By Lorne Snyder
I recently learned that St. Patrick wasn’t a short green man who ran around pinching people and drinking beer! It turns out he was a British man taken captive by Irish raiders at the age of 16, spent 6 years in captivity as a shepherd, and became a devout Christian. He then escaped back to England where he spent the next 15 years in religious studies, only to return to Ireland with a mission. He spent the rest of his life ministering to Christians in Ireland and converting unbelievers. He was especially known for incorporating Irish traditions and culture into his lessons in order to relate to the Irish people.
I thought to myself: how could I have been so wrong about a person that actually did a lot of good for society?
I think it’s easy to listen to what society tells us about a certain topic or behavior and become trapped by the lies. Lies such as:
· If you don’t support same-sex marriage, you are a bigot.
· A woman can do whatever she wishes to her body, even if it destroys another human’s life.
· We must push aside our religious convictions and do things we believe are morally wrong all for the sake of “tolerance.”
I am so thankful for people that have the faith and courage to stand up against such attacks from society and our government. People like Elaine Huguenin and her husband who own and operate their own photography business called Elane Photography. They felt they could not photograph a same-sex ceremony because if was against their sincerely held religious beliefs, and politely declined a request to photograph and “celebrate” a same-sex commitment ceremony. In response, the homosexual couple sued them. The Huguenins have been under attack for seven years now, and the case has gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It would have been so easy for Elaine to compromise and ask for forgiveness later. She would have avoided a lot of conflict and stress in her life, but she refused to believe that she should sacrifice her convictions to pacify the culture around her.
Recently, Arizona tried to pass SB1062, which had been characterized as a discrimination bill that would allow anyone to treat homosexuals with less than human respect. I would have been tempted to believe what the media said, after all, no one should be treated disrespectfully because of the person they love. But in reality, the bill was to protect people like Elaine from the being forced by the government to go against her convictions.
The situation that the media said would happen if SB1062 passed of homosexual people being “denied service at the lunch counter” was completely based on fiction. It’s never happened. But there are many cases of religious people being forced by the government to do something against their beliefs, people like this Muslim barber, this florist, and this cake baker, to name a few.
Finding out the truth about St. Patrick made me realize how important it is to get the facts. The same applies to current events and news. Let’s take the time to go to the source, whether that means reading the actual bill, or reading an opposing blog post, and draw our own conclusions.
Question: How do you form your opinions on current events? Share with us in the comments below.