Q

So recently Singapore’s been swamped with evangelists from the church of God the Mother. I’m not sure what made them (or any other evangelical group) think that randomly assaulting someone on the streets, probably on their way to have lunch, is an effective measure in altering anyone’s entire BELIEF SYSTEM.

Guess what. It’s not. And you know what’s more? Preventing someone from achieving their perfectly reasonable desire to have lunch is an ALMOST SURE-FIRE WAY to have them think badly of you – and by extension your beliefs.

The main point is. I’ve had enough. I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF HARD CORE EVANGELISTS. STOP IT. STOP IT STOP IT, IT IS SO ILLOGICAL, PAINFUL AND ANNOYING. AND ALSO THE MOST OBVIOUSLY COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE WAY TO SPREAD YOUR BELIEFS.

I’ve had only the most scarring encounters with evangelists. In primary school, when a group of us were out doing a project, we were somehow hijacked by two Christian evangelists who proceeded to spend one and a half hours teaching us NOTHING substantial about God. All I remember was a grammatically and logically confusing lecture about lambs, seeds and that they were very happy to have our emails (to spam). The entire time was immensely awkward because they were clueless-ly insensitive to Buddhism (we had a devout vegetarian buddhist in that project group). Even Celine, a cradle Catholic, said she felt embarrassed to have her faith forced down on others that way. I have Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking at my door and being incredibly rude about everything it really gets to me like NOTHING ELSE.

I don’t know if i’m a hotbed of belief-shovers or what, but i’ve really had an extraordinary amount of people trying to get me to join their sect – this ranges from the religious to the anti-religious. I’m done with it all. Please just LEAVE ME BE.

Once and for the last time, i’m Christian. I believe in what i believe in and there are reasons why. My faith is a very personal one. I try to keep to the teachings – mostly to the ones about loving others and forgiveness and honestly it stops there. The only form of religious community i need are my friends. To other Christians – stop trying to tell me i’m doing it the wrong way because i will stab myself and sin and you will be the perpetrator. To atheists, i love it when challenged or asked things if you’re curious but if you just want to change my perceptions because my current one doesn’t please you – stop being a hypocrite and shove it.

That’s all i’m asking for. For people to LET ME BELIEVE WHAT I WANT TO AND LEAVE ME BE. I’m good by myself. I’m the BEST by myself. Having all sorts of other things come into play does nothing but confuse and complicate my simple ways to religious belief. But no people can’t let it go.

This was how it happened.

As always they ask you to fill out an innocuous survey, which is a benign sort of trickery. It’s still a trick. First mistake there. I politely told the first one i was busy (i was. eating)(HOW CAN YOU DISTURB SOMEONE WHO’S EATING). She went away. I sat on it for awhile and started to fume. In retrospect it might not have been very fair for the next evangeliser to be on the receiving end of years’ worth of frustration, but yeah. She made me fill up the survey and started to use the technique i’m all too familiar with. And loathe with a passion. She asked me if i read the bible and what my beliefs were: “So you think God is one person and a man right?” and she’d proceed to tell me i’m WRONG (SHFFUUSUKSKSLKGGHHL)(YOUR FACE IS WRONG).

I said yes i do read the bible yes i do believe there is only one God. “Ahh.. but you’re wrong.” And she told me that there’s another God who’s female, with a powerpoint slide on her iPad as a visual aid. THERE ARE TWO GODS. ONE MALE AND ONE FEMALE, she claims. IDRC.

I told her:

a) I don’t actually care if God is female or male. I don’t think about it neither do i believe He is either. He is everything.

b) She is manipulating semantics in the bible (VERY POORLY) to suit her own beliefs. You can’t take the bible literally because if you do, i can very well argue for you that God wants me to purchase a horse and run down every man who eats bread on Saturdays. I told her that what she identified was rhetoric, not God’s hidden clue that He is in fact female.

c) Believing in Christ is about being a better person. It’s about loving God and loving others. It is not about prowling the streets convincing others that God is female.

d) It is ignorant and simplistic to attempt to categorize God especially in mortally ways such as gender. Personally I don’t think we understand enough to explain him.

