Standing up for what you believe

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

As I've mentioned before, I grew up as a member of an Episcopal church in my hometown. My mother still attends this church regularly, as does my grandfather. I go once in a while, for a few different reasons. Mostly, I do it to make my mom happy, but I also genuinely like many of the members as well as the huge amount of community service they do through the church. I was pretty disgusted when I received the following email from one of the aforementioned members.

Quote:

I just signed the online petition at http://AmericansForTheMilitary.com and as a friend that supports our troops, I wanted to share it with you.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton tried to impose the gay agenda on our military men and women.

Americans insisted that Congress protect our military from this attack. Forcing a sexual agenda on the military hurts discipline and morale. It's as simple as that.

Congress passed a law confirming that homosexuals are not eligible to serve in the military.

But now the gay activists are back. This time they are using the internet to organize and push hard for repeal of the law. We cannot allow them to win.

Please join me in signing up at http://AmericansForTheMilitary.com and forward this email to anyone that you know who supports our troops.

Thank you.

Not only was it a pre scripted message, but it was a deeply offensive one. I replied (to all) quite simply, "I don't believe that acceptance of homosexuals into the military is the same as forcing a sexual agenda on them. I support the military and those who wish to join it by discouraging discrimination on the basis of sexuality, religion, gender, and other such attributes."

I kept it as nice and succinct as possible, rather than launching into a counterattack, and I hope and expect that at least a few of the others who received the message will agree with me. At the same time, I'm halfway expecting this to cause strife between us. During my time as a Christian, I didn't think for myself because I didn't know how to do anything other than regurgitate the same religious and political opinions as my parents and Christian friends. I'm not going to allow them to believe that I still hold those bigoted ideals. I might not change anyone's mind, and I accept that likelihood, but on the other hand, I just might help someone to view the situation in a different way, rather than just going along with whatever the rest of the group thinks. Either way, I feel better having made it very clear that I don't stand for bigotry any longer.

So anyway, I was hoping to hear from the guild on similar situations you all have been in where you finally decided that enough was enough and you needed to take a bit of a stand for something in which you believe. What was the issue? How did you feel afterwards? And the fun part... were there consequences? pirate  

[Dirty Dirty Shisno]

******** this is embaressing. But since I have anonymity or however the hell you spell that, I might as well. My good friend really REALLY wanted me to go to church with her on saturday night. I kept informing her that I really just wanted to relax etc. but she insisted on at least trying to get me converted and finally I gave in. I came to church.
About 500 people were there and that frankly scared the hell out of me. I was sure they had torches and pitchforks under their seats for any non christians entering. Obviously they didn't but it was still ******** scarey. So we seat ourselves next to one another and the surmon starts. About half way through I couldn't take it anymore. Everything the guy was preaching was absolute bullshit. It was ******** FUNNY!
I can't honestly remember anything he said now but I do remember it being ridiculously hilarious. So half way through, I start giggling. Then snickering. I try to stop myself but can't. My friend elbows me as the people around us are starting to look at me. This only serves to make me start laughing. LOUDLY.
Now it feels like everybody is staring at me but I still can't stop yucking it up. I was literally rolling on the floor laughing. Everyone was making UGH and WOW HES SO GOING TO HELL faces and noises. So my friend carries me out of the room and into the hall and asks me what the ******** is wrong with me. I'm still half laughing and I can only say I'm sorry, it was just too funny, and then I continue laughing. Lost that friend forever. emo  

[Tornado_Creator]

Dirty Dirty Shisno

About 500 people were there and that frankly scared the hell out of me. I was sure they had torches and pitchforks under their seats for any non christians entering. Obviously they didn't but it was still ******** scarey. So we seat ourselves next to one another and the surmon starts. About half way through I couldn't take it anymore. Everything the guy was preaching was absolute bullshit. It was ******** FUNNY!
I can't honestly remember anything he said now but I do remember it being ridiculously hilarious. So half way through, I start giggling. Then snickering. I try to stop myself but can't. My friend elbows me as the people around us are starting to look at me. This only serves to make me start laughing. LOUDLY.
Now it feels like everybody is staring at me but I still can't stop yucking it up. I was literally rolling on the floor laughing. Everyone was making UGH and WOW HES SO GOING TO HELL faces and noises. So my friend carries me out of the room and into the hall and asks me what the ******** is wrong with me. I'm still half laughing and I can only say I'm sorry, it was just too funny, and then I continue laughing. Lost that friend forever. emo

That friend wasn't worth keeping... he had contracted Christianity. It's kinda like when someone becomes a vampire on Buffy, they look like the same person, they sound the same, they even act the same sometimes, but the person you knew and loved is long dead.  

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

It looks to me like the friend had just invited Shisno to go to church; when I was a Christian I invited my friends to go to church with me too, since that's what I did. I don't see any malicious intent there, from that post, so I don't think it's necessarily right to say that friend "contracted Christianity" and "isn't worth keeping." It's just a difference of opinion. Yes, the friend should have respected the answer of "No, thanks," but honestly there are always times when people make mistakes and overstep bounds with their friends. I just think it's unfortunate that the friend was so offended by the laughing that she stopped being your friend.

 

[caustic 0_0]

I guess my situation was similar to yours, Daffodil. I continued to go to church for a long time after I stopped believing, just because I had friends there and I knew it meant a lot to my mom.
I just try to go the more rational route if I reply to things that upset me, just give my reasons and move on.

I grew up baptist and many of my friends now are still Christian.
I mean, I heard some things in church that I couldn't follow the logic of either, or lack of logic maybe? But I would still have found someone bursting out laughing to be incredibly rude.
They probably weren't thinking 'go to hell' so much as 'damn kids can't behave.' xP