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Mods: feel free to move this to another form. I thought this would be the best place to get advice from Christians on this matter.
Long story short: I (along with one of my close friends) are friends and mentors to a high school girl we know through our local running club. Over the past few years, she's looked up to us and we've cheered her on and supported her.
I recently shared a link on Facebook about equality in religion, saying that as humans we need to not label someone as a "Christian" or a "Jew" or a person of "Islamic" faith and just seem them as a person capable of making their own choices in the world, whether that's positive or negative.
This girl's dad sent me a FB message and we got in a discussion about recent world events. He's extremely conservative and a very dedicated Christian. Somewhere along the conversation, I had said I was brought up as a Presbyterian in high school, I determined that I didn't truly believe in it and decided to part ways with religion and instead live my life in a positive way without being tied to anything particular.
He asked me if I still believed in Jesus and God, which my response was:
"I believe that there are things that we as humanity do not know and may never know or understand. I simply think as humans, we should do our best to be the best people we can, help support our family and community and to try to brighten people's lives."
His response was that I was dodging the question and that God and Jesus are real and that we should talk and that Jesus would forgive me and I can still be saved.
I haven't responded yet.
I don't want to be "saved." I'm an atheist, and made my own decision as an adult with my own personal reasons that I don't want to be associated with a religion.
Due to the relationship with the father though, I don't want to be mean. I respect everyone's individual rights to believe what they believe. And I fully support living your life representative of those beliefs.
How can I respectfully respond to the father, thanking him for caring, but that I'm not interested?
How can I respectfully respond to the father, thanking him for caring, but that I'm not interested?
How about just like that? I don't know how you could put it any better. Nothing more should be necessary. If he continues to push it, I would say something along the lines of "I respect your beliefs, and I would appreciate it if you respect mine. This isn't something I care to discuss."
And if that's not enough, quite frankly he's used up all the courtesy he has coming, in my opinion. I would just tell him very bluntly, "I've tried to be polite about this, but I don't care to discuss this issue with you. Please mind your own business."
Last edited by Mr. In-Between; 02-08-2015 at 10:36 PM..
I would tell him you and Jesus already talked and you are cool with each other. The conversation should end after that unless he is going to call you a liar.
I would tell him you and Jesus already talked and you are cool with each other. The conversation should end after that unless he is going to call you a liar.
Very good, and if you call me a liar that is cool too.
He asked me if I still believed in Jesus and God, which my response was:
"I believe that there are things that we as humanity do not know and may never know or understand. I simply think as humans, we should do our best to be the best people we can, help support our family and community and to try to brighten people's lives."
His response was that I was dodging the question and that God and Jesus are real and that we should talk and that Jesus would forgive me and I can still be saved.
I haven't responded yet.
Well, ya kinda did dodge the question. The progress of the discussion would require you to just say so that you do not believe in Jesus Christ and God with the follow up quote below.
Quote:
I don't want to be "saved." I'm an atheist, and made my own decision as an adult with my own personal reasons that I don't want to be associated with a religion.
BTW; that quote is interesting enough that it could add to the progress of the discussion if you still want to.
Quote:
Due to the relationship with the father though, I don't want to be mean. I
respect everyone's individual rights to believe what they believe. And I fully
support living your life representative of those beliefs.
It's not mean for sharing why you believe the way you do. If you can avoid doling out judgment like "you christians" in getting personal, I am sure he would be interested to know your reasons without being insulting by you in the process.
You can even practise your response here if you think you are not sure that you can reply without cutting loose like that example I had given. Feel free to share your personal reasons why you do not want to be associated with religion & maybe even why you perceive christianity as a religion.
Granted; catholicism and making a commitment to follow Christ are all the reasons why people would consider it a religion, but Jesus did prophesy that false prophets will come in and lead many astray; of which that is my way of telling you that catholicism and making a commitment to follow Christ is not of Him when it is focussed on their work. The Good News is about Jesus Christ. He is our hope for living as His for being our Good Shepherd as well as resting in Him as our Saviour that we are saved simply for believing in Him; it is all about living this reconciled relationship with God thru Jesus Christ. FYI
Quote:
How can I respectfully respond to the father, thanking him for caring, but that I'm not interested?
That emboldened part of your quote above is the best response if you do not wish to continue the discussion.
