Please Talk About Religion and Politics
We are always told, “Don’t talk about religion and politics.” But what gives you greater insight into who a person is if not their religion and politics?
I have found this to be no truer than in 2017, thanks to social media in particular. Frequently, people accost me for being a Hillary and Obama worshipper when in fact I’m neither. And yet, people are so tied to their party, they’d rather baselessly accuse me of this than judge each topic as it comes.
I’ve publicly supported Hillary once in a blog and Obama once in a tribute to what an intensely classy human being he was, despite enduring the most pressure that could ever be put upon a person.
Yet, I’m dogged by these assumptions, and do you know why?
Because we don’t talk about religion or politics. What depicts a person’s inherent motives more than their chosen higher power (or lack of) and the way they believe we should govern the masses?
These motives don’t make a person good or bad, but it lets you know if your priorities align, if you have any common ground, and MOST IMPORTANTLY if the other person is capable of peaceful disagreement — agree to disagree. Do you think our forefathers agreed on everything? Hardly. The ability to find commonality among disagreement, or at the very least empathy, is key to whether or not a relationship is worth your time.
I’m a no bullshit person. I like to get to know a person quickly, and some people are just looking for a fight, but others are looking for a friendship or discourse, and I think talking about these things exposes that intent.
If someone has no interest in your side, only prejudgments and screaming their side at you, they aren’t worth your time because they have no interest in what you have to say.
If someone, no matter how wrong you think they are, will be honest and vulnerable about what they think, even if it isn’t popular, it’s 100% worth hearing them out.
We live in such a partisan world that I frequently find myself wondering, “What if we took parties out of this? What do you, as an individual human being with your own hopes, dreams, and convictions think about the direction we should be headed in?”
Frankly, that’s all I care about. The human aspect. And how we can collectively learn to love, and to SHOW LOVE, to other people. Because at the end of the day, isn’t that the foundation of both religion and politics? Let’s talk more and hate less. Let’s listen more and pontificate less.
