Thread: What to Say?
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Old 09-04-2010, 12:01 PM   #5
grinaJanoDant

Join Date
Oct 2005
Posts
533
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I personally don't really worry about offending friends who believe that demons are lurking in the shadowy corners of my life waiting to tempt me away from Christ. I'll be nice, but part of Right Speech for me is not being dishonest. If somebody is trying to fit their religion into my life, I'll explain why it doesn't go there.

You're a good friend to offer support to this person, but that doesn't give her license to start giving you patronizing warnings about having to be cautious lest Satan do... whatever it is that Christians are so afraid Satan is doing. I've found that religious people tend to back off when I say, "Oh, well. Faith and I don't fit together very well. Thanks for your concern, though," and then put things back on topic. If at that point they turn it into an impromptu evangelism session, then I'll deal with that. Drawing a boundary on my life that I'm not open to being evangelized to is not in any way impeding anybody else's freedom of belief. It's just me denying them opportunity to disrespect my freedom of belief.

You know your friend, though, and you know your own comfort level. If right now, to you, Right Speech means not challenging an evidently-fragile foundation of your friend's emotional and spiritual life, then you're the best judge of that. However, I am not in the habit of pretending to be receptive to evangelism just because the other person's faith may not survive the fact that I'm happy without sharing it.
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