I didn't say "all Jews" or "all Christians" or that you personally oppress me personally. A lot of the religious beliefs you've mentioned are personally oppressive to me if someone who believes them tries to push those beliefs on my life, but you personally have not told me that I'm going to hell because I'm Jewish or queer, or tried to prevent me from being able to get access to condoms or abortions, so I would not say that you personally oppress me, nor did I say that.
Cultural attitudes are different about things like that. There isn't a bottom line that says "making fun of something always hurts", for one things...my dad and I, for example, we make fun of each other all the time because we love each other. If we were serious with each other all the time it would be weird and awkward. That's not to say that it isn't valid to feel offended by something someone says as a joke, or to challenge that person if they are. I am saying, though, that maybe to ME, since I have lived with this particular cultural attitude my entire life, it seems more acceptable to me to joke about religious things than it does to you. Whereas, perhaps you've grown up with the cultural attitude that it's okay to teach children that homosexuality is forbidden by God, which I can't even fathom how that's okay, and I have a hard time understanding how someone could teach a child that and feel okay about it, and I would probably use words like "ridiculous" and "horrible" to describe how I feel about it. But maybe if I'd grown up believing it were okay to teach that, I'd have an easier time understanding that attitude, even if I decided later that I disagreed with it. And maybe if you'd grown up in my family you'd have an easier time understanding this attitude, even if you later decided that you disagreed with it.
I think this kind of thing is behind a lot of huge misunderstandings when people from different cultures don't realize that the whole way they see the world is colored by the attitudes of the cultures they come form, which are different from the attitudes of the cultures that other people they encounter are from. But now I'm going on a deep philosophical trip that's gonna be spinning around in my head for days now.
Thanks for making me think about this stuff. Seriously. It's making my brains a bit dizzy, but it's valuable.
Cultural attitudes are different about things like that. There isn't a bottom line that says "making fun of something always hurts", for one things...my dad and I, for example, we make fun of each other all the time because we love each other. If we were serious with each other all the time it would be weird and awkward. That's not to say that it isn't valid to feel offended by something someone says as a joke, or to challenge that person if they are. I am saying, though, that maybe to ME, since I have lived with this particular cultural attitude my entire life, it seems more acceptable to me to joke about religious things than it does to you. Whereas, perhaps you've grown up with the cultural attitude that it's okay to teach children that homosexuality is forbidden by God, which I can't even fathom how that's okay, and I have a hard time understanding how someone could teach a child that and feel okay about it, and I would probably use words like "ridiculous" and "horrible" to describe how I feel about it. But maybe if I'd grown up believing it were okay to teach that, I'd have an easier time understanding that attitude, even if I decided later that I disagreed with it. And maybe if you'd grown up in my family you'd have an easier time understanding this attitude, even if you later decided that you disagreed with it.
I think this kind of thing is behind a lot of huge misunderstandings when people from different cultures don't realize that the whole way they see the world is colored by the attitudes of the cultures they come form, which are different from the attitudes of the cultures that other people they encounter are from. But now I'm going on a deep philosophical trip that's gonna be spinning around in my head for days now.
Thanks for making me think about this stuff. Seriously. It's making my brains a bit dizzy, but it's valuable.
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