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| Posted by: sexkitten Oct 15 2004, 03:07 PM |
| Printable Version of Topic Click here to view this topic in its original format ExChristian.Net Open Forums > Backlash and Reactions > Anyone Have To Deal With Posted by: Gypsy Feb 12 2004, 07:40 PM I used to work in the same dept with a woman who is so devoutly xristian that her entire office was filled with xristian stuff (but hey, her space, her beliefs, her stuff, that was okay with me) and whenever ANYone within hearing distance sneezed, you got a VERY loud "god bless you" (heavy emphasis on the "god" of course!) Let's not even mention the xristian newsletters that EVERY employee gets in their mailbox, whether they want one or not... It seems to be this woman's sole mission in life to convert everyone she knows, and it seems the more resistant you are to her pressure, the more persistent she becomes (hmmm...I have to wonder if xristian ministers are putting a dollar value on each "convert?"..it sure seems so!) I have actually had some fun with this, but has anyone else had to deal with over-the-top xristians like this at work? If so, please share what you did, etc. Posted by: michelle Feb 12 2004, 08:39 PM I hear gospel songs being sung lowly at work sometimes. The other day it was: "Lord, I know I cant get to heaven on a bottle of beer". I swear its true, that was she was singing, I actually smiled. It seems that the idea of heaven is a good one, assuming everybody can get in there, her song was implying that not everyone can get in there. Im an atheist so obviously I dont beleive in heaven but am I gonna lie and say I dont wish it was true. Of course I wish it were true. But its not so meanwhile I live it to the fullest. Just smile at them, they leave you alone as long as you look happy. Not to say that Im not happy, most days I am but every minute of the day? No. I think thats what Christians want, to be happy all of the time, they really do ask for too much. Posted by: Tocis Feb 12 2004, 08:59 PM QUOTE (Gypsy @ Feb 12 2004, 07:40 PM) I have actually had some fun with this, but has anyone else had to deal with over-the-top xristians like this at work? If so, please share what you did, etc. Umm... no. The rest of our team doesn't even have time to preach anything, even if they wanted to. (let alone that there aren't many fundies in Germany anyway...) Posted by: CodeWarren Feb 12 2004, 09:54 PM I have a fundie boss. It's quite annoying, as he sort of implictly thinks that I go to church and everything. I actually met him through a couple of degrees removed from the church, so I shouldn't be surprised, but he's incredibly conservative and it can get quite annoying. Thankfully he's professional about it, so politics/religion/economics rarely come up. But it's just that fact that he thinks I'm something I'm not. But it's not part of the job, so I really don't care. FYI, I'm a secretary/co-whatever with essentially a broker for an investment company. It's just he and I, so it's cool (he buys me lunch ) but not cool because he can get a bit hokey at times. It's give and take. Gypsy, have you considered putting Pantheistic literature in her mailbox, then when she approaches, say with a huge stained grin, "We are all One. *smile*, please, you are interrupting my Nature spirit flow"...or something like that. No offense to any patheists, it was a belief I looked into when I was a young teenager. Went to a meeting of their group downtown and...well...yeah that's about how it went . Posted by: Gypsy Feb 13 2004, 02:23 AM Rather than putting pantheistic literature in everyone's mailbox (which is far too intrusive and pushy IMHO) I did set a stack of "What is Paganism?" brochures in the breakroom, right next to her extra stack of fundie newsletters. They didn't last 48 hours. Someone either took them or threw them away. Hmmm...think somebody was really uncomfortable with those? But that's okay, I put out some more. Also, during our "secret santa" gift exchange, the gifts I was getting were SO xristian that I actually contemplated complaining to mgmt (though I'm not normally a boat-rocker) about this work-supported activity being so religiously focused, but someone must have gotten wind that I didn't especially appreciate the candy canes with buybull verses taped to them. If you want to give candy, fine, GIVE THE CANDY, SAVE THE SERMON. I guess I just get really annoyed when others ASSUME I'm xristian...for all that my secret santa person knew, I could have been Jewish, and for that possibility alone, she should have been more careful. Btw, I think she will be more careful in the future. Posted by: 603269726 Feb 13 2004, 03:48 AM i had a woman at work come to me to tell me about the "truth". i told her it was her truth and not THE truth. when she asked me what i meant i told her xtianity was a disease that needed to be eradicated... i think i made my point. Posted by: ericf Feb 15 2004, 07:54 AM I have had two jobs that had fundies in them. The first one was driving a tow truck. The owner was a fundy and he hired me because he thought I was. I am serious because he told me that when he hired me. "Eric, I hired you because we need another light for