Okay, my previous post about faith was surprisingly well received, and I still had more to talk about, so today I thought I’d talk about what I briefly mentioned in “In Faith.” A thing I’m calling “Parrot talk.”

What’s funny about it is that not two days after that post, I was listening to two people talk politics and I ventured a remark, I was immediately blasted with a retort that I shouldn’t talk, for I was just saying what I’ve heard my parents say over the years.

Perhaps my reader might wonder if that is a legitimate claim. I have addressed it before in my posts. You see I’ve long had the general idea that people will think that because I’m homeschooled, Christian, Conservative, and under 18, I’ve been so immersed in my parents’ ideals that I believe there is no other way and no one else could ever be right.

Now, I figure I’m not the only one to receive this impression, otherwise this post would just be me bellyaching about one incident. But I’ll bet some of you have heard it too, maybe from an authority figure, maybe just from an older person who seems to believe all people two generations younger than them are ignorant idiots. At its best, this kind of thinking assumes that certain people raise their children to be prototypes of themselves, programmed and sent out into the world to get on other people’s nerves.

Maybe that is true, some people do that. But you can’t assume that everyone who thinks a certain way demands that their children follow in their footsteps.

I have a confession, I myself tend to assume public schoolers don’t think for themselves. There may be reasons to assume this, but I can’t know it’s true in every case, anymore than someone who doesn’t know me well can accurately say I don’t think for myself. (And you would have to not know me at all.)

You have to actually listen to people to know. There are ways people talk that will show you where they stand.

I think the best indicator of parrot talk is a lack of curiosity on the speaker’s part. They don’t wish to know anything about the other point of view; they have not studied the subject to see what else is out there, and to know what the foundation of their own viewpoint is; and they accept everything pertaining to their ideology without considering if it really makes sense  or is even a good thing.

At the root of this is insecurity. People who parrot talk are afraid of the world and they want to keep it in a box that they have labelled clearly  and understand.

I’m not afraid of the world. I am only afraid of what the world will do to itself and the innocent people in it. (By the world I mean the lost, and wicked ideas of the world’s inhabitants, not the world as in the earth.) But I believe that we can all choose not to be a part of the worldly thinking and behavior. It is, again, up to you.

I have studied the foundation of what I believe, if anyone asked me a question about it, I would feel confident that I could answer. And if I could not, I’d still not be shaken because I have enough foundation to know that there are answers, but there’s no way I could know them all, my mind can’t hold that much knowledge.

I do have doubts sometimes. But what no one ever tells you is that the doubts grow less and less, the further in you go, and when they do come they don’t last very long. I am not perfect in the practice of what I believe, and I don’t know anyone who is, no matter what beliefs they have.

But I do know what I believe, and why, and I think its worthwhile to find that out. And for those of you who have done that, don’t let anyone make you feel like a nothing because of your age, your position in life, or your family. You have a mind and you do have the right to come to your own conclusions, so long as you have done the work to earn it.

Because to believe is a right, but a belief with a firm foundation takes work. There will be tests in your life that you will pass or fail and they’ll prove what you really believe.

So, with that said, I have done.–Natasha

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