I was one of those abortion-protesting, door-knocking, memorize-800-bible-verses, evolution-denying, homeschooled Christian fundamentalists (until I got to college).

I remember thinking, “Am I just Christian because my parents are Christian?” My faith felt real, I did genuinely believe all this stuff - but I knew that other people were Muslim because their parents were Muslim, or atheist because their parents were atheist.

I realized, even then, that what people believed was a product of their environment - that with the right training and culture, people would buy anything.

If I had not realized this, I would not have eventually lost my faith.

Thinking that my faith was “my own” and “obviously correct” due to my “logical reasoning” was something that felt super enticing and felt right from the inside.

But, as a Christian, I knew that if I’d been born to a Muslim family and felt the same way, I would stay Muslim (and go to Hell). This scared me. I didn’t want the way I believed in God to be correct only because I happened to get born into the right family. I wanted a belief in God that would correct itself even if I were born a Muslim.

So this led me to watching my own mental processes with the thought: “If I thought this as a Muslim, would it lead me to Hell?”

So, for example, if I thought “I should not talk to Muslims, they are ignorant,” I would flip that around, and realize that I would want a Muslims to talk to a Christian, so I could convert them. So, I talked to Muslims.

This rule - “think the way that would lead to you changing your mind, if you were the person you disagree with” - was essential. This is the rule that breaks down religion, closeminded ideologies, cults, and movements that hurt people, and it is a rule that YOU have to adopt, because religions, cults, and damaging movements were populated by people exactly like YOU.

This is why social justice culture terrifies me. It’s not that they’re incorrect - they propose a lot of really good points, some of which I agree with - but their attitude does not follow this rule - and if their attitude does not follow this rule, then that means they would have stayed religious if they were born religious, and that they would have killed people different from them if they were born into a culture that killed people different from them.

For example: Social justice carries an attitude of judgment and condemnation for those who disagree. They see disagreement with their ideas as always motivated by moral failings (racism! sexism! being an asshole!), as opposed to actual thought. It advocates ‘shutting down’ speech it disagrees with as being 'offensive’, which is a moral designation. This is basically just religion repackaged.

Other groups I respect more than social justice even if I disagree with more, because they are more gracious to the opposition - and graciousness to the opposition is more important than being 'right.’

Religion survives because people think they are 'right.’ The moment they start being gracious to the opposition, they will fail - and that which can fail by being gracious to the opposition, SHOULD fail.





(and also: just because you don’t consider yourself social justice doesn’t mean you automatically don’t do this too. Everyone does this, to varying degrees. I keep finding new ways in which I do this, personally. Check yourself, and never stop checking yourself.)