Jesus to help save some of the other people who work here." I kid you not. The job wasn't bad because I was usually in the truck and never really had to live up the the job description given by the boss. I almost blew that job when I decided I would shut up a racist co-worker with a tire-iron if need be. I am not racist but he assumed that since I was white I wanted to hear how Jesus hates other people. He just wouldn't stop. The boss wasn't racist either but he would have fired me for beating another worker. I swear I am not a violent person, really, this just went on for months and I was at the end of my rope. Eventually I left that job because it bothered me ethically that I was hired for religious reasons... even moreso because those reasons were false. The current job I have is at a hotel. I got hired because one of the ladies behind the desk knows my mother and thinks I am a Christian. She isn't my boss this time but she put in the word to get me hired. She hopes that I will be a good example to her son who also works here. I don't worry about it because I never really see her and I wasn't hired by the boss for that reason. It can be a pain because when I do see her she wants to talk about God and church... I just smile and play the game. I know, pathetic compared to how some people here would react. Posted by: Shadfox Feb 15 2004, 08:14 AM Pathetic? I wouldn't say so. Playing along is a survival skill in a society that's unfairly structured with prejudice. I actually wanted to work at a Christian bookstore, the ones that make you sign a contract stating Jesus saved you. Just think of the fun one could have behind the scenes of such a store I'd savor the irony daily. Posted by: ericf Feb 15 2004, 09:50 AM lol, call me sick but that mirrors one of my secret fantasies. Enrolling in an ultra-strict bible school... my sister went to one that is perfect. And forming a secret group of people working against the school. I don't know exactly how we would do it but it is an amusing fantasy for me. To get into that school you not only need to say Jesus saved you but you also need to promise not to have sex with animals or gamble. I told them that I would be able to resist one of those but not the other... you can pick whichever one you think best applies to me. Posted by: nonni Feb 16 2004, 02:45 PM Yes, actually at the moment I have one fundy coworker and her name is Tisha. She and I are really good friends. Sometimes I wonder, though, if she's trying to convert me using the "be their friend" approach. A few months back, I gave her all my prosperity gospel books, and paraphanalia, and sermon tapes. She was grateful, but later on asked me why I was giving them to her. I simply told her I was decluttering and left it at that. Since then, no witnessing has taken place. One time about a month ago, Tisha, me, and our boss had to break away and go on a short business "trip" to Louisiana. In the car, we heard on the morning radio news about that lady who lied about loosing a purse with a winning lotto ticket. She and my boss then got into a HUUUUUGE debate about the following topic- if you find something that someone else lost, then is it stealing if you don't hand it in? Tisha thought it was, and my boss thought it wasn't. Well, Tisha made it into this Bible hour. Proclaiming the truth and all that. "The TRUTH is the TRUTH" We stopped at a gas station on the way and on the way back out to the car, my boss told me, "I don't want to be talking with her about this shit. She's crazy, man!" But all the while, Tish was like, "Debating is healthy! Debating is healthy!" Later on, when we found out that that lady lied, my boss came up to me and I broke it to him that I heard on the news that she lied. He laughed and said, "So much for the truth". But all in all, she is a good friend. As long as she doesn't start witnessing, I'm cool. She knows that I have fallen away from Christianity. Posted by: Sanguine Feb 16 2004, 03:22 PM Fundies are quite rare in Australia, but I did go to school with one. He was normally quite reserved, but the second anything even remotely related to religion came up the flood gates opened. Which wasn't really a problem, because he was always shouted down by superior knowledge and intelligence. Posted by: TalkingDonkey Mar 1 2004, 10:38 AM After Xmas 2001, Moreover the Dog and I returned from our holiday break and walked into our offices talking about the opera singers who were entertaining the Pope on some Xmas special that we both caught on TV. We were cracking jokes about how the Pope digs fat chicks and how the scepter wasn't the only thing that was hard that day and so forth. I'm not really doing it justice, but it was pretty funny, especially if you saw the special. (As an aside, we weren't really denigrating the Pope, per se, we were just cracking on his humorous facial expressions and how fast his little Pope-wave hand was moving when watching Charlotte Church sing.) Our resident Fundy salesman overheard us talking about this and somehow became offended by our conversation (which would be fine had this not been the same guy who said that Catholics are all going to hell, right? I mean, who is more Catholic than the Pope?) So, instead