Respect

Lately, I've been hearing a lot of degrading of others' personal views.  Mostly on facebook, where of course it is easier to confront others.  My fiance calls this phenomenon "Keyboard rambo."  Ha.

Examples: posting cartoons and comics about why religion (usually Christianity) sucks.  Posting about how stupid all the "libs" are and how they are ruining the country.  Posting about how evil and heartless all the republicans are.  You could probably consider this statement as being a "keyboard rambo" myself, but so be it:  I think all of this is extremely childish.  It shows a simplistic understanding, at best, of another person's worldview, without any consideration that this may be something deeply held and treasured to the other person.

And I'm not just being sensitive about others attacking my own views.  I make it no secret that I'm Catholic, and I try to make it no secret (and I hope the way I live my life speaks for itself although  I'm not proud of everything I do) that I take that very seriously.  It is my foundation not only in my life, but in my career.  I have the Prayer of St. Francis tacked up in my cubicle and I meditate on it every time I anticipate a difficult meeting/session with a patient.  But I will defend the beauty in your own spiritual beliefs whether you are Protestant, Islam, Sikh, Zoroastrian, or anything else including having spiritual beliefs that are not tied to a specific religion.  If you ask me where I fall politically, well, that is a much longer conversation than just answering "conservative" or "liberal."  I may disagree with you on a particular topic or stance, but here's the thing:

I believe in the goodness in others.  I believe that even if what you advocate runs directly counter to what I advocate, it is coming from a good place, and you are following your conscience to the best of your ability.  If someone post something along the lines of "the libs do this" or "Christians are hateful because they xy and z", it makes me think that person is either simply reacting emotionally or hasn't really done their homework.

Some peoples' religious and political beliefs are so personally deeply held and cherished that if you are going to make a simplistic, derogatory, blanket statement about those beliefs, you may as well be insulting that person's significant other or parents or younger sibling.  How is that ever going to be a productive conversation?  You're going to get that much more resistance from them, and they are never going to want to see your side.  Or maybe that's the effect you're going for; maybe you want them to react that way so you can make a point about how you want to see them.

As a final note, I realize a lot of you have been hurt by something a particular belief or value system has done, and you have every right to be angry.  Just please be aware of how you could be hurting someone by cutting them down rather than trying to understand them.