Soapbox: Agreement and Acceptance

I think we have an issue with definitions in this world at times. I think the two words most miss defined are agreement and acceptance.

I can be totally against what you say and believe, but I can accept your right to believe what you believe and say what you believe is true. I can fight for the right for you to have your own beliefs and opinions even if I do not agree with them, that is what the 1st amendment is about.

I don’t have to agree with you to support your right to have your opinion and belief. I can think you are totally off base and have no idea of what reality is, but I will support your right to have your opinion.

I accept that we all have differing opinions and beliefs due to many factors and experiences in our lives, that doesn’t mean I agree you are right. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about you that I don’t agree with you. It doesn’t mean that I agree with you just because I care about you as a person.

My acceptance and support of your right to have your own set of values, beliefs, morals, etc., does not mean I agree with them. It means I accept you for you and for everything you are. I am not judging you based on any of those criteria, because I am not judging you.

It is not my right to tell you how to think or belief. I can share my beliefs as you do and hope that you understand them. I can even hope that you will accept them and me, but I can not make you. I do not force you to agree with me. If you do, that is ok. If you don’t, that too is ok.

As long as your beliefs and actions do not infringe on my rights to have my beliefs and act on them, we are good. When that happens, is when it is wrong.

People change their belief system all the time. Experience, growth, and learning increase our knowledge and give us more to draw from in our beliefs and opinions. This is normal. It may strengthen or weaken. You may put aside beliefs and adopt new ones or change current ones. This is the way we grow as people.

If one’s beliefs become another’s belief, it should be because the second believes in the change not from force. You can’t live on another’s belief and opinion, you have to find and develop your own. You have to let others do the same.

No one has the right to say your beliefs are more important or right than another. I am tired of people saying crucifying people for saying their beliefs just because it doesn’t agree with what they say…and if you say you accept and support someone’s right to believe a certain way, it does not mean you agree with them, but everyone seems to go that way.

You have to accept that not everyone is going to think like you while you accept their thoughts as theirs, not because you agree, but because they have the right to have those thoughts and hold to them.

/rantoff *stepping off the soapbox*