Freedom

I attended Houghton College for my undergraduate education. They are a Christian liberal arts school with a chapel in the center of campus. The school has a policy of compulsory worship-- or at least it did in the mid-1990s when I attended. We were required to attend chapel 3x per week and we had to scan in with our student IDs to prove that we attended. I found the concept of compulsory worship revolting, and during my senior year, continued to attend chapel, but stopped scanning in. 

Mid-way through the year, I was called into the office of some college official who dressed me down for my lack of attendance. He made the assumption that I had not attended, without asking me any questions. So I kept my mouth shut, allowed him to persist in his incorrect judgment of my behavior, and accepted my punishment, which consisted of listening to recordings of chapel services and writing notes on them. 

It was a liberating experience for me to remain silent in these circumstances. I knew that I was in the right, and that was all that mattered to me. That experience became something of a template for me. Whenever I am faced with judgments on my character or conduct based on something other than actual knowledge, and without being given the opportunity to tell my side of the story before judgments are passed, I simply hold my tongue and allow people to continue on their way. It costs me nothing to receive their wrong judgments-- nothing other than their esteem, which by then I place no value upon. And it seems to give them real enjoyment to pass these judgments. In a way, I enjoy it too. I enjoy my freedom from their view of the world.