(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . I don’t mind if you don’t respect my faith. Really. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-23 I think I have just gained some new insight into the arguments here about Christianity. There has been a surge of diaries lately on the topic, and one of them had the theme “why I don’t respect Christianity.” After reading just the title, I had an “Aha!” moment. I didn’t post a comment on that particular diary, but if I had, it would have been: “In my view, whether or not you personally respect Christianity is no concern of mine at all. You are free to believe whatever you want. The only thing that matters to me is whether or not you respect ME.” At first glance the two things appear to be the same, but they aren’t. Respecting my faith and respecting me are two separate and distinct things. I do not care whether or not you have positive feelings toward the faith that I follow, so long as you treat me with the same level of respect that you would show to anybody else. And I should show you the same courtesy in return. Let me illustrate: Suppose that I have a job that involves me going into people’s homes. I’m a plumber, let’s say. And one day I go into a home where the people are clearly Hindu. Now, I am not a Hindu, and in an appropriate forum I could give reasons why my personal beliefs are different from Hindu beliefs. But visiting somebody else’s home to repair their kitchen faucet is NOT an appropriate forum for discussing religious disagreements, and if I were to notice a murti depicting Shiva and make some disparaging remark about it, I would be WAY out of line. But there is this custom called “politeness” or “civility” which calls for people to show respect for one another even if they have strong differences of opinion. So I make my way to the kitchen sink and do my job, perhaps while engaging in some friendly conversation that does not involve religious beliefs. And when I am finished, the only thing that should matter is whether I have repaired the faucet properly. It does not matter what my inward and private thoughts are with regard to the homeowners’ personal faith, so long as I respect THEM and do good work for them. Many people (including, yes, many Christians) have a problem with this concept. They believe that respect does not exist unless there is full and complete agreement about important matters as they define “important.” Ergo, you can’t be my friend unless you agree with me on religion, or favorite sports team, or best genre of music. But on Daily Kos, the stated “important things” are things that involve the election of more and better Democrats. Anything that is not directly related to that central idea is not a suitable topic for argument. Oh, it may be fine for sharing (think kittens, or gardening, or airplanes, or other popular topics here), but not for arguing. If you hate cats (and a recent study claimed that only 76% of Americans had a positive view of kittens, meaning that 24% do not), well, don’t be troll. Go ahead and enjoy your copy of “101 Uses for a Dead Cat” (that’s a real book, but, no, I don’t own a copy), but don’t come here and make fun of people who like cats. And the same caution should apply regarding making fun of people who like Christianity. What goes on between their (and my) ears does not do you any harm, so the basic outline of the Christian faith is not something that needs to be argued here. And don’t make the logical error of arguing that because many Christians do bad things because of what they claim their faith teaches them, that the entirety of the Christian faith deserves censure for those bad things. Yes, there are Christian parents who deny their children necessary medical care because they believe in “faith healing.” Yes, there are Christians who vote for candidates who promise to get rid of Social Security. There are lots of Christians who do all kinds of bad things because “God told them to.” But there are also Christians like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Raphael Warnock, and President Jimmy Carter (and Joe Biden), who are not guilty of any of those ridiculous beliefs even though they call themselves Christians without apology. So, feel perfectly free to privately not respect the Christian faith. You have both the legal and the moral freedom to do that. But show respect for the people who are your political allies and who are working with you to “elect more and better Democrats.” If you feel that it would be wrong for them to try to “evangelize” you into becoming a Christian, or ridicule you for not believing as they do, then treat them the same way in return, and don’t try to “evangelize” them into becoming NOT a Christian by ridiculing their faith. As long as they are working toward the same political goals that you are working toward, live and let live. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/23/2154593/-I-don-t-mind-if-you-don-t-respect-my-faith-Really Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/