“It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere …”
I’m pretty sure nothing that Charles Schulz wrote for his beloved comic strip “Peanuts” has been as vilified as this statement Linus Van Pelt made about his love for the Great Pumpkin.
Of course it’s the fundamentalists who loathe it. They think Schulz is saying it’s all right to be something other than their type of Christian, or even God forbid, a non-believer.. And some have chosen to take it that way to justify their own non-conformity to the mean.
The actual comment wasn’t about religion at all. It was about believing in the Great Pumpkin instead of Santa Claus. There’s simply no way Schulz was telling people it was OK to believe in evil things — like child molestation, for instance — as long as your belief is sincere.
My guess is that there are millions of Americans who would gladly repeal the First Amendment, or at least parts of it. Freedom of religion is not something that has always been around. Remember that in 1290, King Edward I banished all Jews from England, and it wasn’t until 1656 that the ban was lifted.
I would guess that the so-called Evangelicals would probably be quite happy if all of a sudden they were the One True Religion, not just criminalizing Jews and Muslims but also Buddhists, liberal Protestants and Roman Catholics.
It certainly does matter what you believe, but the “thou shalt nots” of the Old Testament mean far less than the teachings of Christ, particularly when he said the two great commandments were to love God and love your neighbor.
And the greatest message of all.
God is love.
So yes, it certainly does matter what you believe, but one of the great strengths of the United States as a nation has been our tolerance of people whose beliefs are different from ours. That’s why Trump’s exaggerated nationalism and those troubled people who believe in white supremacy are so destructive to our country.
I was in my early 20s when all of a sudden Mexican food began showing up in Northern Virginia. My family — first in Ohio and then in Virginia — wasn’t exactly international in its tastes. Spaghetti with meat sauce was pretty much my only Italian dish, although around age 15 or 16 I came to really pizza was OK.
Except for egg rolls in New York, my first meal of Chinese food came when I was 26 and in Austria.
Now I’d say probably my favorite night out — pre-pandemic, at least — is to a good Mexican restaurant.
That’s why nationalism is so ridiculous.
If that’s one of your core beliefs, sorry, but you’re wrong.
Even if you are sincere.