what is wrong with people today???
despite all the love floating in the air yesterday, i saw and heard a few things that really, genuinely upset me. i was reading the news yesterday morning - pretty normal - when i came across this. to be totally honest, i first saw it on huff post, but in the interest of bipartisanship, the first article links to NPR. i'd never heard of this practice of 'proxy baptism,' but i can't even explain how much it offends me. for people who don't know what that is and don't feel like reading those links, this is the religious practice of baptizing someone who is already dead. but most recently it has been in the news as a mormon practice of baptizing dead jews. it's absolutely horrific. the idea that someone of ANY religion could live their entire lives according to one religion, and then in death - when they are completely defenseless - made a mockery of.
one of the great things about religious freedom in this country is the right to choose. if you want to be a christian, you can. if you want to be a mormon or baptist or catholic you can do that, you can change. and as long as you are alive, you can debate your position on religion. you can argue over why you believe in buddha instead of jesus, or why you are an atheist, and someone else can take part in that debate. no one can make you believe in a national religion and you are allowed to break with your family's religious trends. as long as you aren't deceased you can explain your point of view. but it's like talking behind someone's back - they are completely defenseless. no matter what your religious beliefs are, i just can't imagine any circumstances in which anointing someone as a member of a religion they had vehemently opposed is a decent thing to do.
if you can't speak english, go back to the sorry country you came from.
trust me, i am not exaggerating when i tell you that i chocked up and my eyes just filled with tears. i simply can't imagine harboring such hatred in my heart. when people come to our country to escape unspeakable horrors and violence, i hardly think the right thing to do is to kick them out because they haven't yet learned english. i understand immigration is a complicated and heated issue - but to tell people to go back to their pathetic home because it's somehow offended someone who never learned a word of another language other than english in their own life??? completely baseless and horrific.
the rest i won't go into much detail - but i just continue to be disappointed by people who can't take a good look at who a person really is before passing judgment. lately it's the issue of marriage that's been setting me off. whether it's gay marriage, repeated marriages, or people not being married but being in loving, committed relationship, i just don't understand the judgments. if two people are in love, no matter who those people are or what sex they are, why shouldn't they be able to get married? and just because two people in love may be the same sex, why would they be denied any benefits that my husband and i receive? what makes us better than them? it's absolutely insane. it's insane that people who aren't married but live together can be cast as 'sinners,' no matter the wonderful things those people may do. it's heartbreaking to me. it's so, so sad that our society is still one of such judgment and hatred.
to me it isn't an issue of democrat or republican, blue or red. it's a matter of equality for all people, a matter of a loving society that shouldn't make people live one way or another - whether it's what religion you want to believe in, what language you speak or who you want to love.
and that's all i really have to say about that.
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