Over the recent weeks, and many times throughout my life, I have seen the extremely harmful effects of pride in the lives of human beings. It tears apart marriages, families, communities, and nations. Dieter F. Uchtdorf said this the best:
"Perhaps there is no better laboratory to observe the sin of pride than the world of sports. I have always loved participating in and attending sporting events. But I confess there are times when the lack of civility in sports is embarrassing. How is it that normally kind and compassionate human beings can be so intolerant and filled with hatred toward an opposing team and its fans?
"Perhaps there is no better laboratory to observe the sin of pride than the world of sports. I have always loved participating in and attending sporting events. But I confess there are times when the lack of civility in sports is embarrassing. How is it that normally kind and compassionate human beings can be so intolerant and filled with hatred toward an opposing team and its fans?
I have watched sports fans vilify and demonize their rivals. They look for any flaw and magnify it. They justify their hatred with broad generalizations and apply them to everyone associated with the other team. When ill fortune afflicts their rival, they rejoice.
Brethren, unfortunately we see today too often the same kind of attitude and behavior spill over into the public discourse of politics, ethnicity, and religion." (2010 October General Conference, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
Why is it that something that can be as good and character building as sports has become a battleground where we find every way possible to discredit an opponent and anyone associated with that opponent? Why can we not see the talent, hard work, and positives present in the other team and respect that, even if we don't particularly support that team. Support for a sports team does NOT say anything about the character of a person.
This same phenomenon also takes place in the political world. Democrats hate Republicans, Republicans hate Democrats, and everybody seems to hate the "Tea Party" activists. People stand up for what they believe in, we don't always have to agree with that. In cases where certain groups or parties are seeking power or advantage over each other or over the American people there comes a responsibility to fight it, but when the issue is merely opposing views of an issue, we must learn to respectfully let them have that opinion. This is the case even if we are relentlessly seeking to change their minds on the issue.
This is most true in the field of religion. Religion has been a clashing point for people since the beginning of time. Most likely because it involves something so close to people's hearts, it has been nearly impossible throughout history for different religions to get along. We all have to right to worship our own God or gods according to our own desires. We all have the right to try to persuade our neighbor to believe in our ideas. We do not however, have the right to force our beliefs on to anyone, and we especially do not have the right to demean another for their religious beliefs. This goes for Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Scientologists, and those who just don't care. NO ONE has the right to tell another that they are not allowed to pray in public, to speak the name of their god in public, to practice their beliefs in public. We need to learn to be able to push our cause without seeking to destroy others.
Why is it that something that can be as good and character building as sports has become a battleground where we find every way possible to discredit an opponent and anyone associated with that opponent? Why can we not see the talent, hard work, and positives present in the other team and respect that, even if we don't particularly support that team. Support for a sports team does NOT say anything about the character of a person.
This same phenomenon also takes place in the political world. Democrats hate Republicans, Republicans hate Democrats, and everybody seems to hate the "Tea Party" activists. People stand up for what they believe in, we don't always have to agree with that. In cases where certain groups or parties are seeking power or advantage over each other or over the American people there comes a responsibility to fight it, but when the issue is merely opposing views of an issue, we must learn to respectfully let them have that opinion. This is the case even if we are relentlessly seeking to change their minds on the issue.
This is most true in the field of religion. Religion has been a clashing point for people since the beginning of time. Most likely because it involves something so close to people's hearts, it has been nearly impossible throughout history for different religions to get along. We all have to right to worship our own God or gods according to our own desires. We all have the right to try to persuade our neighbor to believe in our ideas. We do not however, have the right to force our beliefs on to anyone, and we especially do not have the right to demean another for their religious beliefs. This goes for Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Scientologists, and those who just don't care. NO ONE has the right to tell another that they are not allowed to pray in public, to speak the name of their god in public, to practice their beliefs in public. We need to learn to be able to push our cause without seeking to destroy others.
Let us all seek to be more humble, and seek to destroy the pride in all of us. Remember, when all is said and done, we are all brothers and sisters in humanity, and we all have to live with each other, even if we disagree with each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment