Walk-Off

I don't normally watch "The View" I admire 2 of the co-hosts for sticking it out having multiple frustrating discussions with others who are not just unreasonably liberal, but unreasonable period. I don't hate liberal people. I'm fairly liberal on a few things in my life. I hate being put in a box that says "Republican" or "Conservative". Rather I'd like my thinking and such to be labeled "Biblical". Anyway, the reason I don't respect these other co-hosts is their refusal to contemplate that someone in their political party could possibly be wrong or that there are other ideas and beliefs out there that are in fact, not stupid and right. That faith is not a crutch, but a good thing. And no matter who I agree with, I hate watching usually just because it's such a hen fest of bickering and whining and women being not so Biblical in their ungraciousness and gossipness.
All this to say that I watched it this morning because Bill O'Reilly was scheduled to be on, and while I don't agree with everything Bill O'Reilly says, I really respect him for standing up for what he believes and making calls that a lot of people are too cowardly to make. Plus it's always great fun to see him vex a few of the co-hosts. :)

Today was no exception. You could tell from the one's face almost immediately, even just as they were announcing him, how ticked off she was that they even dared have him as a guest. It went downhill from there. The 2 co-hosts spent most of the time sitting in contempt and disagreeing with every syllable that came out of his mouth. Which is fine, if it's done in a polite and orderly manner. It wasn't. The culmination came when Bill made a fairly vague statement that just made these co-hosts irate and they walked off the stage. One didn't look like she had the guts until the other one did. I have to respect Barbara Walters a lot though. She doesn't always do a good job of hiding her political affiliation, although I believe she tries. But on this occasion, she called them out. She apologized and said they should be able to sit there and have a civil conversation discussing the issues no matter what, and be able to without ridding your hands of someone and leaving the stage. The co-hosts eventually came back, although still with much contempt. And I got to thinking about this.

Not only about how immature these women, one a grandmother, the other old enough to be, acted, but about Barbara's point. No matter the person, no matter their differing views, we need to be able to respect, and dare I say Love them with the love of Christ, enough to have a civil conversation with them. Now, there are always exceptions to this, such as when that person is acting unreasonably and histerical, for example. But then I took it personally. How often do I, when discussing a hard topic with my husband, just get disgusted or discouraged and give up? I may not literally walk away, but I close myself off because either it hurts to much, or it's too hard to make it work. We may not even be disagreeing, but perhaps the topic or issue itself is too hard to think about or make work. So I give up.

So my lesson? My husband is deserving of respect no matter what, and I should never just walk away from him or close off. I need to work on this.