Saturday, November 03, 2007

Happy November

Hello readers:

My post volume is down lately thanks to my travel schedule. And, to be honest, I have settled into quite a comfortable church-slash-religion-free life these days. I was consumed with theological questions earlier in the summer; for whatever reason, I don't feel the same urgency to figure out the answers rightthisveryminute.

That being said, I just picked up a title by Karen Armstrong - The Bible. I started reading it on my flight home last night, but quickly encountered one of the pitfalls of visibly contemplating spiritual matters: the guy in the seat next to me tried to start a conversation, inspired by the book. "Is that the Bible?" he asked. No, it's a book about the bible, I replied. "Are you a Christian?" Oh jeez. ? Apart from being an introvert and antisocial on flights, I'm exhausted from a long work week. So, what to say to this total stranger that won't spark up a conversation? He is either a Christian who wants to discuss faith and/or evangelize me; or he is the first flesh-and-blood non-Christian "seeker" to ever voluntarily try to get evangelized by me.

Here's what I came up with: More or less. I said it nicely, but it effectively shut down the budding conversation.

I'm off for more overseas travel so will be quiet again for a bit - but I am going to a wedding on November 10 that might provide some new fodder: it's one of my Christian friends who is getting married, and many of our mutual (still-Christian) friends will likely be there. That will be a fun one both for me and for my scientist-atheist boyfriend. He asked if he could introduce himself as an islamo-fascist, just to keep things interesting.

3 comments:

Zeke said...

Even worse, he could call himself a "committed bisexual."

SocietyVs said...

Hey, have fun on the trip and enjoy the wedding also. We are all wishing you the best out here!

Slapdash said...

Thanks. I wound up really enjoying the wedding, though I was completely jetlagged because I arrived the same afternoon from Europe. My fears about my Christian friends haranguing or pressing me for details on my agnosticism were unfounded - we just didn't go there. And maybe I underestimated them? Not sure yet.