of being a normal guy and saying, "Hey guys… Can you quit that?" or something of the sort, he went to one of his Fundy friends in HR and lodged a formal "harassment" complaint stating that we were talking about it within earshot of his office with the "express purpose of offending" him after he spent a "very spiritual Christmas with his family." Uh-huh... like we knew that. Needless to say, we get called on the carpet about it by our director who demands to know why we were talking about "offensive topics" in front of Mark, who "you guys know is a Bible beater!" We didn't know what he was talking about (it was after the New Year by the time it got all the way back to our department head) and asked what the complaint was. Well, due to the machinations and Machiavellian twists of corporate law, he can't tell us… only HR can tell us, so he sends us to HR. Well, the HR Blazing Fundy was still on holiday vacation and the HR Lukewarm Catholic was the one who had to deal with us. She didn't know what the complaint was at first either, so she goes and pulls the original paperwork from the HR Fundy's office muttering about "irregularities." Well, Moreover and I end up sitting across a giant mahogany desk from the lady (who we know is Catholic) who can possibly fire us or send us to "sensitivity training" or some other nonsense and watching her face turn bright red (I thought for sure my goose was cooked and I found out later than Moreover thought so too) as she reads the complaint. She puts down the paper and looks at us… her first words? "BWAHAHAHAHA!!! I SAW THAT SPECIAL TOO! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" We sat in the office bullshitting with her for about half an hour before she brings our director in and tells him that the complaint was completely invalid because Mark didn't go through proper channels (all complaints are supposed to go through her) and it was "a stupid complaint to begin with" because Mark "isn't even Catholic." Ah, sweet vindication! Posted by: Skankboy Mar 1 2004, 12:56 PM I had a co-worker start talking about a "Church Bizarre" she was going to the next day. Don't know why, but I almost lost my shit right there. It was all I could do to not laugh out loud... Posted by: formerfundie Mar 1 2004, 11:08 PM QUOTE (Gypsy @ Feb 12 2004, 07:40 PM) I have actually had some fun with this, but has anyone else had to deal with over-the-top xristians like this at work? If so, please share what you did, etc. You're kidding, right? Not only at work, but at school, and I go to a poetry group every fourth Thursday of the month and critique - the director tries to keep things neutral - he's an atheist(at least from what I can determine he is anyway) - but I mean - it's REALLY hard. Much of the poetry lately has been about jesus and god and stuff. The director is a good example of how to be diplomatic though, so that helps. They don't just sing low where I work. There's this one girl - she sings really LOUD - and walks around saying "Praise the Lord" and stuff - and everyone there talks about god and stuff - and I do mean everyone(okay, at least in my section and minus one - me) - it's kinda scary. I try not to sit around them too much. I work in a call center so I can move sometimes to another sit if I really feel the need. Funny story - I brought in Ruth Green's The Born Again Skeptic's Guide to the Bible and one of the girls said, "Oh, are you studying to be a preacher?" I didn't have the heart(or nerve) to explain it to her. At least for the most part they are sweet. I just try not to get involved or make it an issue. I did have a rather interesting discussion one day with a Jehovah's Witness though. Truthfully, I feel like a salmon who's swimming upstream and going against a current that seems to get increasingly stronger. There, that's my beef. Posted by: fool_ps14:1 Mar 2 2004, 07:21 PM My job involves moving from location to location every three months, and working under different inspectors at each job site. On one particular job, the inspector showed up in a pickup with a bunch of “stop abortion!” and “god loves you” bumper stickers. His name was Patrick, a born again fundamentalist Catholic. A few days into the job, he approached me and asked, “Do you have jesus in your life?” I told him that I don’t believe in jesus. He then asked “what do you believe in?” I said “aliens” he looked confused… Patrick: aliens? Me: yes Patrick: what do you mean? Me: I believe aliens created this planet, and populated it with humans as a potential food source for the future. Patrick: Are you serious? Me: (completely straight faced) Absolutely! Patrick: Well then, where did the aliens come from? Me: Oh, they are eternal, they have always existed. Long pause Patrick: So how do you explain the evidence proving the bible? Me: which ones? Patrick: Well, for one, I have a book here (pulls book out of truck) that has photos of Noah’s ark Me: What happened with Noah is that the aliens needed to harvest the planet, but they didn’t want to completely annihilate the planet, so they commanded this drunk guy to build a boat, then he loaded all of his farm animals on it. And the aliens shoved him out to sea. When he landed, everyone was