Why so much Anger?

I have friends of all different beliefs, sub cultures, nationalities, and sexual preferences. Everyone who knows me knows I am a Christian that takes her faith very seriously. We all have our differences, but we still love each other and for the most part, can have calm, rational conversations.

 

 

But, on occasion, particularly on Facebook, I run into something that when I see it, my reaction inside is "Wait, when have I EVER acted like that"?

 

 

I'm talking about some of the things some people say about Christians.

 

 

Now before you start rolling your eyes, I am not claiming that Christians are perfect and that we have never done anything that caused to be mocked or anything like that. But, don't we all have someone in our lives who we care about that is part of some sort group that has been, well, not has been represented the best by some of the people in that group? Muslims, Christians, Wiccans, atheists, liberals, conservatives, libertarians, etc.?

 

 

Now I know that when most people post things about certain groups, they are not always bashing the group on the whole, but the loud nut jobs in it. But, most of the things posted and said in person, are not specific. They're pretty general.

 

 

I was looking through my wall, and I saw a status from a friend of mine and it kind of took me back a bit.

 

 

The status said: "Hanging out at the church doing my part to piss the evangelical right wingers. Lol

 -seriously, all the Christians would be shock with the art work here."

 

 

 

"The church" seems to be a bar/ art gallery with some "shocking" art in it. Now, I've seen some similar statuses from this friend, and I for the most part, just roll my eyes, but this one kind of stuck out.

 

 

 

The part when the friend said “doing my part to piss the evangelical right wingers."

 

 

 

That's something I never really understood things like that. I just don't understand WHY you anyone would want to purposefully anger anyone. I can't stand westboro Baptist church, but I don't see the point of trying to anger them. I understand that they most likely will never see sense, but there's no reason to try to anger them. I just want to avoid them at all possible cost. Their angry presences would just put anger in my heart and that's the last thing I need to fester in my soul.

 

 

 

Second, my family would be considered "evangelical right wingers." My parents are conservatives. I'm a Libertarian. We agree and disagree on things, but no matter what, I love them with my heart and soul and would do whatever it takes to make them happy. And as for the "evangelical" part, yes they are that to.

 

 

 

The definition of an Evangelical is:

Of Protestant churches emphasizing personal salvation: relating or belonging to any Protestant Christian church that emphasizes the authority of the Bible and salvation through the personal acceptance of Jesus Christ•

Relating to Christian Gospels: relating to or based on the Gospels of the Christian Bible•

 

 

Well, yes, that is me and my family. So I get the feeling from my friend's status that they want to try and upset my family. I know that's not the intention, but that's the feeling.

 

 

It doesn't help that my friend said “ALL the Christians". Pretty general statement.

 

 

Maybe I'm being too sensitive, but when someone wants to piss off says they basically want to piss off my family, it bothers me.

 

I've seen similar things on a lot of few friends pages and have had things said to my face. Now, unlike what my friend says, the things that I have seen and heard, it doesn't really shock me anymore.

 

 

When you dedicate your life to a faith so much that you do outreaches and take a vow of abstinence until marriage, you hear a lot of rude things. But most of the things I hear are from strangers. People who never so much as spoken so much as a couple of sentences to mean they think because they think they "know" my faith, they know me. But they don't. They just met me.

 

 

The things that bothers me, is that when people who claim they know me, love me, and have respect for me say such awful, negative things about me, My God, and my Holy book. Makes me think "Gosh, what did I do."

 

 

 

Now, this is coming from my emotional side, but feelings do matter. I don't understand why anyone would purposely want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Whether

 

 

Why put that in yourself. All it does is fester. Makes you bitter. I learned a long time ago to just let bitterness go. Now, not to say I don't still deal with it, as this blog CLEARLY shows. But, I'm not going to make it my mission to make myself a miserable, hateful person. Not to say my friends are, but when you hold on to hate, it's what you eventually become.

 

 

Now I'm saying we have to be the P.C. police and we can’t talk about faith, politics, or hot topic issues, but there’s a way to do it. A way with tact, some class, and not trying to insult someone, even if it's someone you can't stand.

 

 

 

You just have to remember that the person who is not in your group is still a PERSON. With a heart, soul, mind, and feelings. They may not be your friend, but they are someone's friend. Someone's brother, sister, mother, father, child, etc.

 

 

 

In fact if we kept in mind that the person we were insulting was an actual human beings and not just some title our society has given them, we could actually learn to get along, despite our many differences.