I had something come up in my Instagram feed that immediately reminded me of an incident of overstepping boundaries that occurred last year in my life; Christian vs Non-Christian. It was quite disconcerting, but I imagine for reasons other than what this IG person would be able to relate to. Let's discuss, shall we? So, this is the IG post in question. I have removed this users name, because I feel it's tacky and wrong to leave such things.
First off, they're getting their news from Breitbart which is touted as basically a Neo-Nazi "news" source. Troubling much? Yes. Then this user goes on to try and shame people for not believing in, or not accepting, what he believes, which is the healing power of prayer, but then backsteps with how he would never do that; attack people for not believing as he does, though he just has. It's called overstepping boundaries. Your boundary doesn't exist, so I'm just going to move right on over this line that I refuse to see and scatter all of my stuff, in this case beliefs, all over your place. It's like some weird pissing contest that I think they don't even realize they're a part of. They might not attack you for not believing in what they believe in, but you'll hear about it, against your will, anyways. That is still attacking, even if it is passive-aggressive. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3-5)" It's basically the same as words of Mahatma Gandhi; “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Sure, it's wrong for random twitter users to attack someone, on the unbidden behalf of someone else. However, you have to change yourself first, you can not change other people. It's right there in your bible, or is that passage conveniently forgotten? I'm not trying to be glib, I really don't understand. Most Christians of the protestant persuasian will state that they are constantly reading the bible, and I kind of believe it because they'll quote just about any passage on command or as the need arises. So, is this Instagramer this type of Christian? Then why doesn't he know this passage? Now, I went and looked this up after seeing this in my feed. Chris Pratt does not merely say that he's offering up prayers for Kevin Smith. He goes on to say how much he believes in this and wants everyone to do the same, then posts a second message that's a variation of the first. I'm sorry, but that's overstepping boundaries. You can silently send up prayers to Kevin Smith without announcing it. You do not have to go on and on about what you believe and that it will work (which denotes that people who do not believe in it are somehow lacking) and you can't insist that people help you out with this thing that you believe in. Even if I share a petition on Facebook about saving cats lives, I just basically state what the petition was put up for and ask people to consider taking the time. I don't insist that they do it. I'm not surprised other people attacked him for it to be honest. His tweets were kind of showy and rude, though I'm sure he and other Christians don't see it that way. Which brings me to the event in my own personal life. A lady we knew passed away. We went to her funeral to pay our respects and to comfort her one offspring who'd just lost her only parent and best friend. These people were Jewish. We were in a Jewish cemetery. While I was raised Christian, I am not anymore. Mainly because I noticed far too many Christian people overstepping boundaries that they refused to believe were even there, as was the case here. So, there was a Rabbi and a mourning Kaddish to be said, which was printed on the funerary pamphlet. Lots of prayers and words were spoken in Hebrew. These were not Jews for Christ, they were Jewish, end of discussion. Then this woman pushes her way to the front and gives this long monologue about Jesus. Jesus this and Jesus that and how she knows that the deceased woman will be in heaven and all the Christianly things she believes. She believes in these things and they're important to her and she feels that everyone should know about Jesus. However, it was beyond rude for her to bust her way up to the casket, when she wasn't invited nor asked, and to start hammering out things that she knew were not also believed by the majority of people present. I don't care what you believe, it shouldn't be forced onto other people. And for fucks sake, don't spout out Christian stuff at a Jewish funeral! Or any other non-Christian funeral, event, service, etc. And yes, if you were wondering, you could most certainly tell, just by looking at the families faces under that funerary tent, that they were not at all pleased about this, besides the fact that the daughter said so after everything was over. Besides the fact that a funeral isn't about you, the random mourner, but about the family. Though Rome may have been full of horrors, the statement "When in Rome" is actually a good one. If you visit a different country, don't act like it's your country and do try to speak the language, be nice and not hauty or demanding. In other countries their waiters probably won't be at your every beckon call. I don't mean it in the sense of "if everyone's doing it, then so should I" as in if you feel strongly against brothels, then don't go to the pleasure district in some country (even if it's your own), or don't partake of alcohol if you don't wish to. But don't be arrogant or demanding and try to know the people you are amongst. In my case, she was amongst Jewish people, so she should have had respect and followed Jewish customs. She didn't even say the mourning Kaddish like every other mourner in attendance because, and I'm guessing here, it was beneath her? That it was of a heathen nature? I don't know. If you don't want to participate in the practices at a Jewish funeral, then don't attend. And if you do attend, show them the same respect you would at a Christian funeral. I'm fairly certain she would have asked the immediate family of a Christian service if it would be permissible for her to speak. She didn't ask here because she believed it was her duty to talk about Jesus to people that didn't "know" Jesus. She treated them as if there was no boundary line. I'm not saying not to pray, I couldn't force people to do that even if I wanted to, which I don't. But know that there are boundaries, respect them, and stop trampling all over them. Realize that other people have feelings. Just because you believe that Jesus and Christianity are the end all be all, some other people do not. It shouldn't be your sole mission in life to force people to hear about it. It's one thing if both parties are agreed to talk about each one's believes and have a nice discussion. But, I've found that to not be the case. The Christian basically will shove and fight their beliefs down your throat and do not want to hear anything you might have to say. Boundaries people, learn them, show respect. You can pray and believe in Jesus all you want, but it's rude to force that onto other people.
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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