Looking for God

I used to like that old idea of looking into the faces of people going by and searching for the God in them, or at least the good in them. That is harder for me than it used to be.

I used to think people did many things out of ignorance and if they could just be given a chance they would become more enlightened, or at least not so stupid.

I don't believe that anymore.

There are people in my world who are ignorant by choice.  In fact, if pride is a sin they are also sinful because they seem to cherish their ignorance.  They are not naive. They are simply people who prefer to live without thinking, or even purposely avoiding learning about those things that might be inconvenient to know.

People repeat "truisms" and pass on hateful things they see on social media.  They boast about their ignorance as if it were a badge of honor.  And it is not harmless or cute.  I don't have a problem if great Aunt Mary wants to walk miles rather than use her cell phone, because she thinks it's gonna blow up her brain.  That's up to her.

The people who upset me are the ones who disrespect the president of the United States and think it's funny, or try to justify their racist and homophobic actions by declaring God told them so. And there are other people who try to pass their actions off as ignorance, when it is simply selfishness, or spinelessness on their part.  These people cause undue suffering in our world.

I try to look at these not so harmless people as "fools to be pitied," but it is hard.