I have had it happen a few times. Once, in a new job situation, no one knew I was Jewish for a few months. When it became known, someone became friendly all of a sudden, invited me to their house, and in a sacharine, sugary way started talking about Christ. I mostly considered it very insulting, disrespectful and patronizing behavior, just the opposite from what this person thought he was doing, saving a lost soul from eternal damnation.
My next door neighbor, a fanatically religious old maid, started praying for me to become Christian. When I found out, I told her that her prayers were against God’s will, I said, "If God had wanted me to be Christian, I would have been born Christian.
A Seventh day adventist came a few times. I said, the last time, “Thank you, my family has had the same religion for thousands of years and we are perfectly happy with it.”
Sort of. I have a couple of friends at school who are boarderline on being Christian zealots (one of them told me sadly that she never realized how Satanic Halloween was) and their big thing is to go to Youth Group. I happen to think that Youth Groups are nothing more than brainwashing for young, unsure adolescents who want to get a hold of something in their lives and the Church exploits that. But that’s just my opinion. Anywho, I digress. For a couple of weeks they would approach me and ask me if I would like to come to their Youth Group Bring-A-Friend/Food Night (bribe non-Youth Group attendees with food, basically). I kept giving them lame excuses but finally I said, “Youth Groups really are not my thing, but thanks anyway.” to one of them. I finally ended up having to tell them that I am Atheist. Not that that would stop them; it’ll probably just drive them to try to get those little tickets to me faster before my spot in Hell is certain.
My college roommate is a very religious guy, but he doesn’t push it all over everyone. Only once in four years did he ask to have a discussion about religion with me, and it was very civil.
Unfortunately for him, he decided to consolidate his efforts by also talking to another (atheist) mutual friend of ours at the same time. She and I quickly convinced him that he wasn’t going to make any progress then.
Of course, if I ever DO decide to give Christianity a shot again, I’ll probably go talk to him.
Then there was the overly religious roommate sophomore year. He DID push his religion all over everyone. After about the 15th generic “please come to our bible study!” email, and detecting a little bit of pity for the poor godless Steve (me), I told him off in no uncertain terms. I felt a bit guilty about it, but at least he didn’t do that anymore.
Heck yeah. I was raised Roman Catholic in a part of Pennsylvania that seems to specialize in creating new churches, mostly conservative Protestant churches with a serious evangelical bent. It was a common experience for me as a teenager to have another teen I’d just met start getting very friendly and hyper polite, and then suddenly invite me to church or youth group with him/her. My answer was always the same: “It’s kind of you to invite me, but I already have my own church and I’m happy there. Thank you.” Sometimes the person would persist, sometimes they’d give up with one attempt. In any case the end was always the same. If I didn’t want to “try out” their church or youth group (which, as neptune_1984 pointed out, is just a church recruitment device), they didn’t want to be friendly any more. I think they were all using the same manual. :rolleyes:
Eventually I did leave Catholicism - to become an atheist - but not because of any “conversion” effort, I did it myself. Mostly I have been left alone since then, but that’s largely a function of where I’ve lived. Few people in Oslo, for example, care to so much as ask about your religion - they just assume you too are lukewarm state church Lutheran and leave it at that.
I’ve had a couple people evangelize me, usually for (how shall I put this?) the same reason.
Once my boyfriend (at the time) and I were in the metro, chatting about something queer, when some woman turned around and said, “I couldn’t help overhearing you, I wonder if you know that freedom from homosexuality is available through the power of Jesus Christ?”
I smiled sweetly and said, “And do you know that freedom through Jesus Christ is available through the power of homosexuality?”
Another time two door-to-door people came to our house… We confused them; Eric argued scripture with the old one, and I cruised the young cute one.
Ohh yeah. I have a fundamentalist, literal-interpretation friend who is in two of the same classes as I am. We met when he gave me a pamphlet. He being a fundamentalist ex-gay and me being an atheist lesbian, we have some interesting talks.
He’s pretty militant, though. He recently went after the teacher in one of my classes for being :eek: Catholic. You should hear him in my humanities class, he’ll get up and argue with the teacher in the middle of lecture. He’s a nice guy, though. Just very enthusiastic. I don’t think he despises me yet.
