Seriously. These past months have been full of people I generally like all discovering that they hate each other, hate the world, or hate ALL THE THINGS someone else may believe in. I'm all for each person believing in something different. That's great. I don't see a need to hate them for it. Difference is what makes us unique and special butterflies. I don't understand the thought process of "you don't believe what I believe therefore you are a fucking moron". I just don't.
Recently a person of the friendly acquaintance persuasion made a comment about how it was wrong of President Obama to even think about opening the Democratic Convention with a Muslim Prayer, but won't let Billy Graham say a prayer on the steps of the White House. "We are one nation UNDER GOD". Cool.
Let me point something out. Christians, Jews, and Muslims ALL BELIEVE IN THE SAME FREAKING GOD. THE SAME ONE. All three count themselves as Sons of Abraham. ALL THREE. SAME GOD. The BIGGEST difference in the three is that Christians believe that Jesus is the son of that God. The Jews and Muslims do not, HOWEVER, the Muslims DO acknowledge that Jesus was a prophet...albeit not as great a prophet as their Mohammed. But, a prophet none the less. Pretty smart dude that Jesus. I can't remember if Judaism sees him as Prophet or Teacher...but that's a different story.
Jesus was Jewish. We all know this. I can't remember the particular verse, its been a LONG time since I was transcribing my Preacher uncle's sermons for him, but there was a verse that BASICALLY said "I did not come here to change my Father's teachings, only to have you follow them." What that says to me is that Jesus was not sent here to CHANGE Judasim. And yet the Christian faith has, throughout the ages, persecuted those people that their Son of God was a PART OF. And said "well I deny your belief, you're wrong!" Isn't that basically denying their Faith??
I see great strides in some people. I have AMAZING friends who are Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. I've seen them get along and celebrate lives ups and downs together. I've seen them not judge each other because they believe in something just a little bit differently than the other. These people are my heroes and I wish the world could hear about them more than the HATE and BIGOTRY I see on the news and around me EVERY SINGLE DAY.
THEN there's the people who are "Muslims are terrorists waiting to kill us all!" Holy crap. Listen to yourselves. Get to learn about the people you are criticizing before you go all ape-shit holy war. The basic structure of Muslim is joy and love of the one True God. You know? That one that Christians and the Jewish worship? Yeah, that one. Sure....there's extremists. There's always the ones who take it just that step to far. All backgrounds and beliefs are capable of great evil. Or do we NOT recall The Branch Davidians? That guy in Oslo who killed a bunch of Children recently? Hitler? Or how about the guy who also just shot up a Sikh Temple for no real reason? Come to think of it I've never heard of a crazy Zoroastrian...soooo there's that.
And another thing that pisses me right the hell off. The saying "Kill 'em All, let God Sort them Out!"
I believe that there are these series of Commandments. Ten of them to be exact. One of those Commandments? Thou shalt not Kill. Practice what you preach before you advocate something that is direct opposition to the belief you claim to hold to.
There is not a single one of us who should be judging the other. Ever. We all have something that goes against someone else's basic practices. That doesn't mean we have the right to judge. Judgement is left to whoever it is that ends up being in charge of this Universe.
Okay. I think I've ranted all I can on this topic. I still don't understand. I expect a lot of friends who see this will probably lump me into their "hate this person because she criticized me" category. That's cool. I probably don't need those people in my life anyways. I'm going to go play Kingdom Hearts now. It has Disney and makes me happy and less angry.
*Edit!
And as an update. Turns out there isn't going to be an Islamic opening Prayer at the Democratic Convention. But Cardinal Dolan will do the closing prayer just like he did at the Republican National Convention. Which is a shame. I think it would've shown a certain unity to do it both ways. *shrug*
