Monday, October 22, 2007

Avoiding offense

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Nonreligious_Christmas.html

Seatac is trying to avoid offending their international customers this holiday season by putting up non-religious based winter decorations. I applaud their endeavors.
On the other hand one of my co-workers is highly offended and believes that this is why America is going down the tubes and christianity is why America exists and was created.
I tried to reasonably point out that Seatac is an international business, with international customers and it was a good idea to try to not offend these customers. I also tried to point out that America was founded on freedom from religious persecution, but that went right over his head.
I also believe that the reason America is "going down the tubes" is BECAUSE of religion: we are in a "holy" war against Islam (of course this war was not entirely instigated by us, or the entire Islam religion, mostly the fundamentalists and radicals who can't stand a place where freedom is allowed-it undermines their enslavement of their followers, especially the women). We are in a very unpopular war and we are there because our president is trying to strengthen his moral standing as a christian and rid the Islamic religion of their fundamentalist and radical leaders (not an entirely bad thing, he's just going about it entirely wrong).
Giving these people a decent education and enforcing the human rights of every human on the planet-freedom from enslavement and oppression by those in power would accomplish a much longer standing democracy in these countries that trying to force one down the throats of clerics who want their sect to accumulate power.
OK, this is a rant and doesn't entirely make sense and I have to run off to class so I don't have time to go through and make sure this is saying exactly what I want it to (not all blog statements are entirely truthful of my own opinion).
Hope I didn't offend too many of you...then again, I hope I did, maybe you will think about what it is that offends you and try to figure out why. Think for yourself dammit!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please update and keep writing about your experiences. I share them. Being in Nashville, TN, I find nearly every job out there also calls for "faith-based" and specifically "Christian values" and goes as far as to require promoting that mission at work, often with federal dollars. Bad enough that I've been preached at all the way through school. I even had one classmate give me a pamphlet on how Jebus would help me lose weight/deal with my 'eating disorder' being 20# overweight at the time (she was in the group because of a binging and purging problem).

lzerby said...

Thanks, I will! Read my current posting, I've been busy with school, but now I think I can keep posting more frequently.
I go to work everyday with coworkers who think they need to try to convert me to their beliefs. I try to show them respect for theirs, but the same is not done for me. Because my belief system (reality and reason) are too scary!
Keep sane and know that there are more of us out here than you think!