I have been feeling suppressed lately with all the recent events happening around the world (and I’m not just talking about Donald Trump). I am suppressed and suffocated by the society that I live in to perform these duties: be as progressive as I can be, be all-accepting, understand everyone, embrace every religion, understand that there are several ways to get to Heaven, or maybe none at all, find an excuse for every sick and crazy man who commits a crime, find him or her a context for the poor decision they made. I am also suppressed and suffocated by the society that I live in to: love every Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu and accept all their dogmas, next, allow all the refugees to enter my country, support gay marriage, keep my opinions to myself (because you have to accept everyone’s opinion), support equality between men and women, fight along with the current feminist, understand that black lives matter, and finally, understand that Asian lives matter. I am dragged into all this mess of life's concepts that we’ve all embraced, as humanity. Just as my college’s motto states (which ironically or not, is a Bible verse) "God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth” Acts 17:26. I have to accept it, despite my own ideas.

People, I am here to state, against the current, that I don’t have to accept all of your opinions. As a person devoted to my Bible and my God, I believe, and strongly agree that Jesus called me to love every human being around me. I am no better than any of you, in any aspect. However, I do not have to accept all of your beliefs, no matter the subject. As harsh and shocking as it might sound, I am sorry Muslim people, I do not have to agree with your dogma. I am sorry gay people, I do not have to accept homosexuality as my norm. I am sorry Christian people, I don’t have to accept any of your false teachings, or to cherry pick the Bible. I am sorry Republicans, I don’t have to love your candidate(s), who wants to kick me out of the country that allows me to pursue the education I want. I am sorry Democrats, for not accepting the democratic socialist concepts that your candidates erect. I am sorry people of my own country, for not accepting to shut up in front of the Government. And the list goes on.

Any of the previous sentences doesn’t make me a bad Christian, or a bad person. They don't make me racist, sexist, conservative, too religious, or simply narrow-minded. It makes me human. A human who deserves not to be labeled with any of those tags, just because I do not agree with another person. It’s such a mainstream thing to know that we are free people. Why am I free? Because I can walk into a shop, capable of buying any kind of fruits, unlike my grandparents who lived during a communist regime and couldn’t do so? Or am I rather starting to be less and less free? With each passing day, I run the risk of a bullet in my head for daring to say, for instance, that I’m a Christian?

I want to be able to tolerate the people around me, without having anyone condemning me for it. In fact, I wish all people could understand the difference between these two strong words. Now is the time to stop attaching a negative connotation to the word tolerance. I believe that if we live in this era, that is becoming more open-minded, very eager to engage in new experiences of all sorts, and eager to spread love and peace around the globe, we should understand the power of words. Acceptance cannot be fully present in my everyday encounters with people simply because we are built to be so different and so unique. We were built to have so many different opinions which is the beauty of having such a complex mind, which can create so many complex thoughts.

I do accept you, but maybe not always. And when I do not agree with you, I tolerate you. And that’s perfectly OK because, I love you. And I believe, that as a Christian, I was called to love people no matter your concepts, life principles, or beliefs. In fact, I believe that all people were called to love each other. However, that is so different than what this society portrays as love. Somehow, society manages to put the equal sign between love and acceptance.

You are free to disagree with a fact, act, or belief. And you are more than free to love a person. You're even free to hate this article, and THAT'S OK. My Jesus loves all humans and that enables me to disapprove with some people, but at the same time compels me to love them. If there is one universal truth, that we’re all tied to, that is sacrificial love is all that matters. In addition, if there is another universal truth we all accept is that we’re all human beings. And that is all that matters.

So tonight, I’ll go to bed praying for the entire humanity. Praying for everyone (including Trump), not just for France or the Middle-East… Because I am called to love the people around me.