Last night's speech, and other topics

I did not watch last night's speech by President Trump about the wall. 

I honestly don't know what to think about the wall, or about anything, because I am afraid of losing friends on either side of the aisle. 

I am afraid of being shamed for what I think, and unfortunately, there are people powerful enough to shame and silence others. 

I run conservative in my politics, and I feel like I am committing a sin by doing so.  I'm not "woke", and I'm not a social justice warrior, and I feel like those opinions are the only ones that count.  Anything that leans even a little bit to the right, politically, is to be silenced. 

I am afraid of losing my friends on either side of the aisle for what I believe.  I am afraid of being thought of as racist or bigoted, even by other Christians.  If I say "a", everyone else will say "b, c, d, e . . ." and I'm left with just saying, "Uh-uh-uh-uh . . ."

My little "squeak" gets drowned out by the screams of those around me.

I've said to my son that the only people who should have sex with each other are a man and a woman who are married to each other.  Am I wrong?  Because people use the Bible to teach that yes, only a man and woman who are married to each other should have sex with each other . . .and people also use the Bible to teach that a loving, same-sex relationship is okay. 

People use the Bible to teach that a woman shouldn't preach . . . and people use the Bible to teach that it's okay for a woman to preach.

People use the Bible to teach that you must be baptized in order to be saved . . . and people use the Bible to teach that you just have to "accept Jesus as your personal savior."

And then there are all the back and forths about the original Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic, the original audience, the context of the verses, the culture of the times . . . and I'm left feeling that I can't understand the Bible without a degree in theology and fluency in Biblical languages.

Then I'm told, "just love everyone and let God sort it out".  But sometimes, "love" is defined as "overlook my sin" or "don't tell me that what I am doing is wrong".  When you tell someone that they are doing something wrong, that's "judging", and we are not to judge (Matthew 7:1, yet another example of people using the Bible to "prove" that they are correct). 

I am supposed to "welcome the alien" because of the verses in the Old Testament that talk about "welcome the alien among you because you were aliens in Egypt" (my paraphrase.)  When we talk about deporting people here illegally, those verses are used to "prove" that the people who want to deport people here illegally are "hateful".  (I'm not going to tackle the topic here of children brought here by parents who came here illegally.  Because right now, I don't have an answer.) 

I am supposed to ALWAYS, without question, believe people who claim they have been assaulted.  If I say anything like, "I'd like to withhold my judgment until more facts come out," I will be accused of not believing victims.

The only women who are real women are those who are in the STEM professions or who are CEO's or high-powered lawyers or politicians.  Real women break glass ceilings and smash the patriarchy.  Real women don't get married or have kids because that's depending on a man for your worth and value, and by all means, you don't need a man for your worth and value!  If you want to have kids, okay, we'll let you have kids, but you'd better be back at that desk within six weeks.  Real women don't work in "traditionally female" occupations, like teacher, librarian, court reporter, secretary, waitress, because that's buying into the "traditional stereotype" of a female, and by all means, you do not want to do that, do you?  </sarcasm font>

In fact, if you as a woman have to get married, it's your husband that should stay home and take care of the kids while you go out and earn the living.

And above all, real women are STRONG.

I don't fit.  I don't fit any of this.  I'm not "woke", I'm not a social justice warrior, I haven't smashed a glass ceiling in my life and I'm not actively campaigning against the patriarchy.  But my voice squeaks in comparison to the gatekeepers of society and social media, and they have decided that people like me are to be shamed into silence. 

And frankly, I do not know what to do about it.  The fight just seems hopeless.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation