Better Than You

Lately I've been thinking about attitudes.  Quite frequently I notice an attitude where people feel they are so much better than other people; they can’t help but spew out their thoughts and opinions, no matter how negative or insulting, so freely.

A summary of my thoughts and opinions: I am a Christian.  I believe in Jesus and I love my gay friends.  (I mention this because some people think you can't do both for some odd reason.) My Facebook page is full of positivity; no drama or likewise garbage. I believe in maintaining a positive attitude and giving to others.  I am certainly nowhere close to perfect, but I believe in striving to be a person who can sleep at night because I’m OK with my actions; because I strive to be kind, honest and loving.

When I came across this article it irritated me.  Then it made me angry.  Then it made me sad.  Irritated me because, well, what a closed minded study to perform.  Made me angry because they used innocent children to prove a point that in the end of the article they state may not even be valid based on the fact that they didn't account for any other variables in their research.  Here is the article: Religious Children Struggle to Separate Fact from Fiction.

Finally, it made me sad for so many reasons.  I have to ask why – why is this an important area of research?  Why is this a priority in our society?  Because when I think about society truly not understanding the difference between fact and fiction, many other events come to mind.  Allow me to provide examples.

We have video evidence of several events where shoppers step right over the bodies of inured fellow humans to get to the black Friday sale, or even through a gas station convenience store.  We have young adults who don’t understand that clubbing every weekend, black out drunkenness and recreational drug use is not a productive lifestyle.  We have grown adults posing as pretend people online for fear of what could happen if they just be themselves.  There are people who sexually assault, murder and abuse as a hobby.  A commercial airliner was recently shot out of the sky with a missile.  We often demand societal perfection women and misogyny from men.  Over 30 children’s theme park workers were recently arrested for child abuse or child pornography.  These are situations where people are unable to distinguish fact from fiction; life from fantasy; dream from reality; no thoughts given to action versus consequence.

So, forgive me, if I feel OK about a child thinking Aslan (Chronicles of Narnia) might be real. First of all, it is a CHILD.  Secondly, I’d much rather a child believe in a fictional, heroic lion than unrealistic society standards.  When did we become more upset about how children exposed to religion view stories (15,000+ comments on one of many Facebook sites that published it) than the IRS email cover up (288+ comments), a violent carjacking (238+ comments), yet another plane completely missing (877+ comments) or an accidental beach death (3,127 comments, most of which were mocking the actions of a deceased man)?

The priorities of society have become sickening.  We all think we are so much better than our neighbors.  Clearly we are better and more important than poor, accidental beach death man; better than our neighbor who’s car we want to steal; better than our neighbor’s political beliefs, better than our neighbor who has a different income or who doesn't party like we do, better than our neighbor who is gay; better than our neighbor who finds hope & faith in religion.  We preach tolerance and hand out judgment.  Scream equality and throw hatred.  I’d love for us to lay down our pride, what we think we know and try to find a way to LOVE someone, one day at a time.  Find a way to love someone who isn't just like us.  Reach a hand to someone in love rather than condemnation or judgment.  This is a message for everyone, not just one side of the coin. It is time to TRULY be better; and that only happens in love.