THAT FRIENDLESS ROUND-HEADED KID LOSES ANOTHER ONE

21. September 2008 by Frank.

Why is it that we are supposed to respect the beliefs of the religious no matter how ridiculous they are and they in turn have absolutely no respect for our beliefs or lack thereof?

My best friend is a devout Seventh Day Adventist. I have been going over to his house on Friday nights and arguing religion with him for quite some time. It was fun but I got tired of it. He wasn’t trying to convert me very hard but he was attempting to draw me in slowly. SDA doctrine is very rigid and dogmatic and essentially excludes all the other branches of Christianity for not abiding by those doctrines. They are the exclusive club among exclusive clubs. Their intense study of the bible appeals to my former sensibilities, however, so I kept going along with him because I really did enjoy examining those doctrines up close and personal. But a few weeks ago when he brought out the Ellen G. White reasons we can’t have fun stuff, my interest flew out the window.

So I told him so.

He was fine with that. No reason to ruin a friendship.

BUT…………..

We cannot meet on Friday nights any longer because that is Sabbath preparation time. Despite our disagreements we were studying the bible and talking about the things of god so we were good for Friday behavior. But not now. Now any other night is acceptable. Friday is god’s night.

And now the absurdity of it all has hit me square in the face.

I have been bending over backwards to accommodate his religious beliefs in this relationship and he hasn’t given one tiny bit in return. When we have gone out to dinner it always has to be a place of his choosing because it has to be vegetarian. I have had dinner at his house many times but he has never come to my house because we don’t do vegetarian dishes. I do all sorts of things on Saturdays but the only thing he’s willing to do is go to church. No matter what I say he always finds a way to add god to it so even if I specifically deny god had anything to do with it, he turns it around so god gets praised anyway.

And I just keep going along with it.

Obviously, I am a glutton for punishment. No, what it really is is desperation. He was the last real friend I had left. I have friends at work but they are only friends while we’re there, never outside the store. There’s no real relationship other than work. This guy was the last person that actually wanted to spend any time with me. So I kept going along even though his religion was getting on my nerves more and more and more.

Even so, some things aren’t worth saving when they become so one sided you can’t tolerate them anymore. When you tell me that common ordinary things I do all the time are an abomination to your personal beliefs but you don’t expect anyone else to live by your beliefs, you’re still managing to condemn my behavior while still pretending you’re being nice by tolerating me.

Unfortunately, when I let you do that to me constantly, I’m pretending, too.

So it’s all over but the death rattle.

And that’s a shame. Religion divides people. Any religion. You’re either one of us or one of them. If you’re one of them, we can tolerate you if you behave a certain way and give us a certain amount of respect and lip service. If you don’t, well, who needs you?

I don’t have any friends. I’m going to have to change my name to Charlie Brown. But I think that’s copyrighted.

Rats!

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