Approval

This morning my wife and I were talking about something and she asked why someone would do something and I said “approval”.

It sounds like a simple issue, but, it isn't really. It is an extremely complex issue that deals with bigotry and stereotypes.

I can argue against homosexuality from dozens of different viewpoints and I can argue for homosexuality from only a single viewpoint. God invented choice. God did not force everyone to adopt God's rules, God invented choice and he gave everyone the ability to choose.

In Judaism one of the 615 Mizvot is to kill homosexuals. Christ's crucifixion finished the original or Old Testament and started the New Testament. Christ reduced the number of rules people had to live by because people were twisting the God's rules to suit themselves. Even today people insist on obeying some of the 615 Mizvot without obeying all of them. Even Jews do not obey the Mizvot, the Temple is destroyed and many of the commandments of the Mizvot require the Temple. Do the Jewish people have a responsibility to rebuild the Temple to obey the Mizvot?

I have friends who are gay. I have news for anyone who does not like the fact that I make friends with people who do things I don't approve of. I guarantee that everyone in the world does things I don't approve of. I guarantee that I have done, am doing and will do something that people will not approve of.

That is a big deal in a democracy where the media insists that the “majority approve”, or at least their version of the “majority” approve.

Often people from the United States go places and dis-approve of local customs. This is the “Ugly American” complex that has encouraged hatred and terrorism.

I believe this ridiculous idea that the individual citizen of the States has that their approval is important has been created by democracy and entertainment.

Politicians in a democracy work hard to establish a “majority approval” just as entertainment does looking for the high Nielsen ratings. I believe this creates a disproportionate belief about individual approval.

On top of that the United States uses guns to enforce their approval. If people do things they don't approve of the United States threatens violence and offers to pay people to behave in a way that people in the United States approves of.

Pretty sick stuff.

I find that a lot of people get really angry with me because I have ideas that they don't approve of. “God is pro-choice, God invented choice” for example. “Homosexuality is against God's rules”. Ideas like that piss off the far left bigots and the far right bigots equally. I read books that piss of bigots of all religions, political persuasion and ideologies. Often these bigots hate me because I am not seeking out their approval and more than anything this pisses them off.

I feel sorry for Oprah Winfrey. Oprah built her career around being approved of. Look at what happened with her book club. She started a book club recommending books and encouraging reading. A bunch of people who felt their approval was important dis-approved and ridiculed the Oprah Winfrey Book Club and everything she was doing with it. Oprah shut down the book club and then started it back up again, a politically wishy-washy thing to do based on seeking approval.

I'm never going to be a nationally syndicated columnist because I don't seek approval. I used to think things like that were important. Now I could care less. I find that the people who hang out with me these days are people who don't expect me to approve of their lives and don't care if I dis-approve of some of their choices.

I am not interested in people trying to enforce their influence on my life. I'm not interested in people who take their own approval so seriously that they can't take a sarcastic response when their ideas or comments are ridiculous.

I think people who base their self image on “being right” are seeking approval, especially when they react badly when you disagree with them.

Everyone makes ridiculous comments. Everyone has untenable positions. People who think they are “one-upping” someone by proving a position incorrect are idiots. People who freak out when their positions is successfully challenged are idiots.

No one is going to convince me that God approves of homosexuality. No one is going to convince me that I have to approve of everything any one I call a friend does or believes. No friend of mine is going to insist that I approve of their every choice or that they approve of every choice I make.

Just like Christ, I don't insist that anyone adopt my ideas, even when they are obviously correct and I can prove them mathematically. Believe me I have had engineering and manufacturing ideas that people have called crazy that I have proved mathematically and people have rejected.

It's obvious to me that God created choice and intended for people to make their own choices. I don't tell people they are full of crap when they reject something so obvious. I don't tell people they are stupid, I don't have to. It's obvious that I think they are stupid when they reject simple, logic truisms.

Anyone looking for me to differ to their “superiority” in anything is an idiot. Anyone looking at me to be “superior” is an idiot.

The big difference is I don't expect anyone to care if I think they are stupid. I know my approval is not necessary for their lives and I know their approval is not necessary for my life.

I also realize that there are people who based their entire lives on the idea that people have to approve of each other. That is crap. I believe that people have to love each other. Love has to transcend approval.

In the United States approval transcends love.

I can love people I think are stupid. I can love people I think are doing stupid things. I can love people who believe things I think are stupid.

I don't need to approve of everything or anything someone does to love them. I don't need to think anything someone does is “smart” to love them. I don't need to agree with anyone to love them.

If someone is looking at me to “prove” I love them they will be disappointed. I don't expect anyone to prove that I love them and I don't expect to have anyone prove they love me.

When people quit expecting their approval to matter to anyone else this world will be a much better place.