Written By Jueseppi B.
Yesterday I removed myself from what used to be one of my favorite groups on FB. There is a group, not a group at all really but a petition page, that I was a member of, and loved going there and reading the positive postings on their wall. Last evening I happened to be there when a man posted his opinions about prayer, and how prayer is unnecessary and not believable because it involves a God he does not believes exist. The summation of his post, as closely as I can remember: praying for anything, even the death of POTUS Obama, was a waste of time because nobody is real to hear your prayers, since God does not exist.
I was raised "old school" Baptist by my Grandparents. Sunday meant church ALL day long. Sunday School at 9 am,...until Evening Service at 7pm. I am however NOT a Bible thumper. Religion to me is personal and very private. The most I will do is express my choice of religious faith and that is all you will get out of me. Until you discredit my faith or oppress freedom of religion in my presence. So I responded with MY opinion of why prayer IS indeed necessary on a mental and psychological level, purposely avoiding the faith based reasons why prayer is necessary and needed by those who believe.
We exchanges a couple of responses each back and forth, before I decided to end the exchange because we both were hard headed and not going to get anyplace.
That is how I left the wall...saying that each of us was deeply rooted in our beliefs and not about to change a thing.
Several hours later I received a private message from the woman who created the petition page and who is also an administrator of the page. In this private message, she proceeded to scold me, attempted to criticize me, and just talked down to me for bringing a topic to her page's wall that was waaaaay off topic, to quote her. I am also the creator and administrator of a couple of groups on FB, so I understand what it takes to run a group, and how as an administrator you must keep a tight rein over the walls of your groups.
This woman was as unprofessional as you can get in handling this situation, even to the point of speaking to me like I was an unruly 7 years old child. Case in point, she ended her tirade against my "responding" to a post on her page's wall by telling me..."This is the last time we will have this discussion". I was told, in this private message, that I was not to post anything religion related on the page wall because it is a "non-secular' petition page. Even though I was "responding" to something posted that was secular related, I was wrong and off topic.
Long story short, I responded to that private message with as kind of words as I could find, while explaining to this administrator how her way of handling this situation needed much work and polishing, and promptly removed myself from a page I liked.
Now I said all that to say this, or ask this....when is it acceptable to debate or respond to someone who is an atheists or an agnostic, and who attempts to discredit or deny your faith? I know "Some Christians" give the entire Christian based faith a bad name these days. Religion is not a weapon, religion is not a political tool, religion is not about just "YOUR" beliefs. There are many religions, many faiths, many ways of worshiping what ever God/Goddess you choose, and it is not my concern to sway you from what you believe in, to what I believe in, that will be handled on the Day of Reckoning between you and your God/Goddess.
But please, I ask you as nicely as I can,...NEVER get in my face trying to talk down my religion, or attempting to prove your theories over my beliefs. It is a complete waste of time and that will eventually piss me off.
Believe in what you choose, worship whatever you decide on worshiping, honor whatever science you like....BUT leave me and MY beliefs the hell alone, as I will always respect your choice to NOT believe.
"Disagree Intelligently, Use Facts & Truth."
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