Damn, Matt, I love your spicy brains. Keith O pointed out that they have more to fear from us, than us from them. There's this recurring theme where when a certain segment of the US white Christian population* encounters anything out of their experience, they experience it as having that thing "shoved in their face." I don't they are self-aware enough to realize that racial, cultural, religious, and sexual minorities have the dominant culture shoved in their face every damn day, and they are (in some cases literally) dying for safe spaces and a little leeway to express themselves and be who they are.
Speaking of spicy brains.....wow, those are some powerful words.
I don't think that one has to live in another country to get it; the experience of otherness is (IMHO, YMMV) key to a wider perspective.
cereal:
Congrats SJ! So excited you guys have picked out where you want to be married!
Got up too early to go to the LA OMV to get Tom's LA license. Gronk.
And that note is a little...dirty.
Oh, billytea, how terrible for WallyBee's family. Much ~ma to them.
Nice one, Daisy.
My heart goes out to Wallybee and that whole family.
~ma to Wallybee's family, billytea.
I'm sorry about WallyBee's close friends, bt.
I think also there is a segment of Christians (from my church experiences) that thrive on the perception of persecution; that they need to fight against a hostile culture for their beliefs just like early Christians in the New Testament. I think this can magnify issues like the mosque and gay marriage, etc... It reminds me of Mike Huckabee during his presidential run saying that there were "Plenty of choices for candidates who don't believe in God". A sense of being an oppressed minority.
