Today I was texting an old pal of mine asking how summer was going and how he was doing. Our conversation was sweet and innocent until we got into talking about the Charleston shooting. He told me that what had happened was sad, and I agreed, but I also said that that is a part of life. People live and people die.
Then he got testy, telling me that life isn’t killing innocent people. Obviously I agree. I don’t think I look like the type of person to be insensitive when it comes to death. So, I replied and said, “No, life is leaving when it is your time. Even if it is on behalf of someone else. We can’t live forever.”
This person then asked me how I could possibly think that that is the way God intended for them to die. I didn’t say that, but right after that point I said something else…
I said, “I am not God, nor do I PERSONALLY believe that there is one. So, this argument would be invalid on my side and yours. But I think people die when they are supposed to.”
I didn’t think I said anything wrong. In fact, I figured I said what I needed to say in the best possible way. I am a very cut throat and dry person. If I am thinking it, then I will probably say it. But when I say it, it is going to come out EXACTLY how I intend it to. That is something that is neither a blessing or a curse, to say EXACTLY what you’re thinking.
Instead of this person accepting that I have made the choice to not believe in God, he proceeds to tell me that he “Must say goodbye if I don’t believe that there is a God.”
Hold on… Since when is it or was it ever okay to judge someone based on their disbelief in God? I respect the fact that he believes in God, so why is it completely opposite when someone cannot respect the fact that I do not.
I replied to him very calmly and said, “You knew that, But if you shall judge me based on a lack of belief of your God, I then shall be the bigger person and not judge you based on your higher belief in God.”
I have never thought that I could be judged so much with one thing in my life. Not only that, but since when is it wrong to have an opinion? People usually love and respect how blunt I am because it makes it easier to understand what I want and how or when I want it done.
I am not writing this to show the world that being religious is wrong or to show the world that not being religious is right. But I am trying to make a point that I am not a different person just because of one belief.
In the conversation we had, I didn’t change from one person to another just in a sentence that said I wasn’t religious. That didn’t make me a better person or a worse person.
Had he never known, he would have never cared whether I was religious or not because our friendship didn’t rely on being religious.
I find it ironic that there are some people that won’t accept who you are, yet they expect you to ignore every single one of their faults as if to make yours seem bigger and worse.
I’ve got 99 problems already, and he is now definitely one of them.
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