Your Opinion Doesn’t Matter, How You Treat People Does

Okay so here’s the deal. Your opinion, whatever it may be, is great to have. Our opinions and ability and right to express it are part of what makes this country such a great place. We are allowed to openly express what we believe and think.

Here’s the catch though.

Where you stand on an issue, no matter how passionate you are about it, it doesn’t really matter.

Does it matter how incredibly revolted you are that ESPN showed coverage of two men who are in an open, committed relationship with each other kiss on national TV? I mean, to you, your opinion matters a whole lot. But to the world and the way it works, it doesn’t really.

The things that actually matter are how you treat people when expressing that opinion. I guarantee you that if you and I were to sit down and have a conversation, and you expressed your opinion, regardless if I agreed with it or not, but expressed it in a kind, intelligent, and respectful way, I would love to learn about what you have to say. However, if you’re incapable of expressing your opinion without being rude, vulgar, hurtful, slanderous, racist, homophobic, cruel, or loud then the only thing I’m going to walk away thinking about was the awful way in which you expressed your point of view, not your actual point.

Another thing that I’ve actually read in a different article, but stuck with me is that your opinion on things such as gay rights and homosexuality does not matter because people, human beings, are DYING. There are teenage kids killing themselves on the weekends because they’re sick of being called faggot everyday at school because you’ve raised your child to be intolerant to those different than them. Just to expand on the author’s point in that article; kids are dying. People, human beings, daughters, mothers, sons, brothers, sisters, fathers, PEOPLE are DYING. Because of what? Because we as a culture are cruel and intolerant when expressing our opinion? Because we cannot take our stand for what we personally believe is and is not right in a mature, kind, and respectful way?

Honestly, I don’t care if you are a supporter of same-sex marriage or not. If you are, and for example, decide to mock and degrade all Christians, or the church, or the bible, or God himself to make your point about why two men should be allowed to marry, you are not helping people who don’t agree with you see your point any better.

On the other end, if you are, for example, some president of a private Christian school PTA board who is openly protesting gay marriage with signs like “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” and your children grow up referring to homosexual men as faggots more often than as men, or HUMANS, then you are not helping your cause either.

Your opinion, whatever it is, matters to you. It may matter to your family, to your peers, to the groups your in. If you’re Obama it may matter to a large majority of the country. But to humans as a race? It doesn’t matter. The way you present your opinion matters a whole lot more than the opinion itself. Do you think so many people would have an issue with the church if they or someone they love weren’t personally burned at some point for being who they are?

Whether you believe homosexuality is a choice or not, whether you believe that Jesus is real or not, whether you believe that Tupac is really actually dead or not, that’s great to have your own individual opinion. But do NOT tear down your fellow humans, the other people on this earth with your opinion. We’re all different, but we are all the same, and it is so, so beautiful. We all bleed red, yet none of us have the same fingerprint. We all need Oxygen to survive; yet no two people think and feel and process things in the same way.

Love each other guys. Whether you love people because it’s what the God you follow has asked you to do, or you love people because people need love, or you love people because you just want to love people, do it, and do it well.

Don’t raise your children to call the gay boy named Peter a faggot at school. Raise your children to call Peter, the boy who happens to be gay, a friend. If we want this world to change, and to become tolerant, it starts with us. The Y generation. The generation of selfies and Pinterest and Instagram and everything else. It starts with us. Raise our children to see people for who they are as a person, not just see a part of them. Looking at someone and seeing only their sexuality is like looking at a beautiful, timeless masterpiece like Starry Night, and seeing just the corner of it. Without that corner, the Starry Night would be missing something, just like us without our sexuality. It wouldn’t be the Starry Night. However, that corner isn’t everything. It isn’t the whole painting, there is so much more beauty and value left in that masterpiece. We just need to open our eyes and see it.