Remember – It’s all just an opinion

Your Politics are an opinion. Your Religion is an opinion. Your life view is your opinion. Everybody is entitled to whatever opinions they want to have about anything. All humans have opinions. But people are also identifying with both to such an extreme, it is now literally damaging all of us the world over. And mental health is taking a toll.

Not that long ago I remember politics and religion were things we kept out of conversations for the most part because we felt our relationships mattered more. We knew conversations about them could potentially upset or even anger others. We valued our friends, family and even strangers despite their opinions if they were different. We valued people for how they behaved and treated each other.

I remember people instead identifying with things like caring. Having manners. Being polite. “Loving thy neighbor”. Accepting other people’s religious and political views without getting angry about them. We could sit around a table if the topics did come up and for the most part “agree to disagree”. And we parted company warmly, knowing the relationship wasn’t damaged by the conversation.

I understand this is a pretty broad generalization and the world has always been plagued by racism, discrimination, elitism and more. But maybe we need to look at our own bubbles of humans we interact with daily and ask some hard questions? If we can’t accept the politics and religions of those close to us like family and friends, how can we ever, with people we don’t know?

With that being said, I want all my family, friends and acquaintances to know that I see you for who you are, regardless of your political and religious views. I will not judge you because of them. I will not “unfriend” you on social media because of them. I will continue to value you for the same reasons I always have. I will always value your heart and your actions over your political party and religious affiliation. I can have a conversation with you about anything you have an opinion about and not see you as less of a person for it, even if it is diametrically opposed to my opinions. In fact, it most likely will help me grow as a person. And that has value to me. I hope it does to you too.