The Broad Brush

Over the weekend, I got pretty riled by a comment I'd read on another blog... "Are there any intelligent, rational Christians out there?.... Hellooooooooooo........::echo::"

So here's the thing... It's natural to stereotype. It's natural to stereotype by the loudest and most obnoxious people in a particular group because they are the ones you see. What is NOT natural is to do it to everyone. I find it very sad that my belief in God and in Jesus makes me 1) Unintelligent and 2) Irrational.

I was born and raised Baptist in a Baptist town in West Texas. We called our town the buckle of the Bible Belt (most churches per-capita in the US). And yet... Most of my group were some of the most fun folks you could find. They were mostly non-judgmental. It wasn't until I moved to Austin to go to the University of Texas that I realized that it was "wrong" to be conservative. No. Not really. But I was judged by both sides. My friends back home couldn't believe that I'd chosen such a liberal place to live and some of the people I came across in college thought I should be more open-minded so that I could realize that the ONLY right way to think was that the Democrats and Liberals had all the answers.

In my opinion, both sides are WRONG.

Painting a ceiling with a broad brush will get the job done, but it won't be the Sistine Chapel.

By labeling me and by me labeling you, the beautiful details of each others' lives are being glossed over and missed. The beautiful soul is being completely dismissed as having no value just because one belief differs from another. What the hell???

So yeah, I believe that innocent human life should be valued. I cannot for the life of me comprehend how a person could support abortion and not support the death penalty. I cannot comprehend how it is somehow a bad thing to say, "One nation, Under God..." I don't see the bad in wanting the government to keep their dirty hands off my money and stop the ghastly greed of special interest groups. I don't see why we have to specify that one crime is a "hate" crime and one is not. White man rapes a black woman and it is a hate crime. White man rapes a white woman and it is a crime. Seems to me that a man who rapes hates women. Period. I don't understand how it is okay to say whatever you want and publish whatever you want and scream "free speech!!! First Amendment!!!" and then turn around and say that our forefathers were ridiculous to say we could bear arms. I believe that God created the universe. Maybe not in 6 of our days, but I believe in the Creation. I also believe in evolution. I believe that you can believe in both. I believe that Jesus was the son of God and that he died for all of our sins. I suppose that last statement makes me stupid and irrational, though, huh?

I'd say that as a college-educated individual, I'm fairly intelligent. I'm well-read. I'd say I'm pretty reasonable in every way except when it comes to the safety of my family (I'd be pretty damned irrational and unreasonable if their lives were threatened).

Sometimes it's good to use those detail brushes.