RE: "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us..." should we be grateful?
July 20, 2015 at 2:53 pm
(July 20, 2015 at 2:41 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote:(July 20, 2015 at 2:13 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Now to address your "separating what people think about religion from what they think about you", here's what I think.
Let's say I think Ugg boots are the most hideous, ridiculous article of clothing I have ever seen. Not only that, but I think they are also bad because they use wool from sheep who are treated very very badly.
Let's say I have a friend who loves them and wears them ALL the time.
Should me thinking Ugg boots are awful be offenssive to her? Obviously not.
Should it be offensive to her if I sat down with her and respectfully told her I think they just don't look good on her and I'm against them because they are attached to inhumane treatment of animals? Also, no.
But if I pointed at her, and laughed, and said some nasty stuff like "why the hell are you wearing those God awful f---ing boots?? They look ridiculous, and apparently you're ok with the mistreatment of animals, which makes me sick!"
If she got offended by this, would it be reasonable for me to say "Hey, what's your problem?? I wasn't making fun of you, just your clothes!"
This makes perfect sense. But I'd be likely to respond differently (than the part bolded) if she is really a good friend of mine and the poor treatment of animals thing really bothered me a lot. At first I'd simply tell her what I understood about the way the sheep were treated where those boots were made. If she continued to wear them when we met I'd up my game. Rather than lose her number or decide her apparent indifference to my fellow creatures was alright I'd probably nudge her with little barbed verbal jabs. I might, for example, occasionally ask her if she heard it too. When she asked me what, I'd say I keep hearing the screaming of lambs and then look wistfully at her boots. After that, assuming I still liked her, it might just become an occasional joke between us. I might pretend to be hearing something but then carry on without an overt comment. I might look at her boots and wince. But it wouldn't be a nonstop sort of thing. Just an occasional nudge whenever the thought "how can it be that .." crossed my mind. Otherwise I'd just go on enjoying what I liked about her to begin with and let it go.
You are correct. The respectable thing to do would be for her to try not to wear them around you, if she doesn't need to. Same thing with a strong vegetarian. If you are going out to dinner with someone who has expressed feeling very bothered about the treatment of the animals who are raised for slaughter, the respectable thing to do would be to not order meat.
...And likewise, a religious person should not talk about their beliefs when hanging out with an atheist friend.
With that being said, the little jabs you talk about seem very mild and harmless. And a person's shoes are usually not nearly as much a part of them as their religious beliefs.
So I see nothing wrong with the teasing you're talking about here. If you came to my house and saw my crucifixes, and made a little wince, I would laugh. But if you started laughing and saying nasty profane stuff about Jesus and my Christianity, I would not appreciate it too much.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
-walsh