Bummed and Frustrated...

I have never been the best at relating to people...
Actually, socially inept is a far more accurate and fitting description.
When I was younger, I was the loner...That is, until high school when I befriended a gang of party girls with wild and rebellious streaks, but that is beside the point.

I just have a damned hard time feeling comfortable around people who only see others in terms of black and white. Good and Evil. Right...and unforgivably wrong.

All this upheaval between so many people on MPIP over religion has gotten me thinking too much about too many things that I shouldn't be worrying so much about lately.
I had been away for a wedding and didn't see every fact in glaring black type on that screen; the way it all transpired. I came in a day late and a dollar short, as is so often the case in my life. I didn't see or read the hurt and anger that one particular post caused for so many good people...This post was made by the daughter of someone whom I had admired greatly before all of this...Now, to read the recaps of the whole ugly event, needless to say...it upset me too.
To imply that a whole bunch of cancer patients, stage IV cancer patients or any other for that matter, would just rot in the fiery pits of hell if they didn't believe in Jesus Christ as their savior is just tactless, hurtful and just plain wrong.

Before and up until that point, I can actually understand why some of the Christian posters who are regulars there were getting a little upset. The thought of censorship, or more specifically, OVER-censorship, can have that effect on people who have come to believe in freedom of speech...freedom of religion, irregardless of what is at risk of being censored or policed. But there is a line that is crossed and a point of no return reached when insults and hate are spewed forth at people like so much vomit.

In any case, I must confess...I do believe with all my heart and soul in God, and Jesus. This is my choice. My free will. Do I care so much as to be insulted or offended by others' belief systems? In a word, NO. What other people choose to believe is their own personal choice. Their own business.
Even I get put out by people who come across like Holy Rollers and Bible Thumpers, spewing forth religious dogma with threats that any living soul who does not share their particular set of beliefs will spend eternal damnation rotting away in Hellfire.

Hell, I hide from the Jahovah's Witnesses who come knocking on my door from time to time.

But do I think less of them as human beings? No.
Do I feel the need to sling a hefty dose of hate in their direction? No.
Do I feel a strong level of hatred toward the until that point, fairly loved poster, along with her daughter, who offended and hurt so many on MPIP? No.
I couldn't possibly.

Because no one....Not a single blessed one of us is without a fault. No one is all bad or all good. Was I upset and at the very least, mildly angry once I finally had more of the facts and found out what went down on MPIP? Yes. I can be furious with something a person has done, but still find it within myself to not feel hate toward the person....To still find other ways in which I still feel respect for them, despite their faults.

As for the silent majority whom so many are getting just as angry with...Let them be silent. Maybe they are just like me...Not as skilled in the art of debate, and found severely lacking when forced into a situation of verbal conflict.

I am a lover of peace and harmony. Terrible at conflict. Always looking for the good, in people and in things.

Call me a Pollyanna if you will, but you couldn't be farther from the truth. Just ask my mother. If given half the opportunity she will offer up any number of examples of how blemished and flawed...even negative I can be.

Bottom line...
I just can't understand, nor do I want to, how quick people can be to jump on the hate parade. To be so all or nothing in their feelings and opinions of other people as if the "offending" person isn't more than two dimensional. As one poster put it so well but not in the exact words, Christians especially, should practice forgiveness, tolerance and acceptance of all people. Hell, all people should. Those things are the keys to true kindness.
These are the things I was brought up to believe by my parents. It is how I was raised.

I am not a "born again" Christian. I was baptised Catholic and raised Episcopalian, but to be honest, haven't been to church since my son's Christening back in 2001. Heheh.

Then again, someone could say I will burn in Hell for not going to church every Sunday. Where does it end, and who the heck are we to decide?

Anyway, there is my rant for the day for whatever its worth (which ain't a whole hell of a lot ;)