prejudice epitome of incomprehensibility This relates to last thing raze wrote on my_cousin_is_alive - it sucks to find out bad things about people you know. The retired prof I was doing research work/proofreading for almost two years ago now wrote an opinion letter for a magazine. I came across it and became unhappy, because I am tough like that. He was writing against gay people having leadership positions in the church. At first I thought, okay, yes, he grew up when people had different ideas. But then he said that when "homosexuals" join church leadership, they just want to take academic roles and not ministry ones. Then he hinted that he wouldn't really trust them around kids anyway. As young people say today: What. The. Actual. Fuck. Also, maybe prejudice B) influences situation A). Funny how that would be. Also also, why should I excuse people for being unfair just because they're old? Excuse them for being grumpier, more tired - physical realities? Of course. But not for being more unfair. Most likely I'm being unfair myself. What did the letter section of an obscure denominational Christian newsletter do to me? Who even reads it, anyway? ...It's just that I looked up his name so I could update my CV, and the first thing I found under his name was not the title of his new book (most of which I edited and some of which I helped write) but this letter. Grr. Yes, I know, huge thing to get annoyed over, but grr. 170106 ... warmthofrelease The dark and bitter foam that flows over the cup of tradition. It is not bigotry, not ignorance, not xenophobia. These are related topics under the same umbrella but not the same. Prejudice is a grudge. It is to take the shortcomings or the wrongdoings from one member of a group and assign it to another member of the same group without seeing or knowing anything else but the fact that they both supposedly belong in the same box. It is the principle of guilty until proven innocent. It has taken some time and it has taken the prioritization of logic over emotion but I feel that the person I am is free of prejudice. Perhaps this is the most dangerous mentality of all, to think ourselves pure is to mute all self improvement. But whether or not I can consistently practice what I preach, I do wholeheartedly believe that we must love and hate and see people as individuals. Not as members of a group. You know what they say about assumptions. You know what they say about judgment. These things can also apply to prejudice. The difference is that, unlike grudges or judgment or the consequences of assumption, we can carry prejudice indefinitely without ever realizing how cumbersome it really is. Until we see prejudice manifest in others. Then it becomes easy to see how one subjugates their own mind by carrying it. Thank god for the blind who have helped me to see. Thank god for the chained who have helped me to break free. 240924 what's it to you? who go blather from