“Freedom from Jesus is available through the power of homosexuality…” That’s great. I have to remember that.
You’re my new hero, Matt. I, too, have been evangelized a lot; I dunno, there must be something about my demeanor that indicates my soul is in imminent danger of damnation. I’m not overtly gay, so I haven’t had any specific “renounce homosexuality” preached at me, except one time outside a gay bar during Mardi Gras, when I got into a huge argument with some Alabama jackass who had come into New Orleans just to tell the queers they needed salvation. He and his droogs were handing out tracts and harassing folks going in and out of the bar, so I started in on him about Pharisees preaching in the streets to get the respect of men. It soon turned into a Scripture matching contest. Of course, arguing with a fundie is a pointless exercise, but I’m just too stupid to back away from an argument.
What really annoyed me were the evangelists on the Seoul subway who would stand up in the middle of the car, wave their Bibles, and preach in staccato Korean. Of course, I speak Korean, so I wonder if that would count as interpretation of somebody speaking in tongues?
There were also the street preachers in Itaewon from the Baptist church up on the hill across from McDonald’s who would have a chorus of high school girls singing hymns and doing cutesy hand gestures, while the speaker would tell people they should leave the bars and repent before the Lord Jesus gets them.
The apartment complex where I used to live was home to a family of LDS members who used to evangelize door-to-door every week. Their timing was perfect-I’d be pulling in after work to see them knocking on my door. Of course, I couldn’t avoid them if I wanted to get inside my apartment so I was forced to run a gauntlet of clean-cut Osmond types in order to make it home.
After a couple of weeks of polite demurrals only intensified their efforts to “save” me, I finally had enough. One Thursday as I got out of my car and was surrounded by zealots, I screwed my face up in a frenzied look and grabbed the youngest daughter by the arm, thrusting a big marker into her other hand. “You’re just in time!” I said. “Here, you draw the pentagram and I’ll go get the goat’s blood and robes!”
To counter the rampant Christian bashing going on…
I’ve been approached by Militant Pagans. Yeah, that’s what I though: every one I’d met up to that point had been nice, and polite. But this guy was about as bad as your average Evangelical “Christian”. Annoying, ready to bash your religion into the ground, the whole nine yards. After a few minutes of happily confusing him or making him look like an idiot, one of his friends caught him being an ass and yanked him away.
And I was having fun. sigh
Oh yeah, we get the Jehovah’s Witnesses & Mormon groups through here. They aren’t hard to run off politely.
When I had my mini-mart job, there was this elderly lady who’d come in every Sunday. Several weeks in a row, she’d just stop by, chat, get her coffee or whatever-- silly me, I thought she was just a “regular” who’d developed a fondness for li’l me. Nope. After several weeks of pleasant chatter, she starts handing me tracts (Jehovah’s Witness, in this case).
I thanked her and told I was Catholic, and took to being elsewhere in the store from then on when she came in, because it was clear she wasn’t going to let up if I kept talking to her. And she stopped coming in a week or two after that-- looking back, it makes me feel like she targetted me in advance, since she didn’t try it with the other cashiers. Perhaps I looked like I needed savin’?
One other time, one of the Christian “youth group” types started chatting me up on the train coming home. What impressed me with this guy was that he was super polite, knew when to quit, and bid me a friendly farewell even though it was clear I wasn’t interested in his meetings. Nice guy; shame the ones like him get overshadowed by the pushy, obnoxious ones.
I used to have two coworkers who were very zealous fundamentalists. They saw me as a heathen that needed to be saved because my religious background is Eastern Orthodox (though not practicing), which they told me is a pagan religion because we worship idols. :rolleyes: At first, I just politely told them I wasn’t interested in their bible classes or whatever. Eventually, they changed their usual MO to steering any scientific discussion towards a religious one (i.e. “You believe in dinosaurs? If you let Jesus into your heart you will know the truth…”). I just started saying “Whatever…” and dropped the subject when they did this.
Right now there is a lady recruiting my wife pretty hard. My wife is from mainland China and being a “godless commie” makes her a bigger prize.
There’s a woman at my office who is trying to “save” me right now. As you might guess from the screen name, I am a Wiccan - but I don’t parade the fact around my workplace, because it has no bearing on my job.
