Prepare to be offended…Taboo Tuesday is here again!
12 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Taboo Tuesday Tags: Atheist, church, Jesus, judging, kindness, love, stereotype, stereotyping, taboo
Sometimes when thinking of others, my mind reads a lot like a Dr. Seuss book…Too skinny, too short, too fat, to0 loud, too nosy, too gossipy, too self-centered, too too too. On so many levels it’s wrong, yet we all do it. Depending on why we are “scoping” that person out, we play out the stereotypes within us.
That skinny girl is probably self-consumed and snotty. **see disclaimer at end**
That short, fat girl – she’s keepin’ it real! I would dig her!
That other one, she asks too many irrelevant questions that just seem so stinkin’ nosy she would probably run to the next person and vomit any newly acquired info you might give her.
What about that one? Well, she talks about herself so much that while she’s speaking you have Toby Keith’s “I wanna talk about me” song scrolling through your mind while internally keeping the beat in an effort to fall out of your chair with boredom.
It’s like the song that never ends….we judge on and on again.
And churches… well, churches have their own “judgement” manifesto that typically looks something like this:
**She unrolls the ancient Green (think booger) River scroll**
Thou shalt not wear red…it’s of the devil.
Thou shalt not wear six 6…it’s part of the devil’s mark.
Thou shalt not get tattoos…because I wouldn’t…
Thou shalt not be pierced…because I would never…
Thou shalt not have a baby in the belly without a ring on…it makes the church look bad.
Thou shalt not look different than…well…everyone in the church.
Thou shalt not get caught in the company of…well…anyone the church would not approve of.
Thou shalt not listen to anything but church music…it’s of the devil.
Thou shalt not go into heathen places lest you be mistaken for one of “those”.
I can’t tell you how many times well meaning people have said to me (because my husband and I lead a halfway house ministry) — You’re braver than me, I would never go around those people. Or the references to them being “less than” or “scary” or “not worth the time”. If you can relate to this paragraph — get in your Bible and search out who Jesus “really” hung out with during his life. Rest assured, it wasn’t the good. It was the bad and ugly. The bad and ugly is the equivalent to every single one of us. Not one of us is too good for any other soul on this planet. So get over yourself — and yes, I tell my own self this on a regular basis.
JUDGING is WRONG. We have an easy button in us that gives us stereotypes and proof to back it up in an instant. We also have an override button which when activated, gives us a nice big “Mr. T type” gut-punch back in to reality.
As verified at snopes — haha, ok not really — but verified at: www.cynthiachristensencanbestupid.com Stereotypes don’t work. Especially now in this day and age where we have whole generations out to prove them wrong.
Think teddy bear biker. Think tatted up business man who also loves God. Think Brian “Head” Welch. Think Christians hanging out in bars not to hand out tracts but to foster relationship. Think atheists who live good lives because they want to — not because they have a God or a Bible. Think redheads who don’t have tempers. Think black people that don’t pack heat. The keyword take home for ME and you today is: (I feel like Pee-Wee Herman) Think.
So, Dear _Cynthia (you fill in your blank)_ – Think. Think like Me. Love at all cost, no matter the person — no matter their history or their present — just love. Be kind. And remember, when you are up on your high horse, everyone around you just sees an a**. And I’m not talking about the horse. Signed, Jesus.
**Disclaimer — please don’t send comments, emails, mailbox bombs, etc. because I used the terms fat, skinny, heat packin’, etc. I, of all people, mean ZERO offense. But I must be real!**
