# "My Husband Doesn’t Share My Faith" - Good Lord this poor man has the patience of a saint **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 2, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936 "2013-11-02T18:25:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/21 "2013-11-03T16:58:03Z")
Translation: the woman is just not into her husband anymore and subconsciously wishes he would just go away and leave her alone. However, her social culture and religious upbringing don’t allow her to think (let alone say) such things, so becoming a tiresome fanatic is her only way of expressing it. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/22 "2013-11-03T17:05:04Z")
Yep, could be the ole drive em away and pretend to be the victim ploy. And the OP is right. That man is a Saint. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/23 "2013-11-04T10:15:30Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Not by the Church, as God is my witness. The parish priests were assholes but then it looks like they helped you dodge a large bullet. No, and thanks, **Nava** , for reminding me that I should clarify. I’m sure that it was not the Roman Catholic Church as a whole; but rather, the girl and the priests at this particular parish. At any rate, I sure did dodge a bullet. Thanks again, **Nava**! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/24 "2013-11-04T11:38:33Z")
> [@](#): > > I’d say, “See what God’s done in my life? See how loving and humble I now am?” Humble? Er… I think you’re doing it wrong… ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/25 "2013-11-04T13:16:48Z")
[QUOTE=Jesus Lady] After overhearing some Christians in the office where I worked talk about heaven, I began asking questions. Although I’d attended church as a child, I knew nothing about the Bible and salvation. [/QUOTE] > [@clairobscur](#): > > So, Chick is right??? There _are_ American people who have never heard of salvation and convert upon listening to the explanations of some random stranger? I’m amazed. :eek: This piece is also pinging my fakedy fakedar and the above is a big reason why. Attended church as a child and never even got the kiddie version of Noah and the Ark and Eve and the serpent? Never heard about Jesus Saves? My right eye. Even the kids of atheists can’t escape hearing that shit. This is one more person who has been an evangelical all their life and who imagines that us heathens would roll right over as soon as we heard the “good news” and not realizing _we have heard it a million times already goddamn._ ---
**Author:** ![Tequila\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a6a055/32.png) [@Tequila\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tequila_Party)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/26 "2013-11-04T14:44:35Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Humble? Er… I think you’re doing it wrong… She was using sarcasm to point out how, at the time, she was the absolute opposite of humble. I don’t think this is fake in the least. I know many so called evangelical Christians who could’ve written this word for word. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/27 "2013-11-04T14:53:24Z")
I believe it. I teach Sunday School and I won’t teach fourth and fifth graders any longer. Its UU Sunday School, so there isn’t a lot of salvation in it, but its about the time you go from coloring projects to actually starting theology discussions. Its also the time about half the kids completely tune out. You can get them to listen to bible stories in second and third grade (I get to do that this Winter), but forth and fifth - some of them are gone (the ones with pretty bad learning issues were gone earlier, but it was less noticeable since not many kindergarteners can sit still for ten minutes.) So yes, they get to learn about Noah, but they really don’t get theology until about the time they are making the choices to listen or not listen. And frankly, I’m homeschooling my son, I’m not even sure its always a choice. My daughter will internalize everything you tell her - sponge child. He will forget when he heard last week - teflon brain. (Youth group is again wonderful - most of the kids who weren’t getting anything out of it have been set free by their parents to do something else - at least in a UUC church where letting your kids follow their own path is accepted - the kids who are left tend to be the sponges who are starting to put together the lessons you’ve been teaching them all along.) A lot of people here, on this board, can’t help but listen and learn. To us, it seems completely alien that things would go in one ear and out the other - but there are a ton of kids - tweens and teens - for whom this is their daily reality. They can go to Sunday School every week and sit in church - and sometime in their twenties or thirties they hear about salvation and its a new idea to them. For the first time they are really hearing it and internalizing what Christians mean. When people say they “knew nothing” it doesn’t mean they weren’t every told anything or couldn’t say “Christmas is Jesus’ birthday” or “Jesus died for our sins.” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/28 "2013-11-04T15:53:41Z")
If the husband isn’t careful, she might [leave him for Jesus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhkHG-oKCEU#t=00m44s). ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/29 "2013-11-04T15:56:07Z")
My husband converted me from lukewarm Judaism to his religion of outright indifference to religion. I’m a better person for it! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/30 "2013-11-04T17:27:09Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > Translation: the woman is just not into her husband anymore and subconsciously wishes he would just go away and leave her alone. However, her social culture and religious upbringing don’t allow her to think (let alone say) such things, so becoming a tiresome fanatic is her only way of expressing it. I was thinking that too. I wonder what other obsessive behavior she had beforehand. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/31 "2013-11-04T19:47:25Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > I’d say, “See what God’s done in my life? See how loving and humble I now am?” > > Humble? Er… I think you’re doing it wrong… “I’m a million times as humble than thou art!” - Weird Al Yankovic, _Amish Paradise_ ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/32 "2013-11-04T21:13:22Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Yeah, my Poe sense is tingling. Especially: That gotta be a parody. You have to read the rest of the article - it’s pretty clear the part quoted in the OP is hyperbole. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/33 "2013-11-04T22:37:05Z")
