I believe wholeheartedly in the freedom of speech and expression. I believe that people should be allowed to share any opinions or beliefs they hold, so long as they don’t cause harm or disrespect to others.

Most Americans, I assume, would also agree. Most Americans, however, struggle when people of a different mindset voice their opinions.

As soon as someone says something contrary to our own beliefs, our defenses go up. In that moment, we choose to either ignore their stance or offer a contrasting opinion. Neither is right or wrong in itself, but in how we carry out our choice to ignore or fight. We can brush the comment off, forget about it, talk about it behind the person’s back, confront the person, or argue.

But why do we have to make the choice? Why can’t we just let people have their beliefs and move on? No two people in the world are ever going to agree on everything, so why is it so hard to accept that other people have their own worldviews?

Personally, when I hear someone speaking out about something that I totally disagree with, an alarm goes off in my head and my first instinct is to flat-out tell them that they’re wrong. Obviously, I ignore this impulse; how many of us feel this way, though? How often do we listen to other people while the thoughts running through our minds shout, “WRONG!” Why can’t we accept each other’s differences and appreciate the wide variety of beliefs and opinions?

And how often do we feel personally victimized when others don’t accept our beliefs? Nothing feels worse than being belittled just for believing in something! As a Christian, I feel this way all the time. People attack my faith or write it off as silly or irrelevant. I see it all the time, even just casually scrolling through Facebook! Friends post about the “intolerance of Christians,” they share posts that degrade my faith, or they make false assumptions about Christian beliefs and write about them like they are experts on them. I have nothing against the people who share these posts because I understand that they don’t believe the same things I believe, but I don’t understand why my beliefs should be so disrespected. I know they believe differently and I fully accept that; why can’t they accept me?

The core of Christianity is love. We are meant to love all people at all times. Any kind of “Christianity” that opposes love is doing it wrong, but people assume that all Christians are the same. If they took the time to understand, they’d know that most of us just want love for all people. I want to share my belief in Christ’s love without being judged and without having to apologize.

And this is just one example; we should accept everyone’s freedom of expression. Don’t disrespect anyone. I'm not saying that we shouldn't stand up for ourselves and our beliefs, nor am I saying we have to believe the same things or believe that everyone is somehow right; I’m just asking that we all peacefully appreciate the wide range of worldviews and beliefs systems. How incredible that everyone’s minds work so differently and that everyone can form their own opinions! And how much more incredible it is that we have the freedom to share our opinions!

So, from this moment on, I’m going to put my belief of love for all into practice. Maybe if we can all appreciate each other, we can all freely exercise our right to speech and expression peacefully.