I was going to do a blog about religion today, and I still am, at least part of it. But there will be a turn and this is going to be two, two, two rants in one!
So...
Listening to NPR this morning and they were doing a news story on the terrorist threat level in Sweden being raised because a few people burned pages of the Qur'an in front of a mosque. This was following a story about Christians in Pakistan being attacked because of rumors of the same thing, that someone desecrated a Qur'an.
I told Brent that when you value a book over actual people there is something wrong with your religion.
And I know, I know, they view the book itself as sacred no matter how many times it's been reprinted, each version is supposed to be exactly as it was written originally and as such it's sacred.
Okay. Fine.
But people are still more important.
Now on the flip side. Why the fuck are you burning or tearing up the Qur'an? Stop it. It's just rude. It's not your holy book, it's not your religion, you might think that there are people doing horrible things because they think this book tells them to but you KNOW that if you burn it or desecrate it you are going to tip off a wave of violence. People are more important than your act of aggression.
It's my life philosophy, right? Don't be rude. Just don't. So much of the world's issues could be solved if we stopped being rude to each other. If we stopped being dicks about every damn thing. Just stop. Your religion is yours. Keep it to yourself. Don't try and force it on me through laws, that's just rude. My lack of religion is mine. I will keep that to myself in that I don't burn your holy books or trash your holy sites and I don't make fun of your religion. Your religion is private and I don't care about it.
And right now a lot of you are like WAIT! You criticize my religion all the time!
Yeah, kind of.
What I do, as I do this with Christianity above other religions because I was raised Christian and I know your rule book, what I do is try to point out when you aren't living by that book. I point out when you are forcing your religion on others in a way that isn't not Christian like at all. When you are practicing bigotry and trying to justify it as part of your religion and I know that it isn't. Because it's important that people do it. But it would be better if it was coming from people who are still practicing the faith.
Because when I post about terrible Christians I often get the #NotAllChristians response with various levels of defensiveness. And I get it, you don't want to be associated with the Christian Nationalists that are trying to lead us into Fascism for their name's sake... So you should be posting those articles and calling them out for the bullshit they are. You should. You shouldn't be arguing with me about how great you are, you should be using your platform to separate yourself and others like you from those that are using your religion as a shield for hatred. It would mean a lot more coming from you than it does from me.
I know a few people who are cops. Decent people. Love their families. Doing a job they feel is important. I've posted a few times that the ones that should be the angriest about bad cops are good cops. The bad cops, how many of them they are, how the Police union rallies around them and protects them from any sort of consequences, how EVERY TIME the DOJ does an investigation into a local precinct they find systemic issues, all of that makes it really hard to argue that the A doesn't stand for All. Good cops needs to be railing against the bad ones. They need to be calling attention to bad behavior and challenging it. They need to be the change. The actual change, not the #NotAllCops change, but the ACTUAL change. It would mean a lot more coming from them, with results, than it does coming from me.
There are people who have left the Republican party. They just couldn't accept what this new party stands for. And...I actually have one friend who is pretty conservative who did as well. Not like sort of politically conservative but actually old school conservative (though you have to go older school than you are thinking because he has no urge to regulate anyone's uterus, that's not the government's job old school conservative). And as an old school conservative you can imagine that we don't agree on a lot, but we do agree on the state of the current Republican party. And he posts articles and opinions (he's a political science major so it's right in his wheelhouse) and points out over and over again that this is not the Republican party he signed on to. And it's why he's not a Republican any more. And it means more coming from him than it does me. Because OF COURSE I think they are awful, they aren't my party, but they were his, until right around 2016... More Republicans need to do the same thing. Stop telling me #NotAllRepublicans and that I'm being horrible and lumping people together if you can't stand apart from them. Point out when they are doing things you don't agree with. It would mean more coming from you than it does me.
We all know that it should be done. You see people clamoring for people in groups to denounce members of their own group when something happens. "Where are the moderate muslims?" the Republicans cry when there is an attack by radicals. Well where are the moderate Republicans and why aren't they denouncing Trump and January 6th and stealing documents and trying to erase security tape and and and and...Why are they telling you to look at Hunter Biden instead of rallying around ANYBODY else for the 2024 election? It would mean more coming from them. It might even mean they had a shot at the White House again... Which I would fight against tooth and nail, but it would be because I don't like their political policies instead of that I don't want my daughter's life to be in danger, I don't want women to be treated as nothing but brood mares, I don't want marriage equality to be revoked, or any of the other hateful othering nonsense they are pushing...
If the call is coming from inside the house you need to answer it, it means more coming from you.
Call it out.
Speak up.
If you are part of that group, or you were part of it, then speak on it. Use the language you were taught in that group and call the bullshit out.
Make it mean something.
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