I don’t believe this woman was a carefree nonbeliever who suddenly starting orbiting Jesus after hearing Christian cow-orkers gabbing in the office. She’d been tilting that way for a long time, or else suffered some major trauma that left her susceptible. Or the entire story is fabricated. I’m reminded of those people who give testimonials for woo, claiming that they used to be hardened skeptics until they tried Immortality Juice™. Not so; they were always credulous mush-brains. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/34 "2013-11-04T22:52:41Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I don’t believe this woman was a carefree nonbeliever who suddenly starting orbiting Jesus after hearing Christian cow-orkers gabbing in the office. She’d been tilting that way for a long time, or else suffered some major trauma that left her susceptible. Or the entire story is fabricated. It’s possible… but if the whole story is fabricated, cui bono? If she’s a genuine over-the-top Christian kook, why doesn’t her story have the cliched happy ending the Christian crowd expects? Wouldn’t a fabricated story end with her husband tearfully coming to Jesus, rather than with her admitting that she went too far and that her efforts at converting her husband were ill-advised and poorly executed? Her account shows some real self-awareness, some humor, and some resignation that I wouldn’t expect to see in a fabricated propaganda piece. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/35 "2013-11-05T01:22:20Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > It’s possible… but if the whole story is fabricated, cui bono? Attention, sympathy, the usual stuff. Maybe only parts are fabricated. But it doesn’t ring true. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/36 "2013-11-05T03:18:01Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > The final nail was when a priest at her church said that he would not recognize my own baptism in a Christian church (Presbyterian, actually). Unles there was something unusual about your baptism, the priest at her church is ignorant of Catholic practice. Baptism is baptism. The Catholic church does not re-baptize converts who have already had a Christian baptism. There are a very few Christian (well, Christian depending on who you ask) denominations whose baptisms will not be accepted because of problems with their form (usually because they are not trinitarian). Mormons and (I think) Jehovah’s witnesses come to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/37 "2013-11-05T13:52:51Z")
I am totally non-religious and I would have headed for the hills within the first week but its ridiculous that the OP is pitying a “long-suffering man” when the article clearly states that the obnoxious behavior was for a short time 25 years ago. Sure it might all be made up. But that means its a totally fake article and none of it happened. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/38 "2013-11-05T15:37:13Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > It’s not just evangelical/'“come to Jesus” types. For some years, I dated a lapsed Roman Catholic. We were planning a wedding–then she rediscovered her faith. > > Suddenly, I was expected to go to Mass with her on Sundays, and to take classes to make me a good Catholic when I converted–which I was expected (by her and her church) to do. > > I balked. I questioned. The final nail was when a priest at her church said that he would not recognize my own baptism in a Christian church (Presbyterian, actually). There seemed to be very few Christian concepts at work in her and her church’s zeal to convert me. No “love thy neighbour as thyself,” and so on. No snark intended to the Roman Catholic Church in general (though it may deserve it), but in this particular matter, her parish church and its priests went too far. > > In the end, our relationship died, due in no small part to her new-found attachment to the Roman Catholic Church. > > I applaud Barry for his patience, and for living a Christian life. Too bad his so-called Christian wife hasn’t. MAYBE you just ran into a moron of a priest (it happens), but even we laymen know that there’s no need for a Protestant to be baptized again in order to become a Catholic. Every week, we Catholics recite the Creed, which includes the line “We believe in ONE baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” One. Meaning that if you were baptized as a Lutheran, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist or Presbyterian, you would NOT be baptized again as part of your conversion process. You would be expected to study the faith in a series of classes, and to go through a formal conversion ceremony- but NOT another baptism. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/39 "2013-11-05T15:45:20Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Her account shows some real self-awareness, some humor, and some resignation that I wouldn’t expect to see in a fabricated propaganda piece. Depends on which side of the issue the propaganda is coming from. It doesn’t make sense as a “come to Jesus” made up story but it makes perfect sense as a “leave people alone about your religion and everyone will be more happy” story posted on a religious-oriented Web site. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936/40 "2013-11-05T15:57:30Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Depends on which side of the issue the propaganda is coming from. It doesn’t make sense as a “come to Jesus” made up story but it makes perfect sense as a “leave people alone about your religion and everyone will be more happy” story posted on a religious-oriented Web site. More of a “God has his own plan and you can’t force it” story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-doesn-t-share-my-faith-good-lord-this-poor-man-has-the-patience-of-a-saint/672936.md?page=3)