Surviving Religious Discrimination

Surviving religious discrimination: You aren't alone! 

 First I just want to break the tension and the sadness by saying,

YOU ARE NOT ALONE! We have all at one time or another been

 made to feel guilty, or inferior, or just downright p*ssed off by

 someone who is pushing their own religion or agenda. 

These feelings are alright, and they are perfectly normal but you 

don't have to suffer. I will share my methods of dealing with

 these things in the article below. I know that this situation can be

 very frustrating to deal with, especially when the offending party

 is someone who you care deeply for such as a husband,

 friend, mother, father, grandparent & so on. The last thing that 

you want is to disappoint or upset this person who you deeply 

love. The main thing that you have to remember here, is a simple 

fact of life = Every person, no matter what age or gender is 

entitled  to walk their own path in life. Religion, spirituality and 

sexuality are all parts of this path and they are all things that 

every person must discover about themselves on their own. Not 

ONE religion will work for every single person on the planet, just 

as every one of us can't have the same shoe size or style of 

dress.

         When someone is trying to convert your beliefs, or make 

you feel bad about them the first step in getting through it 

unscathed is to embrace understanding. I know this might sound 

silly at first, why, might you ask should you go out of your way to 

try to understand this person who is causing you so much strife? 

Well the answer is quite simple, most individuals who try to 

convert you to their beliefs are doing it out of caring and love. 

Most of the time it comes from a good place, and rarely is the 

intent malicious they are  simply concerned about your soul.  

Now with that being said, once you take a few deep breaths and 

realize that this source of annoyance is  coming from a good place 

you can rationalize what you are feeling. That is step two. 

Rationalize! You know that they are wrong in this, but just as you 

are entitled to your beliefs they are entitled to theirs. So you can 

take one of two approaches, both of which are usually effective. 

The passive approach or the active. The passive approach: Let the 

person ramble on and say what they need to say. They feel it is 

important and if you let them get it out they will feel much 

better. When they are done you can say something like, "Thank 

you for caring I truly appreciate it (or it means a lot to me). 

However I already have a religious path that I am very 

satisfied with and I do not intend on switching anytime soon. 

Take care!". If you don't want to go that far with it you can simply 

let them finish, (Knowing that it's really none of their business), 

let it go in one ear and out the other and move on with your day. 

The second approach is more active, and though 

it is sometimes more satisfying, it can cause more issues. The fact 

is that we all have a breaking point, and when you simply can't 

take it anymore it is the right time. (Or in a case in which it is 

not someone you know but a complete stranger, or someone who 

is very rude). There are many people, (and it seems the older 

they are the more entitled that they THINK they are to say 

whatever they want to whoever they want even when it isn't 

their place to do so) , who will walk up to you and just rattle off. At

 these times there is nothing wrong with saying something like, 

"I apologize but I don't feel that my religion is any of your 

concern, there is nothing that makes my religion wrong and 

yours right or vice versa. This country was founded on the 

freedom to choose without persecution and that is what I 

am doing, so kindly move along." The key here is to sound 

educated without being overtly rude. you can always throw in a 

nice quote from a founding father such as this by 

Thomas Jefferson, "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."  The point here is that 

you need to be secure with your beliefs, if you are much of the 

time you won't need to say a thing to these people. You are 

following your path, which you are destined to do and which you 

have every right to do. So don't waste so much time caring about 

what other people think and letting them upset you! Take a few 

deep breaths, know that you are right and entitled and move on. 

The LAST step, is to know that you aren't alone. I am always here 

for you and take solace in knowing that many thousands of 

people are going through the very same thing every day. 

Hopefully one day we will live in a society without biased and 

hate but until then we have to stick together. ~Love and light!~

-Angel Hammer (SisterMoon)