“It’s never
a good idea to discuss religion or politics with people you don’t really know.”
Agree or disagree?
It depends…I don’t think it’s necessarily
a good idea to discuss religion or politics with people you do know much less
those you don’t know. It all depends on how emotionally attached you are to the
topics and whether or not you can listen without judgment, even when you
strongly disagree. I’m writing this blog
post in America, and to me, that means I’m writing in the land where I can say
what I want without fear of retaliation or judgment and know that there are others in this country
who agree with me and others who do not, and that’s okay. How boring would the world be if we were all
exactly the same and thought just alike about everything?
My dad loves to play devil’s advocate with
any and every situation presented to him (for debate or not), and he’s very
good at seeing the other side, even when it’s not something he personally
believes in himself. He taught me how to
argue my point (even if I am wrong) and how to debate the other side of things,
and that was very frustrating when I was little because I didn’t understand. I
just argued with him, and he argued back, and I didn’t see it as a learning
experience, but it was. I allowed myself
to become very emotional about anything and everything that he said to me, and
that was not the intention. If I was
still that little girl, I would agree wholeheartedly that it’s not a good idea
to discuss religion and politics with someone you don’t know (or even someone
you do), but NOW, I would say it’s not a problem to discuss (up to a point)
religion or politics with someone I don’t know (or even do) because I am not in
a place of being so emotionally attached to all of it. I can state my opinion
and recognize that not everyone is going to agree…there’s always going to be
another side, and that’s okay. It’s not my job to try and change their minds,
only to allow them to express themselves and look for the positives and focus
on discovering what it is I love about a person even though we are
different. I don’t always get that same
respect in return, but I refuse to give anything less. Love covers over all of it, and it’s all that
really matters in the end….
“If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am
only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and
can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move
mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the
poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love,
I gain nothing.
Love
is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with
the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love
never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are
tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For
we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is
in part disappears. When I was
a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a
child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we
see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I
know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these
three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1
Corinthians 13
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