Hypocrisy drives me crazy

On By MissVioletGreyIn Blog, Uncategorized, Writing

As you know from my many rants about many things in the world, there are a lot of niggly things that irk me, or ‘drive me crazy’ as par the prompt for this post.

One thing that absolutely makes my blood boil is ignorance. Now, I don’t mean if you innocently just don’t know something and wish to learn, I mean the ignorance where people are exclusionary, prejudiced and just outright awful to others for ridiculous reasons. Namely, this comes in the form of stark generalisations of demographics of people.

I see it a lot on social media. If you advocate for LGBTQ rights, you’re a ‘snowflake libtard’. If you choose to wait until marriage because that’s what works for you, you’re a ‘religious nut-job’. If you’re a woman, you’re automatically a feminazi whore who should get back in the kitchen . If you’re a man, you’re automatically a misogynist predator who advocates for extremist patriarchy. I could go on.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about this more as I’ve been reading up more on religious and social texts. To clarify, I’m agnostic, but take a somewhat Quakerish approach to religious scriptures.

Coming from a multicultural, multi-faith background, I feel it’s paramount to learn as much as possible about the world and the myriad of cultures and customs it has. For example, I’m not Orthodox Christian, but I find Orthodox Christian chants particularly beautiful.

As well as how religion has shaped and continues to be a part of billions’ lives, with the amount of stereotypes and misconceptions there can be, I feel it’s important to go straight to the horse’s mouth, as it were. There’s a lot in the world that say:

‘All Muslims are terrorists’ (NO) or

‘All Christians are like the Westboro Baptist Church’ (NOPE) or

‘All English people wear top hats, say ‘What ho, old chap!’ and drink tea’ (ok, well the latter isn’t a lie) etc. etc. etc. without having actually read a thing about/visited said place(s) to do with the misconception they are referring to.

That being said, I mean this in any capacity from any background. For example, the cult in America of religious zealots that have coined the ‘Make America Straight Again’ nonsense. They are Christian extremists that advocate for the state to execute people who are LGBTQ according to what they believe is their faith. It’s ludicrous. Many Christians and non-Christians alike have spoke out against them. I spoke to my mother (note: a Christian) about them, and needless to say she was horrified by them.

This ignorance irks me again from the other side of the spectrum. When people such as this use that ONE line in Leviticus and Romans to justify hatred towards many innocent people, while being clean shaven and wearing a combination of cotton and polyester etc. (In Leviticus and Deuteronomy, it cites as forbidden to do any of the aforementioned, along with eating pork and mixing crops).

That is hypocrisy to me, which funnily enough, the Bible condemns. As well, they use the King James Version of the Bible to spew such bile. Joke’s on them though, King James was allegedly bisexual!

My agnostic take is, that these scriptures were written 2000 years ago and a lot can change in such a time. For example, there are verses that talk about how to keep and treat slaves. We can all agree that in 2019, keeping slaves is for obvious reasons, very wrong.

This doesn’t condone it before at all, but merely stating that we’ve come along way in 2000 years and if many God-fearing Christians can throw out slavery, mixing of fabrics and crops, condemnation of period sex, etc. because, historical context, we can certainly throw out homophobia.

As far as in the name of Jesus goes, Jesus himself didn’t actually say a thing about homosexuality at all.  He said ‘love one another as I have loved you.’ and he didn’t stutter or change his mind on that one.

So…yeah. Lesson of the day: if you’ve been hypocritical own up to it (I’m just as guilty as anyone else) and don’t be dicks to each other!

 

All my love,

Violet xx

*Picture – Pinterest

23 thoughts on “Hypocrisy drives me crazy”

  1. Amen to this! Freakin’ yes. I’m not religious as such, but a spiritual side still lurks and I’ve definitely got a soft spot for Jesus. I also live in a very multi-cultural area. Between them, the children at my son’s school speak 32 different languages. He learns about all sorts of religious festivities and I love hearing about them. Also, we once got lovely baked goods for Eid which was amazing. I agree with all your points here and these are also the types of people and attitudes I cannot abide. I’ve been called a free-loving hippy liberal more than once and I know it’s meant as an insult but I’d rather be like that than a bigot. Awesome post and thank you for sharing it for #F4TFriday x

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    1. Thanks Floss! 😊 Yeah JC was pretty chill wasn’t he? From someone who came from a school with 50+ spoken languages and students all over the world, I’m happy to hear your son is having a similar experience 😀 I hope he’s having a great time and learning and making lots of friends! 😊 When I was his age I used to love the Eid celebrations we used to do for assemblies, that was the highlight of our year along with the Christmas shows! I’ve had the ‘oh my God you’re not a FEMINIST are you?’ By its grass roots definition proudly so! 😊 I agree, it’s better than being bigoted regardless of what form said bigotry comes in xx

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  2. This awful and callous habit of placing labels on people is what has the world in the state we are in. When I find a person different from me, weather it be culture, skin, religion, or politics, I find it as opportunity to explore a whole new world.
    I have no patience for the kind of ignorance.

