Confused and Confounded

You know what...I'll tell you a little secret about myself...I hate social media and I love social media.  Once upon a time I lived in a lovely safe bubble, if i didn't want to know what was going on in the world it was ridiculously easy to not know, flip off the nightly news, breeze past the newspapers, and delve into the current book from my shelf.  These days however one can scarcely get away from it, or at least the associated presses version of it.  I have heard a heck of a lot about Chickfilia, the Olympics, and upcoming syndicated shows.  What I haven't heard is about the floods in India, the hunger in Africa, and the many more important life issues from around the world.

Facebook has been flooded with messages concerning the Chickfilia issue, I haven't really chimed in as I wanted the full story before I opened my mouth.  You see personally I believe in traditional marriage, however I also believe that one should love one's neighbor.  Hate and discrimination are not a part of my life, at least any more than any other person.  I honestly prefer not to know someone's sexual orientation, or politics, or natural hair-color.  This philosophy comes from the fact that Jesus said to love one's neighbor, the Old Testament talks about not casting stones, the New Testament about logs in one's own eye.  I like meeting and judging people by their own merits, I believe it is important both Biblically and socially to be as respectful as possible, even if it means feeling like screaming into a pillow at the end of the day.   I have always been curious, curious about cultures, differences, and new ideas.  Other than math class, school was a joy because it allowed me to learn about all sorts of things that I hadn't even known to ask about. 

So yesterday when I went to Chickfilia, it wasn't about standing up for traditional marriage, it was about free speech and intolerance to people who think differently than you do.  According to the CNN report http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/01/us/us-chick-fil-a-controversy/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 the origin of the issue was that a business owner was being interviewed by a religious magazine and the issue of marriage came up.  All the man did was honestly answer a question put to him by a religious magazine.  When seen by the public the whole thing was completely blown out of context.  Had he been on a talk show, or if he called a press conference just to say that I could see how people may get their feathers ruffled, but to have this sort of media attention due to answering a question in what should have been a fairly safe venue.  It quite frankly makes me wish to quit all normal forms of society and join a commune.  However as the Bible doesn't really encourage hermit-ism I suppose I will have to stay and deal with the ridiculousness of this situation and the ones in the future. 

You see I think that most people are not okay with being different.  We say we are, but in truth we are really stuck in that preschool-about age 18 phase where being different, and especially having those differences pointed out to us is about the worse thing that could possibly happen to us.  So while we say we do not like being labelled or "put into a box", what do we do but add extra labels to our lives.  When we introduce ourselves we say, "oh well I am a Christian, I am a vegan, I am a naturist, I am a....".  We add more boxes to paperwork, we define who, what, from where, and form clubs for people "just like us". It all seems to break down our common bonds instead of helping us see them instead.

So you are probably asking why is it I love social media?  I love it because I have come into contact with people and places I have never met or seen.  I find out about amazing new places, recipes.  I keep in contact with my friends who are or have been around the globe. Though I must admit that I wish that letters were still something that were used, the instantaneous aspect of the web and social media is fascinating and a bit terrifying. It sort of makes me think of the Tower of Babel.  

So this has been a rather rambling blog, but I wish people would stop getting up on their soapboxes and instead think things through.  Because once it is on Social Media or the web it doesn't go away.  If we are preaching tolerance than don't ask those who do not agree with you to change based on your position, that is the opposite of tolerance.  We will never live in an entirely equal society or world, do do that would be rather equal to "Brave New World" or "1984" which has its own set of problems.  So please just be polite, let us use our manners, let us love each, be angry, but as the Bible say, "Be angry and do not sin."