I asked her:

a) Does it even MATTER? What difference does it make if God is female? Will it make me a better person? Does it change the way I live?

b) So you think i’m wrong? I can have served God in many ways, been a good person all the time, done everything right, but because i don’t think of him in labels of gender, i am WRONG and deserve to go to HELL?

c) Why does it matter to you what I think. Do you truly love me and therefore want me to know the truth about things? How can you when you’ve just met me a second ago. Or is this just part of your need to fulfill your quota of religious responsibility.

Yes I said all that to her. I was hoping she’d be more intelligent so it wouldn’t feel like i’m bullying her or throwing out my pent up frustration at her but she failed terribly. All she did was roll her eyes exasperatedly and tsk-ed around in resignation and whined a bit about how it’s ‘her duty’ and she ‘just wants me to know more’.

I told her that’s incredibly selfish. Responsibility and duty is admirable where it’s due. Maybe you’re responsible for giving your friend a chance to discover faith especially if she needs it or is seeking it. Then yes if you have the knowledge and the ability to help her then it’s a duty.

Duty is not blind evangelizing. It is not a clip-board, an iPad, or spending hours on your foot in public stopping people. So sweet of you to do that and pretend that you’re saving the greater population. You know what, all you’re saving is your own pitiful need to assuage your conscience. At the end of the day you just want to feel good about your own faith and that you’ve done something to confirm your place in your church.

Do you truly think you’ve saved someone? Do you really think that jumping on passers-by on the streets will get your faith anywhere at all? I don’t think you do. You’re just going through the motions and that’s called false faith and it’s the worse kind of faith to have, worse than someone who sits at home and does nothing but blog about it. Because you think you’re doing something great but you’ve just inconvenienced someone and drawn the divide further. For your own need.

Ok i didn’t go that far of course i just asked her why is it fair for me to be inconvenienced at the sake of your need to fulfill your ‘duty’.

I could have gone on forever but there was work so i left her in a miserable mess.

Main point.

PEOPLE. STOP. SHOVING YOUR BELIEFS DOWN OTHER’S THROATS. I don’t care what your beliefs are. You can be Christian, Mormon, Buddhist, Hindu, Illuminati, or even an atheist. Stop needing others to think what you think.

I understand that as a friend you might want someone you love and care about to share your beliefs because you sincerely think they will benefit from it. That is fine. There is no harm in trying to SHARE. But you stop at that. Quit making it your life mission to have them believe what you believe. It’s plain senseless. Think about it.

These are the people that make things Not Okay:

1. The self-righteous religious. I hate it when people with a religion think themselves as higher than others. Just because you found a fitting label to your belief and is backed by a legitimate organization doesn’t make you any more superior than anyone else. Quit judging others by your religious standards because if the only useful skill you’ve acquired from your religion is judgement, you’re pretty bad at it.

Quit telling people they are sinners when they have done no wrong and simply don’t subscribe to your religion.

Maybe religion helps you pave a direct path into being a better person. This makes your life, as a religious person, easier. It DOES NOT MEAN that someone agnostic or atheist cannot achieve your level of goodness. In fact, between a non-religious person contrasted with a religious one both striving to do good, I’d say the non- becomes more admirable. Because he is getting there without being told to nor does he refer to guidelines – he is doing so from pure conscience and the desire to be good. Look.

2. Atheists who do exactly what they hate others do to them. Stop being so eager for others to change their beliefs to atheistic ones, because it is nauseatingly reminiscent of religious evangelists who hanker for your conversion. It’s okay to be upset over those who invade your belief-space. It’s okay to not give a shit about others who believe differently. It’s okay to be curious and challenge them. It’s NOT okay to see atheism as sign of superiority, speak condescendingly of/judge those who aren’t, and hard-sell atheism.

Atheists stop being so smug about being atheists. If there’s any reason i’d detest one it’s not because that they contradict my belief (no, seriously, i don’t care), but when they see atheism as some sort of cool subversive thing they have going. It’s just so much fun to mock religion, and think of myself as better, and to condemn anyone who has a religion. It’s so fun to be a rebellious asshole. Oh please it is so incredibly pre-teen. If you believe in something, stick to it, but please just shut up about it.

The same goes for both religious AND non-religious people. Stop being so damn smug about your beliefs because honestly no one cares. They just want to compare and feel good about themselves. Just focus on believing in it and everyone leave every bloody one alone. Thank you.