Question from Darcy:
Well it all started a year ago when i met a boy called ‘Joseph’. I didn’t know he was a born again Christian when he asked me to be his girlfriend, but after about a month, oh boy did I know! we were only 13 and he goes ON AND ON about God and rubbish about angels falling from heaven and giants and how Obama is evil and he HATED Catholics and Muslims, etc. He was just so arrogant and started arguments for no reason…and well messed up my mind. We aren’t going out anymore, he said we should ‘move on’ and other rubbish and he keeps adding me back on Facebook then deleting me. I saw his mum in Tesco today and it bought back a thousand memories; thats what made me search this. It’s sad how such a young boy can have so much hate and think he knows everyting about everything. The sad thing is I’m only 13 as well and confused about religion and angry at born again Christians because of him and literally obsessed with them now. How do I move on and forget about the crap born again Christians brought me, which left when they walked out?
Answer by SmartLX:
Give it a while. The emotional reaction to what you’ve been through will fade over time, and though you’ll probably always be averse to born-agains they won’t occupy your whole brain anymore.
If you keep searching, you’ll learn about the efforts of fundamentalist evangelicals to gain control of society and enforce their biblical interpretations and discrimination as national law, but you’ll also learn how they’ve completely failed to make demographic headway against the non-religious. In many countries where people with no stated religion aren’t already a majority, they’re the fastest growing group. Where religions are growing, it’s because of simple population growth, or at the expense of other religions (or pseudo-religions like communism). They have big plans, but they’re terribly frustrated. You can hear it in their constant prayers for a “revival”; you only need to revive something if it’s in a bad way.
Nevertheless, if you feel you need to do something, look up what’s happening in your area. Are there state-funded schools trying to teach creationism? Are people being harassed outside abortion clinics? Are churches using public land for their own religious advertising? Just drawing attention to it can help stop it, as many activists have found.
Seriously, you’re not stuck being mad forever because of ‘Joseph’. Just think of it as a learning experience, and keep on learning long after you’ve stopped caring about him and his arrogance.