"You Christians need to get over it." How many times have we as Christians heard those words? The "it" in that sentence refers to opinions on any hot topic; gay rights, abortion, and transgender bathroom laws are a few of the recent ones.
To be honest, every time I read an article with this declaration as its main premise, I want nothing more than to write a few nasty paragraphs in the comments section. It's my human nature coming out in full force. But, by the grace of God, I take a deep breath and move on.
You see, the people writing these articles attempt to illegitimize the opinions of thousands of Christians, but they actually do the exact opposite. Instead of exercising their right to have and declare their opinion, they waste their breath complaining about other people having and declaring a different opinion.
An article I read last week responded to all the Christians still against the legalization of gay marriage with the "get over it" approach. Basically, the author told Christians to get with the program, ditch our outdated beliefs, and jump on the 21st-century bandwagon.
To that author I say "no thanks." I would much rather stand firm on my opinions, based in my beliefs as a Christian, than capitulate to the type of narrow-minded, self-righteous leftist writers who are the most intolerant group of people to exist in recent history.
A word to the entire group of liberal writers, bloggers, and media elites who think attacking people's personal opinions is a good use of time and space: Get over yourselves. Stop pushing your religion of "self" and fallacious "tolerance" on me. After all, you're the ones demanding that I not even think about the beliefs I hold as a Christian.
People like the author of the aforementioned article are the people stewing in belief perseverance, stopping their ears and closing their eyes, afraid to hear even a whisper of a dissenting voice. Well, this is me forcing your ears unplugged and your eyes open.
I refuse to live in a society where any person is silenced because of their beliefs or opinions. Even my wholehearted disagreement with every single tenet of leftism does not stop me from reading what leftist, liberal writers have to say and respecting their right to say it.
Leftists, especially the millennials, need to learn maturity in handling opinions different and opposite to their own. I'm not asking for agreement, but I am asking for a listening ear and respectful attitude. Don't like what the other person has to say? Then argue your opinions using logical reasoning and techniques. Telling the other person to "get over it" will almost certainly cause you to look like a fool and a spoiled brat in front of the person you're supposedly debating. I would expect arguing fourth-graders to shout "shut up" to their opponents, not 20-somethings.
The one main idea that everyone reading this should take away is that telling people to "get over it" or "shut up" is not the proper way to handle a disagreement. Instead of pouting about other people's dissent toward your viewpoint, give them a solid debate and fight for your opinion. To warn you in advance, the other person almost certainly won't recant their position, but aren't you both better off for having listened and argued passionately for your respective opinions than arrogantly dismissing each other?
But, then again, I'm a millennial Christian conservative living in a country populated in the high majority by liberal millennials. So I'm just a hater, right?
