A Note on Extremism

This is going to be one of those "But we all knew that, why did you have to write about it?" type posts and the answer is: Because it's my blog and I felt like writing what I was thinking about.

Recently someone on Facebook posted something someone wrote about how he was considered an extremist because he is a Christian and goes to Church and fellowships with other Christians. For some reason I was reacting to something about it but for a while I could not figure out what.
As I considered, this is the way the thought process was worked out.

I absolutely agree that it is unfair to pigeon-hole people based on the actions of a few. Going to church, praying, even being an active member in the congregation does not make you an extremist. It does not mean you abandon all rational thought and are at the beck and call of your religious leaders. Having faith in a supernatural force does not make you a sheep or a freak. This is true of all religions: yes, there will be people who go too far (though I am of the inclination to believe they were predisposed to be like this to begin with either through societal or biological functions and that the religious aspect is just a vehicle to manifest these tendencies)and unfortunately, those people will mar the message or spirit of their own viewpoint. In the same way, because one or two students cheat on a test one time...for the rest of forever, rules have to be put into place to make sure such opportunities are not made, even though the majority of students would never want to utilize them in such a way.

The few make it suck for everyone.

So, as mentioned, having a faith is not the same as being a fanatical nutjob who stands on his tower with a sniper rifle waiting for the servants of the devil to come and taint his children with the evils of evolution and liberalism. That's dumb, and the people who portray individuals like that unjustly do a great disservice, not only to those they are making fun of, but to themselves as well.

I remember starting college and getting the impression that "We tolerate all faiths and lifestyles...well, except yours", it seemed to me at the time that Christianity was singled out as the kind of illegitimate stepchild that was allowed in but barely tolerated. This was probably mostly due to having been very sheltered my whole life and not accustomed to any other way of being, which made me overly sensitive because that impression faded fairly quickly.

But what was bothering me?

The same thing that I find myself ranting about all the time here: hypocrisy. The kind of people who say "Well, WE never overgeneralize like all THOSE people", which is full of all kinds of irony as it is. Now, that wasn't what the guy who wrote this article was saying and it certainly wasn't what the person who posted it was saying and I absolutely knew this. However, I remember growing up with people who DID think like this. Oh, conservatives (not big C) don't have those prejudices, we don't stick people in boxes. But they did, and they do. I think it is a byproduct of the human mind needing to categorize what it sees, but unfortunately most people don't have enough little boxes and so put very different people in the same big box.

I've already shown the unfairness of one-dimensionalizing (no, that's not a word) a religious person. Now let's look at it from the other side.

To many (not all, but a few significant figures) of the people, especially adults, I grew up with, I would be a far-flung liberal, fallen off the Path. Does this have anything to do with how much I pray, or how much I try to let my faith guide me?
No.
It has to everything to do with the fact that I don't regularly attend church. We'll ignore all the (I believe) valid reasons I don't, simply because to them, since I don't, I categorically must be a fallen daughter.
It has to do with the fact that I live with a homosexual and do not feel the need to go up to him and tell him that he is an abomination that is going to burn in hell.
Because I am willing to listen to other people's perspectives and actually BELIEVE that their opinion, thoughts and beliefs are just as valid as my own, clearly...there's something wrong with me.
More proof?
Here's why I am obviously a mind-wiped automoton of the sinful world:
I wear pants. Oh dear!
I dye my hair regularly as a form of expressing myself. Even worse, my hair is SHORT. "Long hair is a woman's glory, why are you trying to look like a boy, blahblahblah"
I have not just one, but TWO tattoos and will probably get more. Ignore that none of these are offensive or even that obvious, even the one on my wrist, or that they have special, if not spiritual significance. They show my twisted lifestyle, clearly.
I do not see the end goal of my life to be becoming a BabyFactory in the confines of a kitchen to someone ten years or more my senior who will never show any emotion to me because he's too busy being smart. He is, after all, the male, and therefore, superior.

I really really really wish I was kidding about this. But these are the attitudes I was surrounded by, sometimes subtly, sometimes maybe not even intentionally, but still there. It was feelings like these that I had to decide what I accepted and what I rejected. And it bothers me that the total inability to take on someone else's perspective, to go outside their own little box...apparently made them BETTER people.

Which brings us to what all of this is about really: Intolerance.

Again, not all people are intolerant. There is no "All people are X". I think the majority of people just try to walk the line between being true to their beliefs and living peacefully with everyone else, even people who believe differently. I think this is part of growing up, learning how to walk this balance. But, like I said before, it's the few that makes it all suck. We have to deal with those people too, it only bothers me when someone, probably someone that IS tolerant says 'Our group doesn't do that' because it shows, if not a purposeful blindness, at least a foolish ignorance.

I wish I had a moral to all this, but there's really too many angles to look at. As much as I'm sure most of us wish we could just take people on an individual basis and not let these preconceptions come into our minds, we do seem to be wired to make some automatic assessments, probably necessary for our own survival. I just wanted to say that people are too complicated to shove them into tiny crates and in the end, doing so just makes the world a more dangerous place.