The entire world has become a battle. No one is exempt, everyone must take a side. If you don't actively take a stance you are assigned to one, or assumed to support one or the other. Any stance you do take immediately assigns you to five other labels related.
Allow me to give a few hypothetical examples:
Gertrude stays politically neutral on social media, but frequently posts pictures of her six-month baby. She expresses her gratitude for her child and is one of those over-happy Instagram mommies. Gertrude's friend, Penelope, assumes that Gertrude doesn't care about women's rights because she is obviously pro-life, or anti-choice. She is so happy about her baby she can't possibly support abortion.
Charlie's friend Fred came out as gay on social media. He "liked" the post, and immediately was attacked by a conservative friend. He was asked if he was also gay, and if he had evaluated his morals lately.
Bob is white. Bob posts a #bluelivesmatter on his Facebook to support the policemen in his area. Immediately he is attacked, called a racist and a hater. Because he supports police, he cannot support black people. He must be a white supremacist or a secret KKK supporter.
These may seem extreme, but it's a real thing happening today. The media has made everything divided, a definite line in the middle of every single debate, and that has made it so all of us assign labels to different opinions, whether we mean to or not.
One of the biggest enhancers of these divisions comes in the form of political correctness. Dallin H. Oaks in his talk "No Other Gods" from October 2013's General Conference, calls political correctness a modern form of "idol worship", or putting something before God. Not that we should be rude or insulting to those around us--Jesus commanded us to "love one another" without any stipulations. However, denying the existence of sin in an effort to make everybody happy is putting our comfort before God and His commandments.
Please enjoy this comedic sketch about the perils of political correctness. (It is a joke, I promise.)
I know this sketch is humorous and, again, an example taken to the utmost extreme, but it serves a point: When does the un-defining of terms stop? Anymore, "man" and "woman" are very ambiguous terms. And yet, that does not stop the battle. Instead of a battle between men and women it has become a battle between supporting transgenderism and maintaining the integrity of birth gender.
The most puzzling thing to me is that while "man" and "woman" are quickly becoming meaningless words, "black" and "white" are becoming increasingly emphasized. While gender doesn't matter, black lives do, but not "all lives matter", because that's offensive. Black lives do matter, but is it wrong for me to say my son's life doesn't because he will be white? (If you've met me and my husband, we'll be lucky if he tans at all and doesn't glow in the dark, we both come from such good Irish stock.) It's not his fault both his parents are paler than pale, and yet if I say his white life matters I'm a bigot, a racist, putting down the lives of black people.
Let me make something clear: I have opinions. I do. I love and respect policemen, though that does not mean I want them killing black people. I don't want anyone killing any people. I support marriage between a man and a woman, and I have my issues with open-gender bathrooms. However, that doesn't mean I think transgender people are bad people, or that people in homosexual relationships are evil. I just know what I believe is true and how I want my son's world to be.
I believe that God has decreed certain things and that going against those commandments is a sin. However, no one is perfect. I cannot condemn the transgender community because God loves them just as much as He loves me, and I have just as many sins to overcome as they do. We all do, they are just different sins. Our repentance and obedience is between us and God. I will do what I believe is right--and that includes loving everyone.
God is the judge. We are not. We are entitled to our beliefs, morals, and opinions, but not to shame or judge others for theirs. Someone who supports Trump is not entitled to call a Clinton supporter an idiot, and vice versa. There are lines in the sand on every conceivable issue, but that doesn't mean everyone on the other side of the line is evil or stupid or bigoted or even ignorant. Showing love toward everyone doesn't mean folding over and not standing up for what we believe, but it also doesn't mean shouting down everyone else's opinions.
When we remember that we are all brothers and sisters, children of a loving and perfect Heavenly Father who sees us all as children, struggling to learn and obey and grow, maybe then we will be more loving, more charitable, and more forgiving. That is what the world needs more of today: charity and forgiveness. Let's start that today, and maybe the defining lines in the world's battles will become a little less important than loving others.
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