The woman in question (hereinafter referred to as “Holy Linda”) can’t quite figure out what it is that’s different about me, but insists on telling me “I’ll pray for your soul”. To get the full effect of this, you have to imagine that she is making big cow eyes and reeking of sanctimonious pity. Whenever possible, she catches me in the parking lot and tells me she worries about me going to hell.
I really feel that one’s choice of worship is a private affair and best left alone in the workplace. I have never confided in this woman about my personal beliefs, and have asked her politely to drop the subject. No effect, except for her offer to forgive me for my refusal to listen.
Ooooooo, I try to be a good person, but I feel a hex coming on. Now to sneak up and collect fingernail clippings.
Two quick conversion stories…and one kinda unbelievable one…
1. I had a “Youth Group” friend, too. I went to his church’s services once or twice and to two youth events. I don’t know how to say this without bein’ weird, but every was supa-friendly and smiling all the time and always remembered my name. I found it to be real uncomfortable (not that I’m really an unfriendly, always depressed person…something about it was just spooky!). 2. Once answered the door to find Jehovah’s Witnesses. Took their pamphlet and handed them two things about Paganism and the concept of karma. Shut the door. End of discussion. 3. At uni, for some unknown reason, most of my friends were pretty strongly Christian, of one variety or another. Generally, no one tried to evangelize me. But I do have this story: I had spent a vacation period with my friend and his family (Southern Baptists) and had respectfully attended two church ceremonies. Not really a peep about God, until I was seated between my friend and his father for the drive back to university. Then, y’know, well, they had my attention for 3+ hours.
Dad: Do you have religion?
moi: Yes, sir. I’m Wiccan. brief description and discussion of my beliefs follows
After this, he’s quite for awhile.
Dad: What did you think about the sermon today?
The sermon had to do with coming to God and the benes of being a God-fearing wo/man and what happened to those who didn’t accept J.C. The general idea was that it’s nev-ah too late. After we discuss the sermon for a bit and I gently explain that if I don’t believe in his God then I don’t really have to worry about repercussions from Him either.
Then, I kid you not, he pulls out a small paper pamphlet from his shirt pocket. It’s a How-to Guide for evangelizing Pagans. :rolleyes: He reads the first bit of scripture from it, but, seeing as how he’s supposed to be driving and keeping his eyes on the road, he hands me the pamphlet and asks me to read it aloud. Basically, boys and girls, at this point moi is proslytizing to herself! Needless to say, this tactic didn’t work.
In the end, I just had to tell him that I did not accept JC as lord and savior, and I really felt awkward for my friend who didn’t say a word during the entire car trip.
Do my parents count? :rolleyes: My mom came back to the catholic church when I was 12 and my dad became catholic at the same time. Me being an impresionable 12yr old gave into my mom asking me to become catholic, so I did. I’v never really told her it was for her sake that I became catholic, and even go married in the catholic church (I stopped practicing being a catholic not long after being married) because I knew its what she wanted. No biggie, I dont mind making her happy, but, just last weekend (after 11 years of marriage) I plucked up the courage to tell her I dont believe in god (I never told her before because I knew it would upset her, she is staunch catholic) Her reply? "Thats all those science subjects you’v been studying over the past three years :rolleyes: anyway, I explained “no mom I didn’t believe before that”, I haven’t seen her since so I’m waiting for the inevitable “conversion” conversation that I’m sure is coming. sigh
I’ve been approached in the New York subways by J4J and other “Hebrew-Christian” types numerous times to try to convert me. Usually I just ignore them, but once in a while, if I’m feeling peevish, I’ll try to engage them in “quiet debate” (where we keep the conversation between us, not getting everyone else involved in the situation).
There was one time, however, where I was talking to an older couple who were trying to convince me that one could be Jewish and accpet Jesus as the Messiah (and God!). We bantered about several sub-topics. As it was, several other well-meaning Christians became involved and it became a six-against-one debate. I was still able to hold my own, but only when I actually had the chance to talk and wasn’t shouted down by one of the other (uninvited) participants. By the time I had to get off the train, we came to no conclusion (not that I thought we would), but I decided that I wouldn’t get involved in these “multi-party” debates anymore.
I once was recruited by the Moonies. I was just out of college and they were pretty big at the time and a nice looking woman asked me to come over for a weekend. I was more interested in her than philosophy, but I went along.
