Month: May 2013

A Gnawing Thought

There is something that has been gnawing at me for at least a week now. I realize that it is a matter of paradigm, but it has still gotten me thinking.

I read and watch a lot of anime/manga that would be considered drama I suppose. Even the television shows I choose to watch on a regular basis have drama elements. A common theme in these sorts of stories is relationships and interactions between people.

Something that is not uncommon in these stories and even in discussions with people in the real world is to hear them discuss previous relationships by saying “I felt so strongly about them before, but now I can barely remember their face,” or words with similar meaning.

It has gotten me thinking. This seems to be a common thing in society. It even shows strongly in the phrase “There are many fish in the sea,” a common statement of advise to people who have gone through a recent breakup.

To be blunt, I don’t understand this. It is unfathomable to me. It is an aspect of the human mind that bewilders me. I don’t understand it, it confuses me, and I find it a little sad. The reason I said above that it is a matter of paradigm is because I literally don’t have the experiences to relate.

I remember every person I ever fell in love with, even when it was unrequited. I remember their names. I remember their faces. I remember the day we met, and the day we said goodbye for the last time. It is as if these things were etched onto my soul as a record for all eternity.

I remember the people who touched me in that way, so the idea of someone simply forgetting a person that they were in a relationship with or that they once felt that they loved is alien to me.

The idea that a human being could forget these things brings tears to my eyes. People who were in my life for the briefest of moments are etched eternally on my soul, yet there are people who forget the face of those that they actively had relationships with.

I would like to think that this is a lie that people tell themselves: a coping mechanism. However, it seems so prevalent in our culture that I am not so sure.

Perhaps there is some difference in the way that I approach human interaction. Perhaps my mind assigns higher value to these things than some others. I don’t know.

I know that there really isn’t a lot of point to this post, but it is something that I have been thinking about quite a bit. If anyone has any comments or input, feel free to comment.

Persecution?

Ok…
News flash…

Just because some talking head tells you that the guys in charge are being persecuted, just because they believe that some prophesy said that would be the proof that you were doing things right, doesn’t make it so.

If you belong to the group that makes up 76% of the country’s population, and 88% of the US Congress, and likely an even larger percentage of the law making bodies over all in the states… Odds are you are not being persecuted.

In the day and age of persecution that was discussed in the bible, Christians were a smaller percentage of the world population than the Jews are now. They were new, they were strange, they were more vocal than any monotheistic group that the government had dealt with up to that time.

You want to know how you can tell if you are being persecuted:

  • Have you been denied or lost a job because you were Christian?
  • Have you ever felt that local law enforcement might gun you down because you are Christian?
  • Have you ever had to practice your faith in secret to avoid being jailed, executed, or tortured because you are a Christian?
  • Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a brick through your window, or a random holy symbol burning on your front lawn because you are a Christian?
  • Have you ever been refused service in any establishment because you are a Christian?

These things do happen in modern America, but not to Christians.

I have seen these things happen to Pagans in the US, and I have heard of them happening lately to Muslims as well. These things do happen. These things are persecution.

Being asked not to teach your religion to other people’s children is not persecution. Would you like me to teach your children Buddhism, and tell them it is the only way to enlightenment? Telling you that it is wrong to bully our children is not persecution. Would you like me to tell your children that they are worthless and will burn in hell because they are different from me? It is not persecution to tell you not to pass laws based on your religion. The part of the Constitution that says not to do that is entirely about preventing the persecution of one group or the raising up of another.

I know these examples may seem like common sense to most people that will read my posts, but they are obviously news to others. After all, that is one of the biggest things I hear from the talking heads lately “Bullying is not wrong if it is based on firmly held beliefs, so anti-bullying laws are persecution!”

Screw that. You are free to practice your religion as long as it does not harm anyone else. It makes Christianity as a whole look bad when you get those few idiots who want to bully others in Christ’s name. No offense, but if the bible is the word of God, and Christ was the son of God/ultimate prophet, then there is a special place in Hell for people like that.

You can teach whatever you want in the church house. You can teach whatever you want at home. If you are running a parochial school (i.e. a Church run religious facility), then whatever you want to teach is fair game. After all, the parents made a conscious choice to send their children to you, and that choice was quite likely based on your teachings.

And guess what! If your group was being persecuted, that would not be possible. Yes, there are people who petition to have the accreditation of some religious schools revoked. However, the accrediting agencies generally already know what is being taught so that is not likely to happen. Furthermore those attempts are not based on your faith. They are based on the fact that there are schools teaching non-sense as science. That non-sense is harmful in the long term because it can affect your child’s future education possibilities. Still, those schools exist and are allowed to exist. In a lot of ways that in and of itself is the exact opposite of persecution. It is acceptance to the extent that society is effectively standing back while people teach their students things about physics and geology that just aren’t founded in any form of science. I suppose that at this point it is too late to voice an obvious bias towards Young Earth “theory”.

Does persecution exist in our country? Yes. You can bet it does.
Are some of the groups persecuted against Christian? Yes.

However, if you are a Christian, odds are you have never experienced true persecution unless you are a Mormon. There are parts of the country where Catholics are actively persecuted as well, but only by other Christians.