I politely declined a young Christian lady's offer of praying to ask Jesus to enter my life. I have no reason to do such a thing after all how can I pray to someone I do not believe to be God. Besides I am quite spiritually contented in my own faith.
But this girl got all teary-eyed and told me that Jesus suffered so much for me and why am I not grateful etc.? I tried to patiently explain to her that whatever emotions she is feeling about this matter, I cannot share simply because I do not believe all that. To illustrate I told her that Lord Odin hung from a tree in self-sacrifice to humanity and I asked her if that makes her feel obligated to him now. She admitted she didn't but still could not understand why I wouldn't just feel guilty and obligated to HER deity. After a while of her going on and on about how much suffering Jesus endured and that I should be grateful. But don't you have to BELIEVE first in order to feel grateful? Why use a guilt trip to get people to convert?
2007-03-29 08:49:30 · 22 answers · asked by pixie_pagan 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I am sorry Kerylin if you feel "picked on". I believe I didn't use any profanity or insults and I was very civil to this young lady trying to convert me.
Fact is, I live in a very Christian conservative town and most of my neighbors, co-workers are Christian and I would like to understand how to get along with them better. This also means understanding WHY they do they things they do sometimes when dealing with me, a pagan.
2007-03-29 09:04:03 · update #1
I'm sorry for the behavior of other Christians. some of them can be pretty silly at times. I promise i'll never try to save your soul. Ever.
2007-03-29 08:54:06 · answer #1 · answered by go2bermuda 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You should only ask Jesus to enter your life when you believe b/c if you don't believe your just saying a bunch of words that mean absolutely nothing. So yeah I would be sad that you choose not to pray but I would respect it and continue to pray for you that God would work in your life but I wouldn't try to guilt you into it that isn't what God wants Christians to do, he gave us the choice to follow him or not. I'm sorry the lady did that, but do if you get the time pick up a Bible and read some and if any thing you'll learn more about God and his son, what could it hurt.
2007-03-29 09:03:53 · answer #2 · answered by m cheryl 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well that's one thing which makes Christianity essentially Christian -- the existence of Christ, and his crucifixion. The concept of another person dying for you might fill some people with joy, but I fail to see how telling someone that they are responsible for an innocent man being humiliated, tortured, and killed, is beneficial.
They try telling you that not only are you responsible, you are directly responsible: Christ died for you sins. It is your fault that a man was brutally murdered. The guilt inspired from this is immense: since it is your fault, you must "make up for it" somehow -- by being Christian, by accepting that Jesus was God, by being a good person, by going to church every Sunday. After all, it was you fault he was killed, so the very least you could do is accept him as ruling your life. That's how the Christians see it.
They don't get that that is one of the main reasons I reject their religion.
EDIT: To the Christian above me, you don't know anything about Norse Mythology do you? Odin hung on Yggdrasil for nine days, sacrificing himself to himself, piecing himself with his own spear. Which is more than one can say for your god, sending his son to be crucified. And to the other Christian, yes Odin did, the All-Father lives.
2007-03-29 08:58:14 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It must have been her first day Evangelizing. Some people don't know what it's like until they start. You probably shocked the poor girl and since her belief was so strong, she couldn't understand why you didn't feel the joy that she felt.
The best way to lead people to Christ is to share your own story and if that doesn't work, leave folks alone..
2007-03-29 09:06:49 · answer #4 · answered by sister_gina 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You know, I attended church * as a pagan* with my family. My husband is christian and he and our boys wanted to go, so I went. Somehow in the course of things my husband told the pastor I was not christian. That was when they started coming to our house in droves. I suppose they were trying to save him and our boys from my *evil influences*. It even went so far as the pastor would center his sermons around such topics as martyring oneself from family and friends because of your belief in Jesus Christ. It became quite horrible for us. We eventually stopped going because it was getting abit ridiculous. We live in a very small rural area. Why is it that people become so scared? I am a stay at home mom, who is raising my boys to be good loving people. Is that satans evil influence?? I think not. Its too bad that people can't focus on themselves. Never once in all that did anyone approach me and ask me what my faith was about. They just judged, and condemned, and tried to guilt my husband into leaving me!!!
2007-03-29 09:22:11 · answer #5 · answered by Lela 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some do this because they don't know any better - sorry about her behavior. She doesn't seem to understand that it is not our ability to convince you that gets you saved. It is the holy spirit that does it.
She needs to re-read the parable of the sower. The sower spread good seed (the Gospel). Some of it grew, and some didn't. It didn't depend on the ability of the sower, it depended upon the condition of the soil (the heart of the unbeliever).
It's both un-biblical and a waste of time to try to "convince" someone to accept Christ.
2007-03-29 09:03:36 · answer #6 · answered by teran_realtor 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
She's a fundamentalist. If you are not, avoid this type of girl. They are proselytizing and are all engulfed in their belief system. I had a woman interested in me years ago and she wanted me to become an episcopalian, even though I was far from that...turns out It was all about having her friends approve of me. If they cannot accept and love us as they are, they really do not know what love is in the first place.
2007-03-29 08:55:32 · answer #7 · answered by Legandivori 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just another example of cave man culture-- the almost instinctual belief in some man made diety in order to try and justify existence or rationalize death. Hopefully one day mankind will fully evolve out of this nonsense; those of us who have are chugging along waiting for everyone else.
Amazing we have wireless internet, space exploration, milk chocolate and other wonderful things and there are still people left in stone age beliefs, who torture their daughters or even kill them, mutilate their infant sons, murder their neighbors, all in the name of some man made religion. Who knows, maybe religion and its wars and brutality are nature's way of helping to control population?
2007-03-29 09:53:40 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is NOT just Christians. All religions try to lay a guilt trip on you as a means to control you and bring you back so they can get your money. Even the so called Pagan or Wiccan religions do that, as well as Islam, Hindu and all others. They want to get your money before anyone else does. Just remember, religion has nothing to do with God. Religion is man's way of controlling another.
2007-03-29 09:03:44 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
First of all it is said that Odin's death was said to be caused by a wolf, not a tree in self scrifice, and the thing is Jesus didn't have to do that, He could have stayed in Heaven and let us all burn.... But He did come down and went through one of the worst tortures in all humanity so we can have life....
2007-03-29 08:56:56 · answer #10 · answered by Chris 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