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Accepting people for who they are. Every teenagers plea to their obliviously loving parents as they watch their sweet little child go from an 'A' student to a dark Goth wizard complete with dyed hair and black fingernails. Accepting people for who they are. A common theme in the New Testament. Love they neighbor as they self. Accepting people for who they are. Nice philosophy. Flawed follow through.

If we are to accept others for who they are, then why in the world are there so many psychiatric hospitals where the truly insane and deeply troubled individuals of the world are locked away from the rest of the lucid and accepting society? Sure they might think of themselves as a tall glass of orange juice that at any moment might tip over and spill out, but we need to accept these people for who they are(totally nuts). Is how we show our acceptance of our chemically imbalanced brethren is how well a straight jacket fits when you don't fidget?

We will certainly need to accept those in our society who are our habitual offenders of the law. It is who they are. You can't come from the streets, poverty, a world of drugs, violence, and death and expect to be well adjusted? Crime is their life. To ask them to take a low level, lower income job just for the sake of being a good citizen is to be unaccepting to who they are, especially when they can make more money in an hour than most will make in a year. How accepting are we of these people when we erect 6x6 rooms of concrete and iron bars to lock them away for being who they are?

But alas, there is hope. We have our friends who are quick to regurgitate up something thought to be profound out of the mouth of their dead but reborn savior. Those in the Christian world would have you believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the most accepting of all people(think about this though, what about Joseph? Guy gets his wife pregnant without even touching her, is talked into believing it is his and it is a gift from god, and that one day will save mankind then cheat death and rise again? You want to talk about accepting? Think about Joseph accepting Mary!). And for almost 3 millenia, Christians the world over, have been trying to spread his doctrines of peace, love, and acceptance of all peoples...unless of course you happen to be gay. Acceptance apparently avoids the homosexuals like Jerry Faldwell running from a Telly Tubby. Acceptance is for all...unless you happen to have two 'his' towels or 'hers' towels in your bathroom, then not only do we not accept you, we curse you to the eternal fires of hell. So much for acceptance.

What we should really say is how accepting we are of people who's quirks and tics are just that, a quirk or a tic. Something small is easy to deal with. Being a slob is much easier to accept for your girlfriend than, let's say, if you were a pedophile. The beauty of all of this is, we don't have to accept everyone. Who said we did? Why do I need to accept something or someone I don't believe in? Why is everyone looking for acceptance? If it is who you really are, then you don't need to be accepted for it, because it's encoded in your DNA. It's who you are and no matter how many people say they are "accepting" to you, it would not make a difference anyway. It's who you are.

The ones who publicly declare world wide acceptance of all are the hypocrites. The ones who are fighting for acceptance the most, the ones who see all the headlines and TV air, seem to have the least of it to spare(Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, George W. Bush, democrats and republicans). We need to end the hypocrisy of acceptance and just begin to look at ourselves, and accept who we are.

Learn more about this author, Jimmy Ettele.
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