Rational Ag

I work in a pretty small group at work. There are a total of 10 of us in the group, and everyone in the group except me is a hardcore Christian. Today, while I was in the cubicle of our devout southern baptist planner, the conversation went something like this:

*gospel music playing through his computer*

Larry: So, you like this music?

Me: I don't really listen to that kinda stuff.

Larry: This is church music; you mean you don't like church music?

Me: No, not really.

Larry: You mean you don't go to church?

Me: Nope.

Larry: You don't believe in Jesus?

Me: Nope.

Larry: So you don't believe in god at all?

Me: Nope.

Larry: I can see I have my work cut out for me.

*Larry pulls out his bible*

Larry: We need to sit down and read this sometime together.

Me: I am probably a lot more familiar with it than most people you know, and yes, I've read it. That's my problem, really. I read it and I know what it says.

Larry: You just don't understand it then, you need to understand it correctly to get it right.

At this point I wander off back to my cubicle. Two hours later I get this email:

------------------------------

THIS IS OUR BEGINNING,

GOD BLESS

Today's Daily Verse - Tuesday, 5/14/2002

...the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
— 1 Corinthians 1:25 NASB

---------------------------------

Great! Now I've done it! This guy is going to send bible verses every damn day to me now in efforts to convert me.

What the hell am I supposed to do now? I don't want to make this guy mad, he is incredibly helpful and I can't afford to irritate him. He is well intentioned, but he just really doesn't get it. He is deeply rooted in his southern black gospel religion, and he spends most of his spare time at church. He thinks that’s the most important thing in life, and probably doesn’t realize all the issues regarding the truthfulness of Christianity. I don’t want to argue with him or try and de-convert him, I just want him to leave me the hell alone. I am going to be really frustrated if this ends up causing a problem with our business relationship.

*SIGH*

-Rational Ag

[ May 14, 2002: Message edited by: Rational Ag ]</p>

Viti

Tell him like it is. "Larry, I respect and like you and enjoy working with you, however I feel religion or lack of is a personal choice and does not belong in our working relationship"

wordsmyth

I would simply tell him that you don't hold the same beliefs as he does and that work isn't the proper place for him to be preaching his beliefs and that you would appreciate it if he showed respect for your beliefs by not sending you religiously inspired e-mails.

Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.

freemonkey

I've been here. When I did not wish to risk the relationship, I asked him/her to to please stop. I told him/her that while I respected him/her, I was comfortable with my lack of beliefs and don't want him/her to waste his/her time.

Some just wouldn't take "no" for an answer right away, and still wanted to witness. So I just told them that I hoped they understood that anything I said was not intended as a personal insult.

Eventually they stop and move on to someone else.

Rational Ag

I think you and Wordsmyth both have good approaches, I'm just irritated because I know something like that would make him react differently to me than he has in the past.

He will tiptoe around me, and treat me differently than he does now. If he does, that will make me mad. I'm really just irritated at the exclusive attitude some Christians take once they realize they can't convert people. Once I tell him respectfully to leave religious discussions out of our working relationship, he will likely take a different attitude toward me because I am on the "outside".

Granted, I'm partially getting frustrated at him for something he hasn't done yet, but I've seen it before and I'm sure I'll see it again. The other part of the frustration is his need to share his viewpoint to me with me, but I can get over that. It's actually a source of humor.

-Rational Ag

IvanK

Cut and paste some quotes from Ingersoll, Voltaire, Jefferson, and such and e-mail him one a day along with your strong desire that he see the light of freethought.

Godless Dave

You didn't do anything. He started the conversation and all you did was answer his questions honestly. From the way he initiated the conversation I think he may have planned this ahead of time.

Viti

Dave is right...I think he already knew and planned it. That's quite a large and fast leap from "Do you like Gospel Music?" to "So, you don't believe in God?"

butswana

I think that would prompt me to follow through on an idea I had recently. I have a coconut monkey sitting on my monitor at work. I have thought of fastening him to a cross. I think it would make quite a statement.

BibleBelted

Next time he godspams you, send him this:

Must we believe that God called some of his children the money of others? Can we believe that God made lashes upon the naked back, a legal tender for labor performed? Must we regard the auction block as an altar? Were blood hounds apostles? Was the slave-pen a temple? Were the stealers and whippers of babies and women the justified children of God?

It is now contended that while the Old Testament is touched with the barbarism of its time, that the New Testament is morally perfect, and that on its pages can be found no blot or stain. As a matter of fact, the New Testament is more decidedly in favor of human slavery than the old.

For my part, I never will, I never can, worship a God who upholds the institution of slavery. Such a God I hate and defy. I neither want his heaven, nor fear his hell.

If that doesn't do it, try this:

We are told in the Pentateuch, that God, the father of us all, gave thousands of maidens, after having killed their fathers, their mothers, and their brothers, to satisfy the brutal lusts of savage men. If there be a God, I pray him to write in his book, opposite my name, that I denied this lie for him.

Both quotes are from Ingersoll's Some Mistakes of Moses

Who knows? You might just destroy his reason for existence.

[ May 14, 2002: Message edited by: BibleBelted ]</p>