Religion
Related: About this forumTalking With Strangers About God
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/antonia-blumberg/talking-with-strangers-about-god_b_5519538.htmlAntonia Blumberg
Associate Editor, HuffPost Religion
Talking With Strangers About God
Posted: 06/22/2014 3:05 pm EDT Updated: 06/22/2014 3:59 pm EDT
Tetra Images - Chris Hackett via Getty Images
He approached me on the beach where I was lying alone in a bikini. My boyfriend had departed momentarily to dip in the ocean.
He looked to be in his early 20, with yellow teeth, a baseball hat and a stack of light blue fliers in his hands. Right there at my towel he kneeled down and reached one of the fliers towards me. It read:
Do you have eternal life?
"Hi there," the man said. "How would you answer this question?"
I immediately felt the familiar escape instinct that kicks in when I'm approached by strangers asking for money, hitting on me or offering eternal salvation. "No thanks." "Not interested." "No." I swiftly cut them off while everything inside me curls in and turns away.
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yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Although I did go to dinner with some friends at their home and it ended up being a bunch of born again folks (I didn't know my friends were extreme Christians) who after dinner ganged up on me trying to get me to convert and accept Jesus Christ. I said, "I already did" (being Catholic). They said, "that is not enough"....Ugh! I ended up yelling to leave me alone as they were all around me trying to get me to accept Jesus Christ. It was one of my most uncomfortable situations I was even involved in. I felt trapped and couldn't wait to get out of there.
djean111
(14,255 posts)driving me and her mom to the store.
I said I had had a near death experience when I was younger, there was nothing remotely religious about that experience, and that the matter was not up for discussion, because neither of us could actually "prove" anything.
She was a bit taken aback, but never mentioned religion to me again.
Oh, and she is one of the born-agains who think gay people should be stoned, but adulterers get a pass. And is rabidly right-wing.
Now, I don't think people who have approached me personally about this stuff mean me any harm - at least, not until I tell them to go away, in some cases. Then I can burn in their hell. :-O
I have lovely conversations with a really nice Jehovah's Witness who visits every couple of months; I am very clear about the fact that I will never believe what she believes, and we talk about politics and the weather.
The ugliest face I have seen, on this subject, was on a born-again woman who heard me tell a co-worker that I had read the Life of Buddha book that is in the night table drawer of every Japanese hotel room I have stayed in; I used to work in Tokyo for weeks or months at a time. This woman's face scrunched up and she spat out the hope that I had not been taken in by "those" people. She may have been a bit peckish because she had invited me out to lunch a while back and, over the pizza, asked me if I had accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. Gave her my standard response.
I have come to realise that when an acquaintance asks me to lunch, when we are not normally lunch buddies, I am going to either be asked the personal savior question, or am going to be invited into an MLM scheme. Jesus or Herbalife.