The New Self-Righteous

Listen, religion isn't the problem in the world, we are. 

It's so easy to point to something external and say, "It's the reason for all the 'bad' in the world." But, for every time we point to a gunman who was a 'bad actor' and say, "It's the gun" we have to ignore all the gunmen who aren't 'bad actors'. Every time we say, "It's the religion" after a horrific incident anywhere from, shaming and shunning to, war, we have to ignore all those faithful who peacefully and lovingly coexist with their neighbors.

Being a 'bad actor' or self-righteous isn't external, it's internal and, by God, we humans are prone to it as the sparks of a fire fly upward.

Though, trying to get someone who blames the external to see this aspect of human nature is hard. The same people who hate religion for the problems in the world have become blind to how they've turned their political and world view into the same thing they hate. It's not based on a god so, they don't see how rigid, dogmatic, judgmental, puritanical, moralistic, and self-righteous they've become and they share stupid shit like the picture attached to this post on their social media without shame.

It's not religion. It's our human propensity to adopt a set of ideas to the nth degree, have a steadfast belief in its moral absolutism, try to apply it to our own lives, and judge anyone who falls short where we succeed but remain blind to where we fail. We are prone to self-righteousness and all that comes with it. And, that propensity is at the root of division, hatred, warring, and miserable feelings and behaviors toward dissenters, not a religion in and of itself.

But, what about those portions of religions that tell the follower to hate or kill those outside the faith?

What about them? Most religions also include passages about love and patience with those who haven't yet come to where you're at. And, where a believer falls is a matter of what's in them as an individual. But, if that's the standard of thought here, OK, progressives: What about all the social ostracizing your faithful routinely promote? How is that any different from, in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, in a letter from Paul to that church:

To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

The idea being that the sinner is cast from the congregation of fellowship out into the world to face the natural consequences of their choices. It doesn't matter that progressives aren't following a god because they have, in them, human nature. The attached picture says, "I cast ye out for not being faithful".

When Salon shares a post titled: White men must be stopped: The very future of mankind depends on it  How is that any different from Exodus 22:18:

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

That article title says: "Thou shalt not suffer a white man to live. Thou shalt bring him down by any means necessary."

We are the problem. Our propensity to view ourselves as absolutely 'right' and because we think we are, we have to have zero tolerance for and completely purge from society what's 'wrong' in order to have 'peace' in our world.

In the past year and a half, since opening our marriage, I have been in love with a Nazi and a progressive, and I've enjoyed fun and friendship with everything in between. How could I love a representative of not just one extreme end of the political spectrum, but the other also? Because they're both good men who treat(-ed) and love(-d) me well. Period. And, in return, I treat(-ed) and love(-d) them well.

So, when I see collectivists, from any moral structure, collectivizing the individual and rejecting them or, even, hating them based not on their character in their individual relationships, but their lack of faithfulness to the socially acceptable morality of the day, I don't see an individual I can respect. I see narrow-minded, self-limiting immaturity. I see an individual who thinks and acts in a way that brings about the problems in the world.

I see self-righteousness.