Title. Interested to see the response from different religions
Edit: Stating your religion would be appreciated. Lack of religion counts for the purpose of this question. Also let’s not downvote people for differing religions, all voices are welcome here. If no; why?
Anti-religious atheist here.
You know what…years ago I would have said “no”. Imo, often fundamentalist religious people have views that actively harm society through systemic actions. So it’s not something I am able to generally sit well with.
However, years back I met someone irl (not online) with absolutely polar opposite political and religious views as me. I am an atheist who actually opposes the concept of religion in general and I am very liberal. This person I know is very Catholic and conservative. They are a hardcore Trumper and I have always seen him as a dangerous threat to the US.
Yet…
Over the years, this person has legitimately become my absolute best friend. They are the kindest, funniest, most wonderful person I know. I absolutely love spending time with them. We just don’t debate our polar opposite viewpoints. We still share and talk about deep, personal things…but we don’t instigate political debates or anything like that. I take their views as someone who has been brainwashed by society, and I’m sure they feel the same about me. But it means that I don’t see them as evil for their views and am able to easily look past that.
I don’t know what the fuck I would do in life if I ever lost them. Sometimes they are the reason why I look forward to the rest of my day.
We are not romantically involved or anything. They have a partner and a family, and I wouldn’t be interested with doing that with this person anyway.
But the point is, it taught me that I can have a very deep, personal connection with someone with polar opposite views. Ideally, I would like for a partner to share my views. But life has shown me that it is possible to be opposite like that and still really deeply care for and enjoy someone.
How do you reconcile their views on deportation, human trafficking, LGBT stuff, etc etc etc etc etc with you finding them to be a “wonderful” person? Personally anyone who believes in what Trump is doing is by definition a monster and any niceties they may show other people is either psychopathy or because you happen to be the right color. It’s like the standard bad date test; if they’re a shitheel to their server, they’ll eventually be a shitheel to you too.
I remember bringing up some LGBT stuff to them before. I told them that I initially started questioning religion because it was upsetting to me that my sibling would be sent to hell simply for being gay. Interestingly, they seem to not believe the anti-gay rhetoric of their religion, which is a relief. Trans issues are another matter which does frustrate me a bit…they seem accepting of some trans people in general but have some unfortunate other views on the matter. It is difficult sometimes to reconcile stuff like this though, I agree.
No idea what they think on deportation, but why do you bring up human trafficking? Human trafficking is pretty universally seen by everyone as a bad thing, even Trumpers.
People are individuals and while most of them might lean a certain way, they often have some views that don’t fit the stereotypical mold of their demographic if that makes sense. I found out that my friend was vehemetly against bombing Iran despite being a Trumper.
As another example that is likely to yield me downvotes, I would consider myself an incredibly liberal person. And I do sympathize with someone like Luigi. But I am very opposed to weirdly celebrating what he did like most of the internet seems to do. Compassion and understanding? Hell yeah. Celebrating shooting people? Not so much. I never talk about this with others because I know how unpopular of an opinion it is on the internet. But I brought it up to my Trumper friend and she feels the exact same way.
We are all individuals with our own views and you’re not necessarily going to stumble across the “perfect match” with anything. Part of human relationships is learning who you can and can’t get along with and working through the points that don’t mesh as well. I don’t know what I’m babbling on about really.