Memes, wonderful memes, how we love them! Okay! Maybe we don’t love them all the time, but they can be amusing, informative, and highly questionable at the same time. You gotta love that, right?¹

Take the one below, for example. An old friend shared it. This is someone I’ve known since before social media existed. Heck! I’ve known this person since the dark ages. You know, before mobile phones, the Internet, and Mark Zuckerberg. This brings me to the point of this piece.

You may have seen this meme or something similar before. Some add the question I am about to ask, and some don’t. Whether they add the question or not, the problem is the same. This meme can mean different things to different people.

Knowing the person sharing this thought, I believe I know exactly what he means. However, everyone who posts a comment like this may not have the same meaning in mind. Even more concerning is some sharing a post of this nature may be far from well-intentioned.

What do you think the person sharing this challenge meant? You’re likely correct if you think it means some form of Christian prayer. Of course, my old friend may have been bored and trying to stir up some controversy.

I doubt he’s simply being a troublemaker. Still, he may have thought all his friends would see it as he does. If so, he found out otherwise, given the comments I read recently.

My point here is the same one I have made in times past. Think before posting, sharing, etc. You may still decide to post something that could create some controversy, as I did here. Still, you won’t be blindsided if the response is not in line with your expectations.

If you haven’t thought of it already, here’s the problem with the meme above. If you search for “do all religions pray,” you will receive millions of results. Of course, many of those will be only indirectly related to your search, but hundreds may address the issue.

The consensus of those who studied this issue is most, if not all, religions or belief systems pray in some manner to something. Using census data it appears there are at least eight major religions or faith systems, however those are defined, represented in the United States.

Within those major major religions are many, hundreds, if not thousands, of derivatives, with differing beliefs, practices, and prayer beliefs. A few years ago I wrote a piece, Forgive the Confusion, which digs a little deeper into that aspect of religion or belief systems if you’re interested.

The bottom line is this whether the meme, comment, blog or famous quotation is talking about school prayer, pronoun issues, or any number of other controversies, think before you share, comment, or post your own meme. Unless of course, you just like to rock the boat.

© oneoldcop.com – 2023