When I first posted this question I wasn't thinking, as Judi surmised, about whether I could transform my life -- although that's also been at the top of the list. The question was motivated by a debate I found myself embroiled in on a conservative message board I frequent. One might actually say I started the debate, although I didn't see it that way. Someone else had posted in dismay about the upcoming vote in Canada about gay marriage. I paused, rather considerably, before saying anything, because the tone of the board had been lighthearted and happy -- but then I concluded that it wasn't a statement about which I could, in good conscience, remain silent.
The ensuing debate got me thinking about what it would be like to be a completely different person. I guess I've mistitled these entries -- I wasn't so much wondering whether I could be a different person that I might be hoping to become as I was wondering what it would be like to be one that I have no desire to be. I think that it's always good to try to imagine the viewpoint of another and to try to see where she is coming from -- that old "walk around in her shoes for awhile" precept. Like most people, I'm not so good at it.
So I was trying to imagine: What would it be like to wake up in the morning full of the certitude that there is one God, a God with specific and clear plans and commands, a God who would be sure to condemn certain people to eternal damnation because of choices they had made in opposition to those specific and clear commands -- not to believe in that God, or to follow their hearts and love whom they were led to love, or to have an abortion? Would I feel comfortable and secure? Would I feel enveloped by trust in and love of that God? Would I feel scared and persecuted whenever I encountered someone on a message board or saw someone on the news who urged that our freedoms are best preserved by keeping prayer out of the classroom and prosyletizing out of the workplace? Would I find schools for my children where my religious beliefs would be modeled exclusively and all day and they would be protected from the influences of those who see things differently?
I'm not asking these questions sarcastically. Not in the least. The prayer book I often use begins this morning as follows:
"You show me the path of life, O God. In your presence there is fullness of joy." (Psalm 16:11).
If I woke up thinking about how devastated I, a straight and long-married mother of young adult children, was by the possibility that gay people could marry in my country, and wondering what I could do to stop that from happening, would I feel the fullness of joy?
Maybe I would. Maybe I would be so sure I understood God that I would feel compelled to take whatever action I could to try to prevent my felllow citizens from traveling a sure path to hell. Maybe I would be troubled day and night by the knowledge that I was surrounded by those who do not understand God's ways and purposes in this world, and I would seek the company and comfort of others like me, others who do understand. Maybe I would isolate myself and my children from and shun those who see things differently. Maybe, no matter how disgusted and dismayed I felt by the world, I would be full of joy because I knew THE TRUTH.
It really is extremely difficult to try to get into another's head.
10 comments:
You've come to the crux of the matter ~ "It really is extremely difficult to get into another's head." Even stepping into their experiences can't assure that will happen, though it can make it easier. The fact that you think about these things shows the compassion of your nature and the curiousity of your mind.
The difficulty is with people who KNOW the TRUTH.
V
The things you are talking about here are the reasons I have shunned organized religion, and call myself an agnostic. What I realized when I was immersed in a "religious" way of life is that too much of God and his purposes are in the heads of the believers. The Bible, for all its wisdom and history, does not give a clear, undebatable picture of who and/or what God is, and does not set down an inarguable set of rules for how to live in relationship to that God, or to other human beings in obedience to that God. Many of the older organized religions have gone beyond the bible and formulated complicated dogmas to fill in the blanks left by scripture. But many of the more recently developed sects--like Pentacostal Christianity--have dumped religious dogma in favor of "being guided by the Holy Spirit." In the absence of written rules, people just make things up. They call the things they feel most strongly in their hearts "the movement of the spirit." When I saw people rationalizing obviously wrong behavior by saying that it was God's movement in their lives, I knew something was VERY screwed up.
In essence...I TRIED to be a different person, but it didn't take. Lisa :-]
I think what I have the most trouble with is understanding how anyone can be SO sure they know THE truth.
Interesting ponderings. This is why I have trouble with the idea of being a part of organized religion. Who is right or wrong? Maybe we all are. IMO, living in the spirit of love, being a good human being - treating people the way you want to be treated, having compassion & understanding for others, etc. says more about you in the end. ~ Lori
Wouldn't life be dull. Certitude means no searching, learning, or reaching. Certitude means sitting quietly while believing that you KNOW. Great writing, great thinking. I really enjoyed reading this. Pennie
MOST eloquent, Ocean.
I, too, wonder what it would be like to have that certainty about wrong and right. There must be some form of comfort in it, surely. But still, I am me, and it is so hard to wrap my mind around views that are so far from my own. Here is my fear when contemplating the sort of person you describe - it is that very certainty that permeates every issue because it is part of their belief that it must be so. That certainty that brooks no other point of view. That certainty that fogs the element of choice. That I fear.
Thank you for a most thought-provoking entry.
Vicky
http://www.livejournal.com/users/vxv789/
I sooo agree with you; it's difficult to fathom those mindsets. However, at work I eat lunch w/ a very diverse group, including a few ardent conservatives. I don't want to offend anyone, but two are Mormons (lots in AZ), one a strong Catholic, and one extremely fundamentalist non-demon. Protestant. (Quite close to the latter and once said something to her about her anti-gay comments when we team-taught 12th Night. She desisted.) It's tough for me to think about this one colleague, for example, as a super-intellectual, super kind, great friend on one hand and LDS on the other. But these are also people who, after all, teach in a public school, and I'm pretty sure they don't wake up in the morning hell-bent on stopping gay marriage, so even though I do think they feel they know God's truth, maybe they're not quite like the fanatics you write about. But what I'm trying to say is, because they're not Bill Frist or Ann Coulter, they're people I eat with every school day, I guess I can imagine what it's like to be them with their (wrong-headed) viewpoints. PS I sure pray for (but not counting on) a moderate Supreme Court nominee from W.
I agree. That's why I've been listening to right wing radio lately....to try to understand WHY conservatives think the way they do. I have heard nothing so far that could even begin to change any of my liberal views. In fact, I'm becoming more and more convinced that many of their views are simply based in misinformation and prejudice. But still, I'm trying to understand the part of them that MEANS WELL. For example, the people who are so against gay marriage often feel the way they do because they feel that gay marriage will be bad for children. Many conservative people honestly and sincerely want what is best for children, but they have been taught some falsehoods such as that gay people are more likely to be child molesters than heterosexuals. By understanding the roots of why conservatives think the way they do, we can start to provide counterarguments and evidence that addresses those roots, while acknowledging the part of them that honestly has good intentions. Trying to understand people who are different from ourselves is always worthwhile, in my opinion.
You couldn't do it. You could not embrace an ideology that condemns good people for their inborn natures. No amount of environmental conditioning could cause you to think like that.
I have spoken. You must agree.
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