I was raised in a very conservative town and a Christian household. My entire life, I have listened to sermons on how to lead the proper Christian life and the horrors of eternal damnation. Even years later, specific sermons still stick out in my mind and I'm reminded of the things I need to do to make my life more respectable in the eyes of God.
I know there are things in my life that need adjusted and I know I sin every single day. At the end of the day, I sit back and think about the choices I made and what I need to change to make the next day better. I may not always succeed, but these are still things I think about.
Now, I may burn with hate-fire from time to time, but to say I genuinely hate someone or a group of people is completely inaccurate. There are things that fuel my fire, but I know when it comes down to it, things will be fine. One thing, though, that continues to seriously irritate me is the amount of intolerance and under-educated opinions that are floating around social media at the current time. I use the phrase under-educated, because I like to think some people may just be uninformed and not complete morons.
To get to the root of the matter, those considered extremists of a particular religion DO NOT describe the religion as a whole. Otherwise peaceful religions and religious people are being thrown in and considered to be part of a terrible extremist organization and that is in no way accurate or fair. Just as there are radicals from other religions, there are radical Christians also.
The fact of the matter is that we are all people. As PEOPLE, we need to stand up against the things that are bad in the world. As PEOPLE, we need to realize that our way may not actually be the right way and maybe we should consider or at least listen to other opinions. As Christians, we need to respect other religions and understand that we can't condemn an entire group of people for the actions of a few.
We should all learn to be tolerant and, more importantly, respectful. Finally, please properly educate yourselves. This is a time of intense propaganda that can so easily sway any opinion. Get your news from unbiased (if there is such a thing) sources and take the time to form your own opinion. There are big problems in the world and we cannot fix them if people do not actually understand the issue.
Be kind, love one another, and smile always,
e.
