Hate Speach?

I wonder if being exclusionary to others is considered “hate”.  As a convert to the Roman Catholic Church (It’s been almost 11 years now), I am acutely aware that I am not of the norm.  Most who are transitioning faiths are leaving the RC faith, not entering.  But for our family, it was absolutely right for us to convert. 

I am of the belief, however, that those who follow other paths are just as subject to salvation as I am.  The Catechism of my faith affirms this…which is one of the reasons I was able to identify with the Church.  But in recent months, I have become increasingly concerned about the fact that my more religious acquaintances and perhaps even my friends here locally, only associate with me because I am a practicing Catholic.  I have had a half dozen or more moms tell me that they wanted to spend their time only with others of their faith.   

On the surface this seems reasonable, I suppose.  I don’t want my kids unduly influenced by “bad” kids.  I homeschool, don’t I?  I must be avoiding these miscreants, right?  Yes, to some extent…but we essentially chose to homeschool because we felt the public school system had failed our kids academically.  Morality was a secondary reason, I am afraid to say.  Our kids are extremely involved with the “outside” world.  Most of my homeschool counterparts seem bewildered by our schedule.  I do agree, that at times, it has been too much.  We have scaled back, and I feel we have a balance now.  The kids know that should they adopt the “snarky” attitude that their public school peers have, they will be removed from their activities.  For the most part, this threat has worked, although puberty has shown itself to be somewhat of a barrier in this regard.  Things are still OK, as of yet.

Here is the punch line to all of this, however. The moms talking to me of being with others in their faith, are more often segregating themselves from other Christians...not "Public-Schoolers".  And I hear lots of anti-Catholic sentiments regularly as well. Really? Has anyone checked out how much we are all alike lately?  I also have a network of "inclusive" homeschool friends as well.  This label is most often code for "Pagan".  And I have public school friends.  But every one of these people, whom I allow in my life are loving people who truly care about their kids....and the world around them.  

And they are all deeply flawed.