I get it.
I reside in a Christian nation.
No matter what everybody else is thinking when they read this, i still think this country(or at least the south and the midwest) takes a double peg of religion. Of course, fanatics abound in every corner of the globe, and i am yet to meet a bonafide religious fanatic, but it's funny to see people who i thought would be open-minded, free-thinking and liberal; go about a-Jesusing. I have had a couple of amusing(for me) encounters with the sort of people who walk up to strangers at random locations, Bible in hand; and proclaim 'brother, Jesus is the light!!' ,asking me to join the path to salvation and righteousness etc.
I like to mess with them, contradicting everything they say, and giving them an alternative viewpoint from other religions, until they are exhausted of whatever propoganda they had, and in desperation, start bad-mouthing other religions and use whatever they can lay their hands on as ammunition against all but their own(where's the love now, bro?)
finally, finding me a pretty tough customer, they walk away by saying things like 'i will pray for you, my brother' when actually they are mentally filing me away in the "to Hell with Thee" folder in their heads.
now, I know you could find people like this in India, in fact, we have a surplus of them. but what really tickles me is the way, in a supposedly free country, random strangers butt into something that is very personal and private. Religious conversions are something of a controversial thing in India, some groups being accused of forced conversions and some states(eg. TN, Gujarat) banning conversions altogether; which in my opinion is in direct conflict with the constitution, more accurately, our fundamental rights. The constitution being our supreme charter, should render these state 'laws' null and void...(but go ahead and ask Soli Sorabjee...i'm just guessing)
Most of these conversions are the by-product of our own apartheid, the caste system, and simple poverty. And if being in one or the other religious group makes a person feel better, so be it; even though that poor person may have been brainwashed into doing something he has little grasp of. If any right-wing, religious majority-fundamentalist-neo-con is reading this, get a grip on reality, and..oh..up yours!
finally, finding me a pretty tough customer, they walk away by saying things like 'i will pray for you, my brother' when actually they are mentally filing me away in the "to Hell with Thee" folder in their heads.
now, I know you could find people like this in India, in fact, we have a surplus of them. but what really tickles me is the way, in a supposedly free country, random strangers butt into something that is very personal and private. Religious conversions are something of a controversial thing in India, some groups being accused of forced conversions and some states(eg. TN, Gujarat) banning conversions altogether; which in my opinion is in direct conflict with the constitution, more accurately, our fundamental rights. The constitution being our supreme charter, should render these state 'laws' null and void...(but go ahead and ask Soli Sorabjee...i'm just guessing)
Most of these conversions are the by-product of our own apartheid, the caste system, and simple poverty. And if being in one or the other religious group makes a person feel better, so be it; even though that poor person may have been brainwashed into doing something he has little grasp of. If any right-wing, religious majority-fundamentalist-neo-con is reading this, get a grip on reality, and..oh..up yours!
1 comment:
Yeah, some of these people are just nutjobs. For example, the Mormons, whom I am assuming you have run into a good number of times -- they ride bikes and go house to house in three-piece suits praying for peoples' souls. My stepdad used to be a church elder until he was essentially excommunicated for getting divorced, but he would faithfully preach the word to all the heathens. I donno. Religion. I don't like to touch it with a ten-foot pole.
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