Do unto others as you would have done until you. This is the fundamental point of most religions in the world. But if you follow it, you had better be prepared to fully accept this statement.
I've been thinking lately about this directive as it applies to people whose theology I do not agree with. I have always felt that if you choose to be a Christian--feel compelled, are drawn, witnessed, etc.--then that is your choice and I stand by your right to choose. But don't try to witness me. That is not my choice of religion. Don't put that theology on me because it is your way of life. Allow me the same courtesy of choosing my path, albeit different in such a fundamentally opposite way. If you truly believe that you should Do Unto Others, would you not allow this for someone else as well? If you want to be free to choose your path, do you not allow others to choose theirs? And then it occurred to me: probably you would not.
Maybe this is the point I've been missing when I get so frustrated and downright ornery about people stopping me on the sidewalk, out of the fricking blue to ask me if I've accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior.* I am a magnet for this, or was these past few years. Rant on why I look like a good target for conversion aside, I have had ample opportunity to mull this over. Stuck in my craw more like. (One instance happened while I was visibly pregnant and I got the distinct impression I was being recruited because of my double potential. Ick. Ok, small rant.)
Perhaps this is how evangelicals want to be treated. Perhaps they do wish this is how someone would treat them. Or they remember fondly seeing the light. "If I were an unsaved soul, I would want someone to come along and show me the Way." But there's a fallacy of logic here. You can't want something retroactively.
If you are wandering around without Jesus, you can't be saved, and then apply your current state to a past one. You as your Saved Self cannot change the past. You cannot say "I wanted this then." Not without adding "But I didn't know it at the time". I want lots of things that I won't in the future. The grass is always greener. It is incorrect to be able to apply a current state of mind to a past self. That's why the phrase "If I'd only known then what I do now" was invented. You didn't know. You didn't want. Within that thought is the admission that you did not want or know what you do now.
I can want people to be able to choose their path, even if I don't agree with it. I want them to allow me to do the same. This is a current and present reciprocation. Do evangelical people want me to stop them and try to sway them to my theology? I suspect not. Yet this is the equivalent, linear reciprocation of their approach.
And it comes down to this: Can I shake your faith, evangelical person? Is there anything I can say that will make you not believe? (Hell) No. Then you must accept that this perfect state exists for other people too, in some other way. I cannot tell you why I don't believe as you do. I just don't. I don't feel it. But I do feel, just as strongly as you do, in what I do believe. And I couldn't tell why I have that belief either; it comes from a feeling of rightness within. And if you value your faith, if you love your god, accept that others love theirs just as much. Yours is not the only way, just as mine is is not. Is acceptance of others my way? Yes. Do I own it? No. Do you need to do as I do and accept others? Only if you wish to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
*I have decided from this point on, such unequivocal and unwarranted invasion of my personal space and privacy (why is it any of your business?) will be met with in-kind: God no! I don't want my attitude to degenerate into Hammurabi's Law because that's not the point of Doing Unto Others. Spreading Hate is not going to make the world a better a place. I do however feel it is perfectly within the boundaries of my personal space to shut them out as enthusiastically, when asked directly. You did ask. Just because you won't like the answer doesn't mean I should be dishonest.
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