THINK BEFORE YOU STICK

I grow tired, weary and even nauseous when I see a person of any religion taking the stance that their religion has a monopoly on 'values' and 'morals'. One of the greatest demonstrations of respect you can show to your faith is to become familiar with the practices, history and philosophies of other faiths. One can't adequately defend what they believe if they have no idea what other beliefs exist. A few months ago mayor Ray Nagen of New Orleans was criticizing protests by upper class residents of having temporary trailer parks for the displaced located in their neighborhood parks. His response was that this hostility was neither 'civil nor Christian'. Upon hearing this I felt a sting of anger. Grrrrrr! Now if he was speaking to a Christian congregation such a statement may have been acceptable, but he was addressing a neighborhood community. Such a statement implies that Christianity is the only faith that concerns itself with acting civilly and respectfully to fellow humans. Why else would he single out the word 'Christian' while addressing his general population? Can I get a big 'bullshit' on that one please?! Then today I saw a bumper sticker that said 'You Can Not Be Both Christian And Pro-Choice'. Grrrrrr! again This sticker subtly implies that other faiths don't concern themselves with such moral issues. Such statements are easy for us to make because we tend to live in our own little worlds with little awareness of what worlds exists outside of our own. We don't even realize that what we say is divisive. Mayor Nagen is probably blissfully unaware that his wording had a negative impact on his community. That it helped to instill an underlying feeling of moral superiority within the Christian community and made those of other faiths feel left out. The person who created the bumper sticker probably has no clue (and may not even give a rats ass for that matter) what a Jew, Muslim, Buddhist or anyone other than a Christian feels about such an isolating statement. And for every one bumper sticker I see that says 'God Bless Every Nation' I see ten thousand 'God Bless America' stickers flying around. Lets think about how those patriots would feel if a Pakistani immigrant proudly displayed a sticker that said 'God Bless Pakistan'? Would he take offense to it? Would God?