My Voice Heard

I was taught from a young age (3?) that this church is based on "personal revelation," the idea that God will speak to those who pray sincerely. He will give guidance, direction, comfort, and knowledge to those who ask, no discrimination regarding race, gender, age, socio-economic class, etc.

When I was a teen (longer ago than I care to admit), my church's youth Sunday school classes often told me and my fellow teenage girls that we were as entitled to direction from God as the boys were. We were daughters of God, and He would speak to us as easily as He would to His sons.

As an adult over the course of the last 20 years, my church's adult Sunday school course material frequently reminds us that we as women can pray for guidance from God... and get answers.

The upper echelons of my church's leadership regularly (every 6 months) reminds us that we (women) can and should seek direction from God.

I have a friend who told me once that my voice was as valid as anyone else's.

Four years ago, a thing happened. I thought it would change the social climate, making it more friendly for like-minded people to speak their minds.

I was wrong. And so were a lot of people.

The scary thing is that it's getting worse, a lot worse. The snowball is getting bigger and picking up speed at an exponential rate!

People are being cut off from their social media accounts. There are stories of people being questioned and threatened because of their political sentiments. Some are being told they could be fired... Or not hired in the first place because of some opinion they posted months or even years ago.

I've been judged, told I am not Christian, and accused of being hateful three times in the same number of days for speaking my mind, sharing my perspective.

How dare I have a thought that is different from the right-think. How dare I consider other factors. How dare I acknowledge that I entertained a different opinion or perspective. How dare I think outside the box. How dare I question the narrative, the authorities.

I'm so tired of being told I'm in the wrong to think, question, or speak- yup, repeatedly. I feel kind of insulted when I'm told that my answers to my prayers about my life are less valid than others' answers to their prayers about my life- and yes, that happened.

Are egos becoming so fragile that my words can break minds or shatter psyches? Are those on the left so desperate for confirmation that they can't even handle a dissenting opinion? Are snowflakes so mindless that they can't help but spout the unsupported rhetoric? Are the sycophant's so blinded by promises that they can't handle the "blasphemy" of historical evidence?

Damnitall, it's not 1984!

Live in my knees or die on my feet, I guess, right?

That's the choice many in the right side of the aisle are having to make. Secure our data- download pictures and contact info, backup the stories and memories. Maybe scrapbooking will make a comeback?

But geeze, why the freakout? Nobody flipped like this 4 months ago when riots were going on for WEEKS!!! Property was damaged, people died, federal buildings were vandalized. And it went on for months.

The left just wrung their hands, "Something needs to change..."

The right silently condemned the actions... Because it was disallowed to call those riots wrong, or even violent. "Mostly peaceful" was the term used by news reporters.

Now, the left is vilifying everyone on the right.

The right is condemning the action as evil. And everyone who dares to question the narrative is judged as wrong, hateful, and evil.

Again, thinking is not allowed.

F-them.