gone. He believed that god had judged everyone else. Meanwhile the aliens were having a fondue party. There was never a flood, that was just the first harvest. Patrick: (confused look) Long pause Patrick: So you don’t believe in heaven and hell? Me: Nope, just the harvest Patrick: So what do you gain from believing in this? Me: I am going to be a cook for them. I get to live. There are also people who are going to help with the harvest, and people who are going to serve, like waiters. Patrick: What about the teachings of the bible? Me: The aliens created it. They think that, if they start beaming people up to their ships, everyone will think it’s the rapture, and won’t try to fight. The pope is part of this. It’s his job to keep Catholicism and Christianity spreading so the harvest will be easier. Patrick: (somewhat outraged) the Pope? Me: Yes, that is why he wears that big hat. His hat is actually an alien communication device so they can tell him what to preach. Patrick: You will be in my prayers tonight! Me: And you will be in my recipe book. Don’t worry Patrick, I like you, I’ll make sure they kill you quickly. Posted by: Doug2 Mar 2 2004, 08:31 PM Picture of the ark.....ugh. That is still going around and now it is in a book! A human harvest, of course! That would explain the penchant for procreation. Posted by: JezebelLeFey Mar 2 2004, 08:36 PM OMG! I don't know how you did that with a straight face. Posted by: phoenix Mar 2 2004, 11:28 PM i wish i had the courage and wit to do that! Posted by: HaveUseenMyDaddy? Mar 3 2004, 09:26 PM Fool would come home every night and tell me about his conversations with Patrick. This Patrick is a resilient fuck though, he kept trying and trying to trip Fool up. He finally gave up trying to convert him after 2 months. As for me, I work in a small 4 staff office, and volunteers that come in and out sporadically. There is a sign hung a couple of places in the kitchen that say "Don't feel personally, irrevocably, responsible for everything. That's my job. Love, God" That's about it. Although my Mom told me a funny story. She works for a major airlines doing reservations in a call center. They are on the phone all day. Well one day this lady got stuck on a call 45 minutes past the time that her shift ended. She started telling everyone "Praise God! It was God's will that I get stuck on that call. That was the Lord. He knew that if I had gotten off on time I would have been stuck in traffic, so he had my call run over! Praise God!" Man when they say Eye In the Sky traffic, they're not fucking around are they? Posted by: TalkingDonkey Mar 5 2004, 08:02 AM "Praise God! If I hadn't been stuck on that call, I would already be home and possibly have had to cook dinner already, but this way, since I'm running forty-five minutes late, I can just swing by Taco Bell instead of cooking and I love Taco Bell! Praise the Lord, for he gives me an excuse to buy Chalupas!" Posted by: Skankboy Mar 5 2004, 10:17 AM QUOTE "Praise God! If I hadn't been stuck on that call, I would already be home and possibly have had to cook dinner already, but this way, since I'm running forty-five minutes late, I can just swing by Taco Bell instead of cooking and I love Taco Bell! Praise the Lord, for he gives me an excuse to buy Chalupas!" Truly the lawd does work in mysterious ways! PS Talkingdonkey: Love the new Avatar! Posted by: Quicksand Mar 5 2004, 02:47 PM well i can relate. nearly everyone i work with (12 ppl and counting) all know each other through their church connections. i am a fluke (long story). anyway i am subjected to fundie radio and gospel all day. grr...so i just turn up some loud annoying punk/death metal stuff that i love just to drown it out. and i get all the "GOD bless yous" when you sneeze, and proproganda for christianity all over the place. i know my co-wokers probably consider me as much christian as they do...and i don't care if they really know or not. the best way i know to handle it is to smile at them and know they really worship a pagan god whether they know it or not. smug, i know, but humor is the way i choose to handle it. i still fear the day i get questioned for it...cause, they won't be able to stop my list of criticisms! cheers! Posted by: Quicksand Mar 23 2004, 06:48 AM THEY'RE AT IT AGAIN! I found this on my desk at work this morning. Posted by: Quicksand Mar 23 2004, 06:54 AM didnt attached this time. hopefully this time. Clear proof of how this film has turned into evangelical tool. Posted by: Quicksand Mar 23 2004, 06:59 AM here't the inside of the card. A huge part of me wants to go, however I'd be one against many. And I dont know if I really care to try and dispell the fantasy world these people live in. When the question only serves to answer itself then its not a question...so no debate would really happen. I can see it...The Bibble says this The Bibble says that...you're going to hell sinner...Yawn. I have no time for a polemic which will just leave me frustrated. yeah if jesus is so much like gravity, then i'll just worship gravity. at least there is evidence for that. ha ha. Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com) © Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com) |