Religious Tolerance

“The price you pay for having the freedom to believe whatever kind of spiritual/religious weirdness you want to believe is that everybody else gets to believe whatever kind of spiritual/religious weirdness they want to believe and you forgo the right to say your personal brand of weirdness is any more worthy of suspended disbelief than anyone else’s. It’s either all bullshit or none of it is. If you can honestly say you have no rational explanation why your bull is less so than theirs, then you need to keep your mouth shut and let them be. Unsubstantiated personal gnosis does not reason make and “because my book says so” won’t win you any prizes for logic either.” 

 For some reason, the topic of religious tolerance came up a lot this week, not only in class, but also in conversations with my fellow peers at school and in my mind.  I was confronted one day by a fellow student who said, “I know you’re Mormon.  The fact that you would vote for Romney makes me sick and I think your religion is wrong.”  Ok.  I didn’t say anything, though looking back, I probably should have.  Now, let me clear up something before I go any further: it doesn’t matter if Romney and I happen to share the same religion- I will vote for whomever I want to because I think he is the better candidate(not that I will vote since I am underage). Anyways, what angered me that day was the ignorance this kid showed.  It wasn’t even a question or a statement that inquired whether or not what he heard was true.  Wherever he got his information from, he decided to take it as fact and just straight up say it in a rude manner.  Though I’m not surprised that a lot of misconceptions about my religion have been going around, I am shocked by how much hate we receive.  Though most people respect it, there is still a percentage of people who just condescendingly look down on us like we’re weird creatures lurking in the shadows, waiting to take their children and sacrifice them in our temples (this is a real rumor that I heard once).   

It’s fine that you don’t believe in the same things I do, but please don’t be mean about it, especially to other people.  Thanks to certain acts and amendments that have been passed, everybody is considered equal regardless of religion.  You can be Mormon, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, anything.  And though it doesn’t affect the way people think, be different and set an example to others. 

I believe there is a difference between loving people despite who they are, and loving people for who they are.  Someone in my class said to me, “I don’t like you because of your religion, but I’m going to be nice to you because it is my job as a good Christian.”  Well, okay. Do what rocks your sock.  It's not like I go around school and preach my religion. no. Honestly though, am I not a Christian too? Why else would my church be called The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints? I try to keep my temper but it’s hard sometimes to deal with people like that in your life.  Thankfully, I have good friends who think my religion is awesome and though we all come from different places and believe in different things, we never put each other down or make fun of each other.  I think that the world will change and eventually be accepting of all religions, but as for now, for those people who think that they know any religion, make sure you get your facts 100 percent right.  Some people might hurt you if you say something offensive.  Others may not be as strong as I am.  If I didn’t know who I was, if I didn’t believe so strongly in my faith, I might have gone home and cried or cut myself or who knows.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that not respecting religion is a form of bullying to me.  People are bullied because they are seen as different, weaker, alone.  We are all judged by our speech, our manners, our religion, our dress, our ethnicity, our income, etc.  The difference is, some people will find negative qualities, while others will search for the good.  And the latter are not only the people you need to find and keep in your life, but the person you need to be also.