First off, I don't want to start a religious war. I know there are a myrid of religious affiliations swimming around DailyKos, and I respect each and everyone. I am an atheist in general. Secondly, as you can tell by my diary list, this is only my second diary, so be gentle...
What occured at my house last night, I should have just let pass and not wrote a diary about. Yet, it is still making me upset this morning, so I feel I need to just get it off my chest. In reality, it didn't even happen to me, but my saint of a husband.
It was around 7:30pm when the doorbell rang. As we have no friends that were stopping by, I couldn't imagine who it might be. My husband answered the door, and the following conversation occured:
H = husband
G = guy at the door.
G - "Hello, I am from XXXX Baptist Church and I would like to give you this pamplet about how you can be saved through God and not go to hell."
H - "Well, sir, honestly, I think you would be better off suited in keeping your pamplet and giving it to someone who would want it. I am set in my religious beliefs."
G - "Do you believe in God?"
H - "No, I am an atheist, which is why I suggested that you keep your pamplet for someone else."
G - "How strong of an atheist are you?"
H - "Very strongly atheist."
G - "Do you write the date on your bills when you send them?"
H - "Yes"
G - "Then I think you aren't as strong of an atheist as you believe."
It was then that my husband all but held me back from jumping through the doorway, and he pretty much said well goodnight, and closed the door. I was pretty livid. I don't go door to door at night, during the dinner hours, to ask you if God really exists. And how do you know he exists, and a myrid of other questions I could ask.
Then I kept thinking. Why, in this world of such unspeakable tragedies (war, hunger, poor etc) is this person worried about MY religion. When I was younger, I was a part of the Catholic church with my parents. I was an altar server and the works. My parents renounced the church when my mother sought help for my brother (who is severly disabled) and the priest told her that she just needed to pray more. That coupled with my mother's growing distain for the treatment of women in the Catholic faith, led to my family deciding to give up church-going all together. They allowed my brother an I the opportunity to choose any religion we wanted to be affiliated with, if we so chose.
Yet, I can still remember the church back then, holding food drives, adopting a poor nation, and even helping the poor in the community. And, perhaps this still occurs in many churchs across the nation. Then why all this door-knocking business? Why does that even have to be part of the church culture? Why, when there are SO many other more important people that could be helped with some food, clothing, or shelter?
I know this isn't the case for many churchs around the nation, but it begs the question, what do these door-knockers have to gain? Additional members to their church, which in turn provides more money to the church? I guess I am simply woefully inadequate in finding positive reasoning in this.