At this point, I was agreeing with the poster, and understanding why she might find her co-worker just a bit narrow-minded and stubborn. However, immediately after complaining about this man, the poster decided to throw in a little Christian-bashing for good measure. Something about how “Bible-thumpers” don’t even understand that the Easter and Christmas holidays are celebrated on days that coincide with pagan holidays, and we all go around trying to push our views on everyone else. Gasp! You mean Jesus wasn’t LITERALLY born on December 25? Well, I shall cease to celebrate the Christmas holiday forthwith! (I have to admit I’m getting a little tired of the argument de jour from Christian-bashers – the idea that Christians are apparently so stupid we don’t even understand our holidays were originally designated to occur at the same time as pagan holidays… I guess for some reason, this fact is supposed to shock us all into atheism or make us abandon our long-standing respect for our religious holidays…)
I see this sort of thing far too often – someone will espouse their claimed belief that “all religions should be respected… no one religion has a right to be more important than another”… and then in the next breath, will make disparaging remarks about Christianity. So what’s it gonna be? Respect ALL religions or not? There are certainly so-called “Christians” out there who give the rest of us a bad name – the despicable Westboro “Baptist Church” comes to mind. (These are the people who show an unbelievable disregard for Christian values by picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and claiming that “God hates homosexuals.” Uh, sorry, but my Bible says that God LOVES EVERYONE… weird… they must be reading a misprinted copy…) But I would think that most people would understand that TRUE Christianity is NOT the “Bible-thumping,” gay-hating, pedophile priest-infested, intolerant-of-every-other-religion religion it’s often made out to be. And just as I’ve always believed I should learn about OTHER people’s religions so I can truly understand my own, I expect the same consideration from people before they spout off a bunch of anti-Christian nonsense.
Of course, I think we’re ALL guilty of making generalizations now and then, and (perhaps inadvertently) pushing our beliefs on others. Whether it’s religion, politics, social issues, environmental issues, etc. – sometimes, when we honestly believe that “our way” is the best way, we take it upon ourselves to enlighten others. How often do we see this sort of thing in those “chain” emails people are constantly forwarding? (Don’t vote for Obama, he’s a liar! Don’t vote for McCain, he’s a liar, too! Don’t drive SUVs, they’re bad for the environment! Drink soy milk! Go vegan! Eat more red meat! Turn all your lights on next Tuesday in support of our troops! Turn all your lights off next Wednesday to conserve energy! Global warming is a myth! Global warming will kill us all! Obama and McCain conspired together to create global warming!!) Isn’t it all just belief and opinion wrapped around an honest wish for a happier, healthier, more productive planet? Sure, sometimes it’s misguided and based on nothing but hearsay, but the desire is the same – everyone wants to fix the many, many parts of our existence that happen to be broken…
This is one of the reasons I hate politics so much – I honestly believe that BOTH sides of most political arguments want the exact same END. It’s the MEANS to achieve that end that they differ on. But it IS thanks to our (oftentimes screwed up) political system that we are even ABLE to share our beliefs and opinions on internet message boards and blogs and through crazy chain emails and wherever else we want to share them. And hopefully, that’s something that EVERYONE can agree to be thankful for…
It's my belief that the Yankees are awesome... and if you think otherwise, well, you're obviously just ignorant...
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