How old were you when you were told to hate someone?
Such a weird concept, isn't it? But our politics today are filled with hate speech and ignorance, usually in the name of a religious figure.
Well.
If Jesus were alive today, he'd be a Jewish hippie. He'd smell like nag champa, have his curly hair dreaded, share his food with you, and tell you some great stories.
Then he'd be shot at by a lunatic because he clearly had a socialist agenda with all his sharing of bread and fish.
Some Reactionary Christians forget that being Christian means to be like Christ. To love, to share, to accept. To help, to understand, to heal.
This God Hates Bundles of Sticks "church" makes my heart hurt because it's just one large extended family teaching their children that hate speech and grossly insensitive public demonstrations is how one should live one's life. Little children learn it is better to not understand something and criticize it, hate it, try to squash it, than it is to be empathetic.
That's one polar side of things.
But in the middle, we still have a lot of people who believe that being gay is a chosen lifestyle. That it is evil, that it is wrong, that if they just prayed hard enough, they could change, but they don't really want to.
It's not a choice.
I came across a beautiful blog called Born this Way. DJPaulV created a site, asking for those who were different, to send him a picture of themselves when they were young and how old they were when they knew they were, well, born this way.
What you get are some of the pithiest, strongest, funniest, mini autobiographies of people who are clearly different at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, years old.
I love this site. It is empowering, most definitely, but by using pictures of themselves at such young ages, it really proves that the hate for anyone is wrong. Everyone is somebody's son or daughter. Everyone was a little kid.
Everyone deserves love, understanding, compassion.
Loving others is the only way we'll be able to love ourselves.
xoxo
