[FRIAM] ready for a bonfire?

[glen ☣]

I'm struggling with being respectful to my neighbor, who voted for Trump.  He's a relatively moderate Fundamentalist Christian.  When he retired, we yapped over half-done yard work about how corporatism and shareholder-first mentality destroyed his work environment.  He's given me Christian books to try to help me at least emphathize with theists.  I gave him my copy of Jefferson's Bible, which is as good a declaration of Jesus' ideas any skeptic could hope for.  And when he started his post-retirement bus driving job for elementary school kids, we lamented the pervasiveness of misogyny, disrespect, and addiction to stimulus.

But now I'm super pissed at him for voting for that disgusting human Trump, for throwing us all under the bus just because his theism, ideology, perspective is fear- and hate-based.  He doesn't admit that his entire life is fear- and hate-based, of course.  But I successfully communicated it _once_ when he started complaining about the FFRF billboards that showed various ordinary people and said they were atheists.  The way he described what he thought atheism was, the words he used, were hateful words.  I stopped him, repeated his words, then replaced "atheist" with Christian and repeated them again.  His eyes opened wide and he looked at the ground and said .... "Well, I guess I didn't realize how I sounded.  I really don't feel that way about atheists."

But that was the only occasion.  Every other complaint he expresses is made with the righteous indignation that only comes from abject ignorance.

It has been very difficult for me to treat him with respect over the last 2.5 months.  I'm working on it.

On 01/19/2017 10:03 AM, Gillian Densmore wrote:
> What bothers me is why is it even a question about doing the right thing? oO Honor is honor and n my mind is their no question that by being respectul, friendly and helpful to your neighbores you will have alies for when YOU need someone. That's just basic. I suppose i'm odd like that.


-- 
☣ glen