{"id":1895,"date":"2025-01-22T18:58:04","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T00:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youmightberight\/?p=1895"},"modified":"2025-01-22T18:58:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T00:58:04","slug":"anger-othering-politics-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/youmightberight\/2025\/01\/anger-othering-politics-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Anger and Othering in Politics and Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We develop insight when we deconstruct, since we know how we used to think and how we now think. We can either use that insight to fan the flames or to fight the fire. I want to be a firefighter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"We
We can become angry when we deconstruct our beliefs. Image from StockCake\/AI generated, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sometimes, people ask me, \u201cWhat are you, anyway? Are you an atheist, a Buddhist<\/a>, a Christian?\u201d Usually, I say something like, \u201cI don\u2019t know. Do I have to BE something?\u201d It\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n

Of course, this happens in politics, too. \u201cAre you a Democrat, a Republican, a conservative, a liberal?\u201d Again, \u201cDo I have to BE something?\u201d It\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n

I am NOT being coy. After all, I wrote a book, and I write this column. Anyone who wants to know how I see the world can easily find out. At the same time, if someone asks me if I am an atheist (for instance), they might need to tell me what they mean by that term. I wrote about the limitation of words here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition, if someone asks me if I am an atheist (for instance), I might wonder why they want to know. When people ask us to describe ourselves, they are often looking for ways to exclude<\/em> us, rather than to include<\/em> us. \u201cAre you one of us or one of them?\u201d I am NOT interested in us<\/em> and them<\/em>. I am only interested in all of us<\/em>. I wrote about othering here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre You Still Angry?\u201d<\/h2>\n

We develop insight when we deconstruct. In The Way<\/em>, I suggested that we can become angry when we deconstruct and reconstruct our beliefs:<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I began to see that some of my beliefs were not supportable, I became angry with those who presented these beliefs to me as facts, without doing the homework to know if they were supportable or not and without presenting any caveats or contexts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became angry with my Christian family members and friends, who tried to evangelize me without realizing that I had done the homework, that they had not, and that I likely knew more than they did about the traditions that they were promoting.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, I became angry that many contemporary Christian beliefs had strayed far from the words and works of Jesus. In doing so, many Christian churches had been unkind to divorced people, LGBTQ people, and non-Christian people, to name a few. And they had done it in the name of religion. Sadly, I had, too, for much of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, once I had reconstructed my beliefs, I became angry with my Christian family members and friends who marginalized me or othered me, simply because we no longer held the same beliefs. Often, when we deconstruct our religious beliefs, we deconstruct our political beliefs, too. This can cause further conflicts with family members and friends.<\/p>\n

So I meet a lot of people who are deconstructing their religious beliefs. I will often ask them \u201cAre you still angry?\u201d No one ever responds, \u201cNo, why would I be angry?!?\u201d Instead, they either say, \u201cYes, I\u2019m still angry, and I might always be angry.\u201d Or (like me) they might say, \u201cNo, I was angry, but I\u2019m not angry anymore. At least, I try not to be angry anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Us Is the New Them<\/h2>\n

My friend, Glenn Siepert, host of the What If Project podcast, recently wrote about \u201cus and them,\u201d as someone who has deconstructed their religious beliefs and their political beliefs here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I stood on the RIGHT<\/strong>\u00a0as a staunch\u00a0Republican-Voting-Fundamentalist-Evangelical<\/strong>, I was mad at the world because the Devil was in everything that wasn\u2019t of God\u2026But then I started to \u201cdeconstruct\u201d<\/em> and rethink my faith, my spirituality, my life and I moved over to the LEFT<\/strong> where I became more of a Democrat-ish-Voting-Fundamentalist-Progressive. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, still Fundamentalist. Why? Because (although I didn\u2019t see it then), even though I moved from the Right to the Left, it was still my way or the highway\u2026. <\/strong>I was angry while on the Right.\u00a0 I was (still) angry while on the Left\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I\u2019m] hopeful, hopeful that there is another way, hopeful that I don\u2019t need to stand on one side or the other, hopeful that I can bring about real, lasting change without being angry, without being judgmental, without shaming and yelling and ridiculing people who think differently than me, without creating and then demonizing \u201cthe other.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s that look like? Beats me. I\u2019m out to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

We develop insight when we deconstruct, since we know how we used to think and how we now think. We can either use that insight to fan the flames or to fight the fire. I want to be a firefighter. Like Glenn, I don\u2019t want to be angry, I\u2019m not sure what that looks like, and I\u2019m out to learn.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you want to keep up with the latest from You Might Be Right, please\u00a0subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Way<\/a><\/em>\u00a0received a 2024 Nautilus Book Award.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this article, please leave a comment at the bottom of this page.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks for reading You Might Be Right!!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We develop insight when we deconstruct, since we know how we used to think and how we now think. We can either use that insight to fan the flames or to fight the fire. I want to be a firefighter. \u00a0 \u00a0 Sometimes, people ask me, \u201cWhat are you, anyway? Are you an atheist, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5496,"featured_media":1907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[575,572,578,581],"class_list":["post-1895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-angry","tag-glenn-siepert","tag-labels","tag-othering"],"yoast_head":"\nWe develop insight when we deconstruct.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We know how we used to think and how we now think. 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