Many of the people on my current friends list are from my days at Pleasant Valley High School. Many of us aren't afraid to express our philosophy and political leanings on our page. Some of my friends have embraced the conservative agenda, others maintain a liberal stance and some are somewhere in between.
One of my friends prompted a reply when he posted a "joke" about liberals being so open minded, their brains fell out. I urged him not to drink the Rush-served Kool-aid and reminded him about how things were so rosy during the Bush era. He replied that he couldn't go along with the "liberal agenda" of "killing babies, hugging Bambi indoctrinating our school kids with a secular agenda, and sweeping God under the rug."
This friend is clearly a religious individual who is not afraid to express his beliefs. That's great. More of us should be like that. But sometimes there's a fine line before expression of beliefs and being judgmental. When you rush to judgment, you run the risk of casting a blind eye to the facts.
The more I thought about his view of liberals, the more I thought he might be way off the mark. I don't proclaim to be a biblical scholar. There's a lot about the Bible I don't understand. But from what I've heard in church since I was a little kid and what I've grown to believe, I'm beginning to think that Jesus may have been the greatest liberal of his time.
We were reminded during the Lent and Easter season that Christ bucked the system to the extent that he went to death for his beliefs. The government went to the extreme of putting him to death in an attempt to muzzle him. Of course, many of us know that it didn't work. That's why we celebrate Easter and His resurrection.
My friend hinted that he believes that liberals approve of "killing babies." Obviously that's a reference to abortion policy. Of course, Christ would not condone abortion. All life is sacred. But the doctors who performed abortions and were murdered by zealots who thought they were doing "God's will" also had the God-given ability to save the lives of pregnant women and others. I'd be willing to bet that for every abortion a doctor performs, he or she performs many more procedures that help ensure healthy pregnancies for women.
The "hugging Bambi" reference in his reply probably refers to the liberal belief that there should be some gun control in this country. But aren't deer and all other animals God's creation? Many of us may believe it's okay to hunt game, but we shudder to think about the power of a national gun owners' group that has most members of Congress running scared when it comes to outlawing such things as rapid fire weapons.
Every year it seems you hear about a school who has gone to more extremes to remove any reference to Christian beliefs from such things as holiday concerts, Easter egg hunts, etc. As a Christian, I'll admit I usually find these cases a bit silly. We grew up having Christmas parties, singing in Christmas concerts, etc. in elementary school. But back in the "dark ages," we had no Jews or Muslims in our classes.
We are so conditioned to believe that the majority rules in this country that we tend to lose sight of the fact that we became a great country because of our diversity. Removing all references to Christian beliefs from our schools is probably a mistake. But failure to educate our kids on the customs of other religions, such as Judaism and Islam is also a mistake. Not every Jew is out for your money. Not every Muslim is a terrorist. If this is not taught to our kids, it would only serve to divide our country even more.
So thanks, Facebook friend, for the inspiration for this blog. I'm also looking forward to catching up in person with many of my Facebook friends who were members of the grand and glorious Class of '71 at the PVHS reunion in August!
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