All right. Guess that was easier than I thought. This was my response:
Hi - I appreciate you caring and wanting to share your faith. I made the decision as a young adult to part ways with religion and am not really interested in pursuing faith again. I hope you can understand and hope you have a great Monday!
Mods: feel free to move this to another form. I thought this would be the best place to get advice from Christians on this matter.
Long story short: I (along with one of my close friends) are friends and mentors to a high school girl we know through our local running club. Over the past few years, she's looked up to us and we've cheered her on and supported her.
I recently shared a link on Facebook about equality in religion, saying that as humans we need to not label someone as a "Christian" or a "Jew" or a person of "Islamic" faith and just seem them as a person capable of making their own choices in the world, whether that's positive or negative.
This girl's dad sent me a FB message and we got in a discussion about recent world events. He's extremely conservative and a very dedicated Christian. Somewhere along the conversation, I had said I was brought up as a Presbyterian in high school, I determined that I didn't truly believe in it and decided to part ways with religion and instead live my life in a positive way without being tied to anything particular.
He asked me if I still believed in Jesus and God, which my response was:
"I believe that there are things that we as humanity do not know and may never know or understand. I simply think as humans, we should do our best to be the best people we can, help support our family and community and to try to brighten people's lives."
His response was that I was dodging the question and that God and Jesus are real and that we should talk and that Jesus would forgive me and I can still be saved.
I haven't responded yet.
I don't want to be "saved." I'm an atheist, and made my own decision as an adult with my own personal reasons that I don't want to be associated with a religion.
Due to the relationship with the father though, I don't want to be mean. I respect everyone's individual rights to believe what they believe. And I fully support living your life representative of those beliefs.
How can I respectfully respond to the father, thanking him for caring, but that I'm not interested?
Let me at least start off by saying, you have to understand his perspective here. You are saying things that are contrary to what he has taught her in his own home. And given that you are around his daughter, he is trying to see where your head is. When he asked you the question, just like others have said, you should have simply responded that you are an atheist. By not being direct about your beliefs, you opened the door for the possibility that you could be a Christian, which is clearly not something you are considering, so why not be clear about that?
All right. Guess that was easier than I thought. This was my response:
Hi - I appreciate you caring and wanting to share your faith. I made the decision as a young adult to part ways with religion and am not really interested in pursuing faith again. I hope you can understand and hope you have a great Monday!
Thank you for your help!
Why didn't you just respond with the same thing you told all of us?
Quote:
I don't want to be "saved." I'm an atheist, and made my own decision as an adult with my own personal reasons that I don't want to be associated with a religion.
Are you ashamed? I don't understand what was wrong with using this statement for the father. It's very clear, it's to the point and there is no ground for questioning what you believe here.
Mods: feel free to move this to another form. I thought this would be the best place to get advice from Christians on this matter.
Long story short: I (along with one of my close friends) are friends and mentors to a high school girl we know through our local running club. Over the past few years, she's looked up to us and we've cheered her on and supported her.
I recently shared a link on Facebook about equality in religion, saying that as humans we need to not label someone as a "Christian" or a "Jew" or a person of "Islamic" faith and just seem them as a person capable of making their own choices in the world, whether that's positive or negative.
This girl's dad sent me a FB message and we got in a discussion about recent world events. He's extremely conservative and a very dedicated Christian. Somewhere along the conversation, I had said I was brought up as a Presbyterian in high school, I determined that I didn't truly believe in it and decided to part ways with religion and instead live my life in a positive way without being tied to anything particular.
He asked me if I still believed in Jesus and God, which my response was:
"I believe that there are things that we as humanity do not know and may never know or understand. I simply think as humans, we should do our best to be the best people we can, help support our family and community and to try to brighten people's lives."
His response was that I was dodging the question and that God and Jesus are real and that we should talk and that Jesus would forgive me and I can still be saved.
I haven't responded yet.
I don't want to be "saved." I'm an atheist, and made my own decision as an adult with my own personal reasons that I don't want to be associated with a religion.
Due to the relationship with the father though, I don't want to be mean. I respect everyone's individual rights to believe what they believe. And I fully support living your life representative of those beliefs.
How can I respectfully respond to the father, thanking him for caring, but that I'm not interested?
Tell him just that. I think the key phrase I've heard a lot of folks use is "not interested in organized religion". Tell him you're not interested. But on the other hand...you should make an attempt to be respectful of his beliefs if you expect him to respect your beliefs.
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