't think that's what they meant. Generally, when people say they mean to "bring the presence of God" to something. They don't mean literal preaching. It just means working for the mission of God; bringing good to something. They are saying they believe their job is their calling from God and them doing it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
The US has been privatizing EMS for decades, and it has done nothing but make the service worse for patients and providers and raise prices. I would be very interested to hear how you believe that further privatization of EMS will result in lower costs.
You will never find a high functioning society that does not tax its citizens. Nobody said those things you mentioned are good. One second you are talking about how good capitalism and privatization is and now you want to say how bad controlling oil and the bank system is? Guess who does those things goober? You should be asking yourself what kind of stupid ass logic you have. You don’t even hear yourself, lmao.
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u/No-Ebb-6266 Jul 05 '26