I've seen a plethora of blog posts, videos, and the like regarding showing understanding and love. Don't hate these people, don't be malicious to them. Love them, support them, listen to them.
Which sounds all well and good. In spite of everything else I think and feel in regards to these groups and past incidents, I whole-heartedly believe we should love them and be compassionate.
Except I haven't the foggiest idea what it looks like. Oh, the loving part is easy enough. These are my brothers and sisters. I will love them and pray for them. Until any of them personally get in my face, I harbor no ill will.
But all these requests for compassion and understanding fail on one big question of mine: What the heck does it mean to be compassionate and understanding?
I'm a teacher. In order to assess something, I have to have a clear idea of what I'm looking for. Hence the aforementioned "What does it look like?"
Every blog I've read urging us to show compassion (often written by people who state they "don't agree with these people) has comments criticizing their lack of understanding in these movements.
Apparently, championing niceties isn't enough.
Here's what we need to figure out:
- How do we show compassion while standing true to our own differing beliefs?
- How do we seek to understand them if we have no intention of changing our minds?
- What do we do if our remarks of "I want to be nice to you!" don't work? (Because, we haven't changed our minds.)
Yes, I'm sure there are individuals who are plenty happy with us reaching out and saying "I still love you even if I disagree". But it would seem these movements as a whole want conversion.
So until I get specific and detailed advice on how to show compassion, I'm going to let my lack of non-hated be enough.
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