The Others.

I argued the side of a conservative Christian today. With fair effectiveness, actually, though I partly disagree with the position I was arguing for.

It's like this: A friend of mine (a teacher at my former high school back in the Chicago area) posted on her FB wall that she was upset that a field trip for her daughter's fifth-grade class had been canceled. Apparently, some parents had gotten wind of the fact that the field trip was to see a book-reading by an author who had written a children's book about a gay family. My friend couched this event in the context of a loss of diversity.

However, she also posted the segment of the children's book that had given pause. Spoiler alert: I am a liberal who, at this point, has no opposition to homosexuality. I have seen fair explanations of the scripture passages that seem to condemn homosexuality, and so long as those still ring true to me, I will continue in my current beliefs. Having said that, I accept the validity of a conversation about its rightness or wrongness. That is, I think we foul the ball when we insist that this issue is open and closed. The only issue that is truly closed for discussion is that no matter what, we're called to LOVE.

Ok, so she posted the segment. The passage did in fact contain the assertion that there was nothing wrong with homosexuality, and a homosexual family is a family is a family kind of thing. And I could immediately see how this would be offensive to conservative Christians. And I can respect that. I have friends who are conservative Christians. I care for these people, and understand and respect their positions. They're not crazy. Most of them are smarter than I am. They have better arguments, and a deeper understanding of tolerance (because tolerance, as an act of love, is truly a biblical concept) than I do.

Now I don't know about the particulars of the situation. Most likely, the parents should have just pulled their own kids from the field trip, and stayed quiet. I think the skill that is most sorely lacking in the evangelical church is the wisdom to ask, "Is this the mountain I want to die on?" That is, if this is truly a "battle for souls," we have to use not just brute force, but also some strategy. However, the discussion was made into a much larger issue by a friend of hers who responded back to my post on a very macro-level. And that's where the fun starts.

Let me say this. I have always cringed when Christians begin to talk about persecution in this country, because I've thought that whatever persecution they experience is, firstly, negligible compared to what Christians in other countries and throughout history have experienced. Also, their complaints are picked up in the secular world and seen as evidence of self-indulgent ridiculousness (which it sometimes is). But over the past few weeks, I have begun to see that the "liberal" opposition is fierce, and hateful, and very seldom predicated on much more reason than the conservative argument. I have observed this most chiefly in myself. I am a liberal. I have treated Christians poorly in discussion, recently even. I have stood aloof and arrogant, deriding and mocking them (if not in demeanor, then in thought), even as I have nothing more than they do, with which to support my assertions. I am part of the problem.

But now, I'm beginning to experience from "my own" the same venom that I have recently been showing to "the others." Which makes me bristle. As I stuck my toe in the discussion this morning, I thought, "Wait a second now--If I'm smart enough to argue with you, then I'm smart enough to argue against you, and I'd like some respect on both ends, thank you very much." Arrogance noted, being dealt with.

Her friend strongly implied that inherent in traditional Christian belief is a sense of bigotry. Now, I don't like religious bigots any more than the next person, but I object to the inference that the nature of biblical belief is an automatic qualifier. You might not like what I have to say, but you don't get to label it "wrong" just because you don't like it. You have to first prove to me why you're right. Then why I'm wrong. Without predicating an argument on a logic that lends it some solidity, what makes you God?

He did not respond well, or logically, to these or any of the other dozen arguments I threw out. And half-way through he actually noted that he was acting like a third-grader, but still felt the way he felt, goddamnit. And I remember thinking, "Man, this is like talking to those annoying fundamentalist conservative Christians." I smile.

A note to my fellow liberals: If I am giving you logic, I want it back. Let's stop treating the conservatives like crap, talking fast, and expecting them to be too slow to follow along. Some of them, just like some of us, are whip smart, and able to back up what they say. So let's not try to pass out of the discussion with one-liners, and anger, and illogicality. That's an insult to them, and, ultimately, an insult to ourselves.

The conservative, too, has something to teach. And let me tell you, I am being schooled.