I'm still in my cave, editing. I only went on Twitter to do my daily one-writer lift when I saw a tweet addressed to me, asking me to follow them back, which, by the way, I already was... This person felt the need to talk about their religion and how they had converted from Islam to Christianity as an introduction.
I found this tweet disturbing on so many levels.
Let's forget for a second how stupid it sounds for someone to say they used to be Muslim but are now Christian. It's simply ignorant because true Muslims already accept, respect, and follow Jesus Christ; they don't need to convert to Christianity. (Yes. I'm aware many people don't know this because they don't bother to educate themselves, and their ignorance is used by clever assholes in the world who benefit in some way from this ignorance.) This statement makes sense only to other ignorant people – and why would anyone want such followers (unless they are one of said clever assholes)?
That
fact set aside, please know your audience. If you're addressing me
personally, you should know the first thing about me: I don't care if
you're a man or a woman or undecided, if you're young or old, if
you're pretty or ugly on the outside, if you're poor or rich, if
you're Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, (...), or an atheist. I've traveled
enough and known enough people in my life to know that people are
either decent or dishonest, either educated – and I don't mean
holding a degree – or ignorant, either kind or inconsiderate,
regardless of their race, color, religion, social status, gender, and
age.
On Twitter, I follow everyone who has
the word writer or author in their profile. It doesn't
mean I agree with their views on life. It simply means this is a writing
community, and I don't care what people's favorite sex position, religion, color, race, or car model is. I follow
writers because I hope they have a story to share in their written
work, one that I might benefit from in the form of knowledge or
entertainment. I follow everyone until they prove they are dishonest,
ignorant, or inconsiderate. Then I block them – just to make sure I
don't follow them again by mistake.
I hope all writers learn to know, love, and respect themselves. Only then can they understand, love, and respect others enough to communicate a message to them through their written work.
