Me waxing on religion and prolly pissing you off....

I read this comment on a blog I'm not naming...really because I'm trying to learn "Blog etiquette" here.  I'm not upset w/ the commenter, and the commenter is entitled to their own opinion, and I don't want to be seeming to "attack" someone or their point of view or be seen to be doing so...  But I just wanted to explain to myself why this comment upset me.  What was it exactly that struck a discord.  and I don't really want to have a discussion about it with the author, I just want to self-analyze....so here goes.  

"It is great to reflect however, on what Christmas means if you are not Christian or Jewish. Perhaps we should pay a little more attention to celebrating and respecting other religious festivals.

Not as a "token" form of respect, rather, a "let's take a day in the life of this religion and learn about it by doing". It could be fun. Our kids could learn by doing, and understand that at the end of the day who cares what religion you follow, as long as you respect everyone else's."

This comment upset me quite a bit.  Not for the reasons you prolly are thinking...  Mostly I'm disturbed by the idea of learning a different religion by doing.  I'm sorry, but find that an antithesis of my principles.  and I am at a loss of words to explain why I find this so offensive, which makes me question 2 things about myself....

1- is this upset a conflict of deeply rooted tennets of my personal faith, or is the idea of participating in some other religion's ritual upsetting to me.

I'm going to admit something here....When I am w/ people who openly admit to me that they believe in a different faith system than I do, I will respectfully listen to their prayer, ritual, meditation, etc...but I will NOT participate.  To participate is to minimize my beliefs, and one thing I hold true- if you do not stand for what you believe in, then you do not really believe in anything.  I have dear ones in my life that start prayers w/ "Mother/Father god"  I listen respectfully to them expressing their beliefs, but I do NOT pray with them, I pray for them, I pray about what they are concerned about, but I will not pray to what/who they pray to.  I love them very much, but I don't and won't compromise my faith and beliefs to mollify anyone else, not would I expect or ask anyone else to do that for me.  I may ask them to share what they believe, and I am willing to share what I believe and discuss the differences/similarities, but I will not participate.    

2- Why do I totally disagree w/ "...at the end of the day who cares what religion you follow, as long as you respect everyone else's"  ?

I think you can and should care about what religion you follow. You can and should care about what religions others follow.  the other person's choice of belief is their own, but you should care about what they choose.  you can care about what religions others in you life follow AND be respectful.  What they believe will affect how they act, learning about what they believe and respecting it (without participating/practicing) will help your relationship with that person, and better communication, b/c you can figure out ahead of time how NOT to piss them off w/ a stupid statement you find acceptable but is wildly offensive to their beliefs.

Learning about a religious system/belief and being respectful does not have to include participating in it, and it does make a difference.  Your world view is different based on your starting point.


Nubs