i have not always been religious and so i understand people who aren't.
like the two employees who will be my new co-workers starting officially on monday. a couple of days ago, as i was moving stuff into what will be my new office, these two young women fell into a discussion about catholicism. neither one was aware that i am catholic. (so, give 'em some slack for that. i guess.)
i am sure that it never even dawned on these two that they might possibly be offending me. or even that i might just plain disagree with their put-downs. they chatted off-handedly about catholicism as if everyone (with half a brain, at least) would, of course, agree with their perspectives. frankly, i don't think they even thought of them as perspectives - they thought of them as truth. as no-doubt-about-it truth. as i said, it never even dawned on them that i - or anyone - might see things differently.
i think part of the reason that they just assumed that i would agree with them and that there was no way in hell i could actually be one of those despised catholics that they were talking about is because that's how far we've fallen. back in the day, we assumed that people were religious, that they did value church attendance/involvement, and that they did believe that something - some One - other than whatever you feel about life is more important than, well, whatever you feel about life.
but not anymore. nowadays, people assume the opposite. they assume you are secular, liberal, and open to anything anybody wants to do (as long as it's not religious. if it's religious.....well, then.....you've got a screw loose. or worse, you're a bigot).
i used to think like that.
(but for the grace of God.....)
the other thing is, if you spike your hair up, nobody thinks you're religious. or if you wear fashion-forward clothes. or if you're funny and loud and the life of the party. or if you write poetry.( nobody who writes poetry - especially that free verse stuff - is religious.)
people who meet abby and eli for the first time are often surprised that they wear "normal" clothes and they use hip, up-to-the-minute slang. they figure mormons are too busy having other wives to do anything hip like listen to jason mraz.
so, we make these generalizations all the time about people. we used to generalize and assume that people cared about God and now we generalize and assume they don't.
and, sadly,
now...... we're usually right.
(but happily, now......
not always.)
:)
