So. I avoid Facebook most of the year, with an intermittent, brief day or two where I’ll check in to see what’s going on with the FB world. And, a few days ago, I was reminded yet again why I steer clear of it – because it always, ALWAYS leads me to a place where I am losing sleep and arguing with imaginary people in my head.
A family member of mine posted something that I found a bit offensive. And actually…hurtful. Like, suddenly *I* am just yesterday’s warm tuna sandwich sitting on top of a rotten banana peel because I decided in my late teens that Christianity wasn’t for me. And that was after YEARS of reading, research, and loads of self-doubt.
Anyway, the meme went something like, “The world expects us to respect other religions. The Bible says to put no other god before me.” Adding that to the predominant theme on this person (who I actually really love and admire)…well, it told me a lot about where exactly I sit in their mind. And yeah, it hurt.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
For years now, I’m a practicing Hindu. I certainly do not have all the answers or even a majority of the answers, but I could argue that my religion predates the Bible by at least a thousand years. In fact, a number of modern religions predate Christianity. I could argue that simply because the early practitioners of my religion didn’t amass large armies and kill more indigenous peoples who wouldn’t convert quickly enough doesn’t make your religion more legitimate than mine. A long history of torture and murder in the name of God doesn’t make yours more legitimate than mine. I could argue that the all-too-common practice throughout history of church officials accumulating wealth and not taking care of their poor makes your religion LESS legitimate than mine. I could also argue that the number of folks I see cherry-picking the ideas they like from the Bible and skipping over the rest ALSO makes your religion less legitimate than mine (since we’re talking about the First Commandment specifically in this post, we should take a peek at ALL of the Ten Commandments, knowing that probably a good percentage of you are in big trouble – maybe everyone who throws Bible verses around should do some refresher reading, you know, for safety reasons. It’s a BIG book – there are LOTS of things in there that you could be smote down for or serve time in fiery pits for.) I could point out the hypocrisy of playing fast and loose with your Book and then talking smack about how other religions are sacrilegious nonsense.
But, I’m not going to do that.
What I am going to state here, quite plainly, is that no one is expecting anyone to respect their religion. Not really. I couldn’t care less if anyone else is all, “Ganesh! Right on!” What people want is for their right to practice their religion to be respected. And as for “no other god before me,” who ASKED you to put any other god before you? If you practice your religion and I practice mine, how in the hell is that somehow being misconstrued as YOU now putting another god before your own god? If I commit some sort of sin in your book, how is that even your business in the first place, so long as I’ve hurt no one or broken any laws where I live? Why is it that anything anyone EVER does in this country must be somehow about you or your religion?
This is yet again, another sad, sad tale, of “what is common in America” being generally accepted as “the one true way,” and if the minority of others don’t believe that, the majority who do get their knickers in a knot and start bawling about “inequality” and “freedom of religion.”
Guess what? Freedom of Religion means Freedom Not to Practice YOUR Religion If I Don’t Want To, too.
And I guess if that makes me somehow less-family, less-acceptable, less-whatever, well then, so be it. If burning incense and hoping for world peace and wanting the hungry to be fed is such a crime, well, I’m guilty AF and I don’t give a damn if that pisses anyone off.
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