How political and religious differences make some people so damn ignorant
Thirty-five years ago my father, with whom I was living, married his third wife, a younger woman with four small children. I was a teenager and she and I became close friends and it was great to have little sisters and a little brother. We all bonded together because at that time my father was an alcoholic. After they had been married five years they divorced, I married shortly thereafter and lost contact with my step mother and step sisters and brother. I missed them and thought of them often. Everyone had moved to different areas of the state. Years later I often looked for them through the net but couldn't find her because she had remarried. After about 8 years of looking, I finally found her through a site she had set up as a tribute to her deceased mother. I contacted her and we were all thrilled to be in contact. She said she had looked for me for years as well. So, we had a huge reunion with my family and her family and all went fantastically well. Now, we are city people and they are country folk but that didn't bother me except I knew I wasn't making any trips to go camping with them. We all exchanged emails for three weeks and we getting back to being "family".
They all had Facebook pages and wanted me to set up a page to keep in contact. I had always been hesitant because I thought if I wanted to tell anyone something I'd just send them an email but I went ahead and set up a page including filling out the profile where I stated I'm a Democrat, agnostic, (things we hadn't ever discussed before), like watching French films, have Jon Stewart and Rahm Emanuel on my friends list and Barack Obama and Arriana Huffington on my pages list. Guess What? Never heard from any of the country bumpkins again! I have emailed several times but no responses since my Facebook profile....guess they think exchanging an email with me is like talking to the anti-christ. I mean, I know I live in a red state and it didn't take a genius to figure out they were conservative, Baptist, Repubicans but it didn't stop me from wanting to build on the close relationship we once had and appeared were on the way of renewing.
I just can't figure out these Christians and their "love your neighbor" and these Republicans and their "family values" rhetoric but when it comes to their actual lives they can't have a cordial relationship with someone who doesn't believe exactly as they believe.