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    1. I couldn’t agree more. The us vs them mentality has really come out of the woodwork even more post-2016 and it seems like conversation has completely gone out of the window, unless you count a screaming match as a conversation 😖 I agree, it’s an opportunity to learn and potentially make a friend. Without my friends (international and otherwise) I’d be very much in an ivory tower indeed. Hope you’re well Drew 😊 x

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  3. collaredmichael

    The bible didn’t say anything about homosexuals until somewhere around 1880. Then a translation was changed (in Germany I believe). A word which had always been translated as boys was changed. So the original scripture said men should not sleep with boys. It became Men should not sleep with Men. Just learned this recently. Found it hugely illuminating.

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    1. Exactly! 😊 From what I’ve read it was also mixed up with the Greek translation of ‘man shall not lie with a boy for it is an abomination’ as opposed to ‘with another man’ referring to paedophilia (just even typing that word makes me feel ill 😷) and not homosexuality. The history behind translations is fascinating. X

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      3. There will be no enlightenment from social media. Propaganda is about manipulating public opinion. The POTUS is just one more player in the game, from Pope Francis to Barack Obama.

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      4. I think social media can do a lot of good things (like it’s enabling us to speak and network with some great people) but I understand your concern given certain circumstances I.e. Facebook and far right advertising. There needs to be stricter regulations re: racist and xenophobic propaganda. X

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  7. Well said here Violet, there should be more live and let live in this world and referring ancient texts for how to live isn’t the best idea. As an example a priest once said to me St Paul wasn’t all the angel he was cracked up to be… I believe he was gay but the details were hazy.

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    1. I agree there does need to be more live and let live. As long as your not hurting anyone etc. No two people are made the same. Granted we can take the good and wisdom found in these texts, but obvious medieval punishments and so forth I feel strongly should be left in history x

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  8. Great post Violet. and reading Collared Michael’s comment it does not surprise me at all that the actual meaning of the scripture was changed. I have a definite soft spot for Jesus and was bought up as a catholic – brain-washed maybe – thou now I have my own personal view of religion and god.
    I have Romany gypsy roots and am tired of how often I have heard the word “pikey” used in a derogatory context – what I find is people alwasy seem to think they know better!
    Great to see you joining in with Food for Thought 😉

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    1. Thank you May! 😊 Yeah he sure came out with some good points that still ring true very much so today! When I was at school, there were Romany gypsies in our years as well. I can’t stand the term ‘pikey’ either, it’s horrible! In the college I attended the people on my course used to use that a lot among other things (my first encounter with widespread racism) and like you said on those individuals thinking they know better when I tried to counter their argument, they’d get irate and tell me not to shove my opinion down their throat when they were the ones telling me racist stereotypes and deliberately making people uncomfortable around them. Was very glad to finish that course!!

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  9. nopantsendurance

    There are three books I’ve read that changed my life, and I don’t mean the Oprah feel good crap. These three books are: 1. The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch (and it’s philosophical follow-up The Beginning of Infinity) 2. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins 3. The Robot’s Rebellion by Keith Stanovich

    These scientific works have huge range of consequences, but in this context, Deutsch (I’m simplifying here) argues all evil/problems/suffering is a result of ignorance and the other two built the framework of how humanity’s evolutionary (biology) and replicator (thought) origins are faulty and contribute to ignorance and irrationality.

    These are NOT light reading, but I strongly encourage everyone to check them out. I’ve read the Deutsch works each at least three times and still don’t fully comprehend it all, but I’ll have to pick them up again and give them another go now 🙂

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    1. Thank you for the recommendations I’ll be sure to have a look at them at some point! 😊 Definitely sounds like insightful reads that I can sink my teeth into, from a feel-good Oprah lover 😉 Thanks for stopping by sweetie! 😊

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