Please: Don’t Respect My Beliefs
December 18, 2015 by Marc
Respect for other beliefs, tolerance of other religions,
acceptance of other cultures — these doctrines are usually sugar-sweet forms of
violence. This seems to me the only adequate explanation as to why
our age is simultaneously respectful and racist; liberal and segregated; proud
of diversity and incapable of actually enjoying diverse company outside of
mandatorily diverse institutions — a schizophrenic personality that imagines
itself open to the Other in all her differences while fearing, more than most
things, any actual contact with the Other.
When someone tells me that they respect my Catholicism and my
“right to believe what I want,” or that, while not agreeing with me, they
celebrate the diverse viewpoint my “cherished religious convictions” bring to
the community — this usually indicates that they have stripped, reduced, and
re-fashioned me into an image they can bear.
See, I came declaring myself a Believer in that obnoxious,
loudmouth pride unique to the Catholic laity. Now, were this a healthy planet,
the human with the misfortune of being in the way of my evangelical warpath
might respond: “I’m not Catholic. In fact, you Catholics are moronic, drunk
Pope-worshipers. Get the @#$ out of my pool.” This would be, officially
speaking, an insult. But I would be highly tempted to wrap the other up in a
big, fat Apostolic hug — his insult would meet me in my otherness. It would
take me as Catholic. It would negatively affirm the difference I claim
as my own.
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