no convoluted analogy tonight, but hopefully soon

I've spent the past week and a half trying to come up with an analogy, because right now what I'm coming up with makes absolutely no sense (it's generally helpful when the object of comparison doesn't have to be modified to the point where it doesn't actually work that way in real life). So, that's why I haven't written anything yet. I told myself I'd try and write once a week, so I'm a couple days off, but that's OK. Anyway, this week is going much better. I think the combination of homecoming craziness/full moon/Jupiter/explosion of lovebugs from last week has officially come and gone (minus the lovebugs, of course).

I don't know that I have anything super deep tonight, but I've been thinking a little bit lately about something a friend said to me as well as something I observe with some frequency in the world of Facebook (and the world at large, but seriously, the News Feed is such a wealth of, well, news and information! haha). There's the idea that religious conservatives are rigid in their beliefs, which I completely agree with. The problem I have is that most people view this as a negative characteristic, which I completely disagree with. Friends, that's the voice of moral relativism, which says that each person gets to decide what's best for them, so that no one is accountable to anyone or anything except themselves. I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of living in that kind of world. Unfortunately, that's exactly where we are heading. To a point, I can understand latching onto one belief system over another. What I don't understand is the idea that everyone gets to choose, and that even if I say I believe in a system that holds people accountable, I still think it's OK if someone else doesn't agree with it. Read that again. "I believe this to be true. If you don't, though, you aren't wrong, as long as you believe in something. Or if you believe in nothing. Whatever works for you."

WHAT.

And while people don't necessarily say the statements I put in quotes, that is exactly the philosophical basis behind moral relativism. If you want to criticize religious conservatives, then point to their tactics of hatred (picketing, taking God's judgment into their own hands, and essentially not loving on people. I will never forget the story told by Jared at Student Life Camp about the Christians who went to an abortion clinic with duct tape over their mouths to protest the babies being aborted (the idea being that the babies didn't have a chance to speak before they were killed). HOW STUPID! Stop trying to prove a point and instead show people the love of Christ! Stop getting in people's faces about how they're going to burn in Hell if they don't repent, and instead show them what a relationship with Jesus is actually about! I wouldn't want to be a Christ follower if that was my view of what it means to be a Christian. Anyway). Point to their Phariseeic attitudes about things that aren't even worth fighting over because they have no real Biblical basis. But don't completely discount them because of the "rigidity of their beliefs." There's a reason those beliefs are rigid- they are BASED on something concrete. It's not just something pulled out of the air, or something that they feel; their beliefs are based on what the Bible teaches. And regardless of your beliefs about the Bible, at least realize that the whole belief system these conservatives have are not just out of spite or hatred. They are based on what they claim to be the teachings of their Lord and God (again, my purpose is not to open a discussion of religions, but just to attempt to point out a fallacy in argument). If there's no accountability, no real standard of right or wrong, then life is just chaos and anarchy, and I think most people, if they get deep down, can see that life doesn't work that way. There is order. There is purpose. There is meaning. I mean, that's why all different religious systems are out there! People are constantly trying to figure out what the point of life is. Here's my question: if your beliefs aren't rigid, are they really things you believe in?

One last comment, because I'm getting tired/hazy and losing focus: It's sad that the religious nuts get the most time in the news (just as it's sad that the extremists of other groups of people get the same coverage, thus adding to the stereotyping of all), because they really do ruin it. So please, don't lump all "religious conservatives" in with the fire brandishing, sign holding, hate filled people that unfortunately take the label of "Christian" upon themselves as they do all sorts of un-Christ-like acts.