Different

Toxic behavior towards others who have opposing viewpoints might make people feel uncomfortable and decide to stay away from you. After all, no one wants to hear expletives and defamatory adjectives hurled out at a rate faster than the green light on 69th street could change to red. But to shun people because they don’t hold the same opinions, despite the respectful tone of their arguments, seems myopic and un-Christian; not even Jesus did that. You probably won’t marry that person, but counting them among the dead is a tad extreme, don’t you think?

Politics take a toll on everything it touches, especially one as charged as the present. Friendships, unfortunately, have not been spared. A person on Twitter, who I know to be a self-professed “die-hard” Christian (whatever that means to her), said that she is “letting go” of one of her best friends because of her politics. She certainly has the right to do that; it’s her decision to make and it’s her life. But I can’t help but think about how things turn around at the drop of a hat and to have lost a friend over something so temporary, so fickle, is short-sighted. 

For years, during the Obama presidency, a friend and I disagreed on several of his policies. We didn’t see eye to eye on some of the major issues at that time. But I refused to make him feel that his thoughts, no matter how contrary to mine, were not valid; and he the same. Thankfully, we both had the maturity to appreciate the perspectives we had in common rather than allow our differences to separate us. Had he chosen to cut me out of his life, we wouldn’t have lived through the past year that saw us agreeing on almost everything concerning this current administration. It’s surreal, actually.

It’s hard for some to stomach what another person thinks about something they have strong feelings about. I have met people who hold their political views as sacred as their spiritual beliefs and would fight anyone who disagrees. And that’s understandable. We can’t all be the same. Someone just needs to be the bigger person and choose the high road. 

I like that, in some ways, we’re different.