So there is a program on Facebook called Pieces of Flair, which allows one to have a virtual note board to which one can attach button-shaped messages, much in the way some long-suffering waitperson of TGI McFunster's is required to as a condition of employment. Except that their flair is touting Bleu Ribbon Burgers and my flair is often very humorous, cheeky, or otherwise expresses a sentiment that I am in general agreement with.
For Example:
- Meat is Murder. Tasty, tasty murder.
- I trip over flat surfaces.
- Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
- Come to the dark side. We have cookies.
- Automatic doors make me feel like a JEDI.
- Somewhere in Texas a village lost its idiot.
Many pimp musicians, books, newspaper columns, radio or television programs:
- Reality has a well-known liberal bias. (The Colbert Report)
- Potter -- Weasley '08 (never mind the fact that they're fictional, they are BRITISH TEENAGERS. Both factors make it impossible for them run in an American presidential election. But I suppose I miss the point entirely by using my brain muscle even a little.)
- Curse your sudden but INEVITABLE betrayal. (Firefly)
- DTMFA. (Savage Love)
- There will be snacks. (Andrew Bird)
Many buttons are purely visual and would loose some of their humor or other effect if described. Personally, I like the slogan "adorkable" and prove it by featuring a button with Ira Glass's head. A couple on my own note board are a bit too rude to state here. The point, for me and the friends to whom I have roped into using Pieces of Flair, is to have a bit of fun with what we find in the searchable application. Fun, for me, would generally preclude religion, unless somehow lightly poking fun, but others clearly where their God on their sleeves:
- P.U.S.H. Pray Until Something Happens!
- If God had a Facebook, he'd be number one on my top friends!
- God is writing my love story.
- Don't tell god how big your storm is, tell your storm how big your god is.
If you go in for this kind of saccharine sentiment, more power to you. It gives me a little shudder at times, but usually there's something better, funnier, and more relevant to me right next to the creepy religious flair. Or there's Jonas Brothers flair or some admonition to a
Twilight character to use protection, proving to me if nothing else that I am Getting Old, but that's beside the point. Life goes on, 99.9% of the time.
This flair drove me a bit batty though:
Since when does freedom of speech mean telling Christians to be silent?
I don't know who created this bit of flair. Flair doesn't advertise who made it, how cool they are, how many pieces of flair they've ever made or how often it's been added to someone's note board. Thankfully. I don't care.
I do care about the individual who seems to completely misunderstand the concept of Freedom of Speech. Freedom speech means exactly the power to tell Christians to be silent. It means, if I wanted to, that I could also tell Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims, Hindus, Secular Humanists, Jewish folk, Zoroastrians, Republicans, Democrats, God-Hating Liberals, Gay-Hating Conservatives, Socialists, Communists, those who support any number of other political parties, The Liberal Media, Vegetarians, Vegans, Anarchists, Naturists, couch potatoes, gamers, and any other category of person, up to and including every color of the Christian variety pack...
All of You. I can tell you to SHUT THE HELL UP. As long as my speech is not hateful, consisting of libel or slander, encouraging violence against others, I can say it. I am allowed. That is Freedom of Speech. It's grand.
Guess what? You can do it, too. You can tell me to shut up. Your button is completely allowable, you are allowed to express any sort of religious opinion under the sun, though I think generally if you state something like "the Holocaust was God's punishment for Jews killing Jesus" that John McCain and pretty much any other normal, right-thinking human being will distance themselves from you faster than you can add another piece of your religious flair to that very Jesus-loving note board of yours.
To the rest of you, what I find most galling about this pin, though, is the fact that wherever this individual is busily making his or her God-loving flair, Christians aren't likely to be in the minority. This person isn't furiously typing from an underground and non-state-endorsed Christian church in China, s/he isn't blogging from Darfur, Myanmar, or any other country which attacks people for their religious views. They're some adolescent or twenty-something from America, Canada, western Europe, where computers and internet access are readily available and Christians are in the vast majority.
So everyone, don't play the minority when you are not. Don't act like you're somehow repressed or being shouted down or underrepresented. You live in a god-fearing Christian nation with your silly toys and the ability to walk down the street uncovered, uncriticized and not shot at. You have the freedom to say what you want, but don't act like you're being repressed when you're not. It's sickening.
If you are, on the other hand, a minority, I hope you scream your head off. You have every ounce of right that the Christian majority does, plus reality on your side.
