When I look over the first essay in my series How I became a Humanist: Jesus Freaks in the Churches of Christ, I think it would be easy for a reader to assume that I look down on members of the Churches of Christ for holding different values than I do. At one time I certainly did.
For whatever reason, it's natural for us to look down on people who think differently from ourselves. This is true not only in matters of religion and politics, but even in sports, hobbies and music where the issue of taste is almost completely arbitrary.
The fact that we look down on one another for disagreement over arbitrary things is odd enough. What's odder is that we often look down on people who believe things we up until recently believed ourselves. As an example, ten years ago most Americans opposed gay marriage. Today, most Americans support it. That's all very well. What's not is that many of the people who've changed their minds look down on those who haven't yet adopted the new perspective.
The problem is that by looking down on people who think differently from us, we are often looking down either on our past or future selves. We are also ignoring the fact that we have all been very wrong about things we felt very strongly about in the past and likely will be again in the future. When I think back at some of the things I used to believe, I sometimes cringe, but I don't think this is the right response. Past me only knew what past me knew. He didn't deserve to be judged harshly by other then, or to be judged harshly by me today. I don't deserve to be judged harshly for the things I don't yet know today, and neither do the people who may not know what I do about one topic or another. This is all the more true since it is often possible that they're right even though I'm so damn sure that they're wrong.
One of the things I will tell you today is that the Roseville Church of Christ is an amazing church full of kindness and warmth. It easy as a young person to see all the various faults in a particular ideology. It's as easy to criticize a church, country or political party as it is to criticize your parents. And since those behaviors are a healthy part of young adulthood, I'm glad to have gone through them. I'm also glad to have grown past them. Today, I realize that my teachers, preachers and fellow Church of Christ members were doing the best they could. They were great people who were practicing and teaching those things they believed would make me a better person and the world a better place. I love that church and its members more than I can say.
For whatever reason, it's natural for us to look down on people who think differently from ourselves. This is true not only in matters of religion and politics, but even in sports, hobbies and music where the issue of taste is almost completely arbitrary.
The fact that we look down on one another for disagreement over arbitrary things is odd enough. What's odder is that we often look down on people who believe things we up until recently believed ourselves. As an example, ten years ago most Americans opposed gay marriage. Today, most Americans support it. That's all very well. What's not is that many of the people who've changed their minds look down on those who haven't yet adopted the new perspective.
The problem is that by looking down on people who think differently from us, we are often looking down either on our past or future selves. We are also ignoring the fact that we have all been very wrong about things we felt very strongly about in the past and likely will be again in the future. When I think back at some of the things I used to believe, I sometimes cringe, but I don't think this is the right response. Past me only knew what past me knew. He didn't deserve to be judged harshly by other then, or to be judged harshly by me today. I don't deserve to be judged harshly for the things I don't yet know today, and neither do the people who may not know what I do about one topic or another. This is all the more true since it is often possible that they're right even though I'm so damn sure that they're wrong.
One of the things I will tell you today is that the Roseville Church of Christ is an amazing church full of kindness and warmth. It easy as a young person to see all the various faults in a particular ideology. It's as easy to criticize a church, country or political party as it is to criticize your parents. And since those behaviors are a healthy part of young adulthood, I'm glad to have gone through them. I'm also glad to have grown past them. Today, I realize that my teachers, preachers and fellow Church of Christ members were doing the best they could. They were great people who were practicing and teaching those things they believed would make me a better person and the world a better place. I love that church and its members more than I can say.
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