I realized what was going on once I got there. They put us into classes to “teach” us what was going on. Well, I was a wise-ass college graduate, with a strong interest in political philosophy, so it was fairly easy to point out the flaws in what they were selling. They wanted us to wait until the end for questions, but I asked them whenever they came up. I eventually got bored and went home.
I used to be the guy trying to convert people. I was involved in (shudder) Campus Crusade for Christ while in high school.
I woke up in time – but it was close. Almost became a singing missionary. Now I’m more into Taoism than anything else, and occaisionally go to a Unitarian Universalist service.
We used to go out taking ‘surveys’. They were all about spirituality, and were nothing more than an excuse to knock on doors and talk with people. We’d work in teams, and have specific territories to work. The goal was to kneel down and pray with people to ‘take Christ into their lives’.
I prayed a lot, but when I got to be 16, with a license to drive, I began to pray for different things. (hehe)
Eventually I realized that I could choose my own life to live, and that the people I was involved with were terrible hypocrites.
The man who was the ‘lay pastor’ of our little community church, a deeply spiritual, really nice guy, was denied being a deacon at the big church when the family moved into the city.
Turns out that of his seven children, both boys and one of the girls were gay. He was denounced by the church as being unworthy to be a leader of men, because he hadn’t led his own children correctly. The two boys both died of AIDS, at home, and I’m assured were ‘right with the lord’ when they died. Must have been awful for everyone involved.
My mother and her prayer group are still praying for me – they remind me every once in a while that ‘I know the right way, and they hope I’ll come back to the Lord’. Needless to day, I don’t have much contact with my mother.
Campus Crusade for Christ is doing a wonderfully weird campaign right now. The “I agree with [fill in appropriate name]” campaign is in full force right now on my campus. Everyone in the group picks one person in the group to be the “model” member. To quote someone a friend and I ran down before anybody knew what the hell the damn signs were about: “We’re all saying we agree with Josh in that he believes that Jesus is the saviour and that through love of him and following his teachings… etc etc.” Until we found a CCC member, we thought JOSH was some kind of acronym.
They had covered the campus with manymanymanymany signs, neon and flourescent green, pink, orange, and yellow signs bearing the phrase “I agree with Josh.” And I mean covered. People running for student government put up maybe a fourth as many signs as CCC did. Some places there are three signs within three feet of each other, and all facing the same direction, in case you missed the other groups of three ten feet away. CCC was in teenyteenyteenyteeny letters at the bottom; I almost mistook the writing for a dirt smudge.
The next day there was a nearly full-page ad in the paper from Josh listing the seven exact things he believes and that others are agreeing with. And there’s a website too [I’ll have to run down a copy of the paper and find it].
The next day [just this tuesday], every member of CCC on campus was wearing a flourescent orange t-shirt with the words “I agree with Josh” in very large letters across the front. First reaction: almost broke down giggling at three on them walking in a row. So we now have the usual bickering back and forth in the editorial section of the paper about the group’s motives, tactics, and a bit about personal beliefs.
My parents are psycho fundies, and they are fully aware that I am agnostic and not looking for a religion (I’m a MARXIST! Come on…) But they still press it on me all the time, and tell me in a patronizing tone that one day I’ll find Christ. They occasionally tell me I’m going to Hell, and then later ask why we don’t connect. Blech.
I couldn’t call myself athiest, because that’s every bit as dogmatic as fundamental Christianity. You have no way of knowing that there’s nothing bigger out there, but athiesm means that no way no how is there a higher power. Agnosticism makes more sense to me. I think spirituality is good, but religion is bad.
I go to this thing every Sunday, because I am forced to go to some kind of church service, and I might as well go to the one with the band.
I second the creepiness of these Jesus Freak kids. They are so… CULTY! They always remember your name and want you to come to other church functions. They give me pamphlets about “Godly group dating” and how I should be worried about my friends who listen to things like Limp Bizkit and Korn. Considering that I myself like Amen and to a lesser extent Marilyn Manson, I find these warnings funny.
It’s also funny how much they act friendly and want me to come do this or that at the church. I don’t talk to them about beliefs, I just sort of nod along during the service. I do my hour and I’m GONE. I usually go do something bad just to shake it off.
