I'm assuming everyone has one (or a few); a family member or friend that constantly floods your inbox with email forwards. You love this person so you don't want to tell them to shove off but get so sick of the ill-informed, self-righteous hoopla that you debate deleting the account altogether.
Being that I was raised in a very rigid religious home, the majority of these emails I receive consist of temper tantrums over gay marriage or alleged edits to currency, the pledge of allegiance, and basic court room practices (all surrounding the use, or lack thereof, of the word "God"). It's the same people who complain about the dangers of Middle Eastern theocratic diplomacy, and yet somehow find it justified to call for theocracy here. This is supposed to be a nation of religious freedom, not religious exclusivity, and I legitimately have trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that another adult can't see how a Muslim American (or member of any other non-judeo-christian faith) would feel just as uncomfortable in a "Christian nation" as a Christian would in a Muslim one. How is it possible to reach adulthood without forming a basic level of human empathy?
Freedom does not mean everyone must support your beliefs, it means no one can impede your beliefs. - So you don't believe in gay marriage. Fine. No one can force you into one. Does that mean everyone else must abstain because you don't approve? No. You don't believe in contraception. Great. Don't use it. No one can make you. The second the government forces you into using birth control or starts rounding people up for mandatory sterilization, I'll jump right in and claim religious persecution, but until that happens please shut up (I said please?). No one has the right to control what you do in your personal, religious life. That's freedom. Or rather it's only freedom if everyone has it. So stop trying to control how other people live. How is it even humanly possible to not see the hypocrisy in this situation?!
