Category : Articles

Sub Category : Miscellaneous

   In the world we live in in the United States right now, there's a great deal of confusion about religious oppression. Religion is a common part of the culture in the United States, even if you accept the title of having no religion. Personally, I am a Christian who believes in God and Jesus Christ. I like to celebrate holidays, because they're about celebrating more than myself. It's unfortunate to say though, there are a large number of people who do not share that same view. In fact, there are those who would claim that someone celebrating their own religion disrespects theirs. This is where the problem begins, is when you have someone who tries to oppress someone else's religion.
   Here's an example, there was a preacher in the southwestern part of the United States who refused to marry gay couples. This is because in his beliefs, he didn't think gay people have the right to be married. They had him arrested, because he was breaking the so-called law. Here's a problem, by having him arrested, they were also breaking a law which is much older in the United States. The right to practice religion. I am mostly Democratic and my views, but sometimes I sway over to the conservative side when issues like this come up. If you are going to assault someone because of their beliefs, you have no right to demand to be treated fairly. If you want to be treated fairly, you should be willing to respect other people's religions or beliefs. Even if they are misguided with their beliefs.
   Another example of this popped up, when a gay couple tried to buy a cake at a bakery. The baker refuse to sell the cake to them, because they were gay and it felt like it was against their beliefs. I respected the Supreme Court for ruling in the favor of the baker, because of one main reason. The gay couple, started attacking the religion of the person who owned the bakery itself. If you can't find it better excuse then, it's their religion's fault than I do not see this as a problem with the baker. They can simply go to another bakery, or a store to purchase a wedding cake. There is absolutely no reason why they should be attacking the baker for his beliefs. Yet this seems to be a growing problem in the United States.
   The only time I wouldn't stand up for a religion, is when someone is conducting things such as human or animal sacrifice, or using their religion as an excuse to do violence. Such as white supremacists like the KKK. This is the only time I would ever stand against someone who wants to represent their religion. If a Muslim woman wants to wear a hood on her head, that's fine if she wants to do that in the United States. She's not hurting me, my wearing that on her head. If someone had religious beliefs, and they didn't want to do business with me. I wouldn't attack their religion, I would just go somewhere else and do business with somebody else. If you try forcing someone to accept your religion, or your beliefs you only get violence in return.
   You can't force someone to accept your voice, you have to show them that you care about their beliefs. This is the only way to learn acceptance, you don't have to love each other to be able to get along. You just need to be willing to understand each other enough, and then you can get along. I have a cousin who chooses not to eat meat, I eat meat but I'm willing to respect her for her feelings against what they do to animals in order to obtain it. I don't support what they do directly, I oppose what they do. It's a little more complex than that for me, because I also have misgivings about this particular case.
    Issues can be complicated, but if we're willing to respect each other enough to get along there won't be a big problem. But if you don't want someone else to believe in something different, then that makes you the problem yourself. It's not the problem with other person, if you don't want to accept the fact that someone believe something differently than you do there's a problem. This doesn't mean the person should be violent towards you, and this doesn't give you the right to be violent towards them. Please use some common sense, whenever making decisions toward how you treat other people. It's those types of decisions that you make, which influences their opinion about you.