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Schmidt Wrote: We can mock and ridicule them, but it only hardens them. They are passionate and vote in huge numbers.
Amen, Schmidt. This sentence hits the nail on the head. We have to learn to talk with and not at devoutly religious people.
It's been a work in progress for me because I have struggled to understand how someone who claims to follow the words of Jesus can also be in favor of the death penalty and against spending taxpayer dollars to feed poor and starving children. The hypocrisy really gets to me, but one thing I've found in talking with my devoutly conservative and religious family is that shaming them doesn't work. That only made them cement their positions even more.
It took my parents awhile to come around on gay marriage and gay rights, but they came around on gay marriage and gay rights. They did so because I stopped ridiculing and shaming them and simply informed them that many of my close friends they have had dinner with many times are openly gay, but don't plaster it on a billboard for everyone to see. (I did so with my friends consent). That one thing - realizing that people they care about and have broken bread with are gay - helped to change their opinions on gay marriage.
My very conservative family and I continue to disagree on damn near everything under the sun, but they are good people who are simply trying to navigate their way through life. So are my wife and I. I am the sole atheist in my entire family, but my wife and I still go to church with my parents when we're visiting them because we know it makes them happy.
If more atheists went to church every once in awhile then maybe they'd begin to understand that we're not going to change a devoutly religious persons mind.
At the same time, hiring a whole bunch of devoutly religious people to be in charge of the of HHS and the CDC makes me sick to my stomach. Donald's minions have the potential to take us back decades scientifically.
I know it drives certain members mad when I say this, but we get the government we vote (or don't vote) for.