We've heard it a million times, “Be Yourself.”
From Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
To Lady Gaga: “Don’t you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can’t be exactly who you are.”
Every person on the planet is different. We are all individual. Not in a “special
snowflake” sort of way. In a way that says we are all different and it is
OK to be different. We find things that
we can participate in to find others who are similar to us. Religion is a perfect example of this.
If you celebrate Yule
or worship Yahweh, you are
very different, yet the same. Though the
religions practices behind each of these are very different. The individuals have the same right to
practice them. They have the right to be
who they are. They have the right to
practice their faith without fear of being harmed by others. Our forefathers thought this right was so important that it
was the first item in the Constitution.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Now of course this doesn't mean that there isn't some
issues. Currently we have sitting government
officials that would like to outlaw Islam.
There seems to be some sort of thought process in the minds of some religious
people that in order for their religion to be right, everyone must accept it as
the right one. I'll use the extreme
example of Westboro Baptist Church
(WBC).
Best known for protesting funerals, WBC makes no excused for
their hard-line view of the bible and God.
They take the bible as the literal word of God whereas most other
religions admit that the book was written by men and should be looked at in a
more figuratively. In WBC there is no
room for anyone else to have free will or for anyone else to believe anything
other than exactly what they believe.
Knowing that there is a church in Kansas that believes that
it is OK to protest funerals, put t-shirts on little kids that say hateful
things, does nothing to change my belief system. The numerous churches nestled in my county of
557 square miles does not change what is safely tucked away in my heart and
mind. I’m quite OK.
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| Screenshot of Google Maps - red dots are churches |
There are groups out there that feel they need to spread the
word of God to all the earth. Some could
care less if I end up with eternal
damnation. For this, my friends, I
feel truly blessed. Evangelicals, for
example believe that they need to get out and convert living person on the
planet to Christianity. From the remote
indigenous tribes of the Amazon jungle to
the witch down the street, no one is safe from the rhythmic bible thumbing of
the Evangelical. Often quoting the bible
as a reason to do so.
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature" (Mark 16:15).
"Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and
in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth"
(Acts 1:8).
However they missed this verse.
“And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words,
when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet”
(Matthew 10:14).
Religion is one of the most argued topics in history. For the most part, we cannot agree to
disagree; so much so, that wars are still being fought today over religion. Even within their own religious groups, it seems that there are those
who are not allowed to simply be themselves.
The video below shows monks fighting in what each of them consider the
holiest place on the planet; The Church of
the Holy Sepulcher.
As I sat here writing this I had thought I would wrap up
with how we should all be ourselves and allow others to be themselves. But in my research to this point, it looks
like there are just some people who cannot do that. In fact, being themselves is actually to stop
letting others be themselves. So instead
of me telling the world to live in peace and harmony, I’ll quote an article I
found on Psychology Today.
Gretchen Rubin: “Be
yourself, but keep your inner jerk in check.”
Blessings!
Sosanna
)O(
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