I came into work one morning the week before Christmas to this on my desk:
It’s been since debated on Facebook, but hey! It makes a pretty good blog post, too, for those who are not my Facebook friends.
If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know I am not Christian. I am not really anything one could put a name to, really. I’m just … me. Atheist and agnostic aren’t proper terms. I think pagan would probably cover it, but the general sense, not anything specific like Wiccan. I believe in some sort of great spirit or energy. I believe the universe has a sort of harmony and everything is connected. I believe humans, animals, even plants to a degree, have souls and live on after death — whether that’s in some kind of afterlife heaven or hell or if we’re reborn on earth or some other planet or both or something entirely different, I don’t know. But I don’t think a soul dies with a body.
What someone else believes, so long as it doesn’t involve harming others in some way, I just couldn’t care less. If you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or worship garbanzo beans, it’s just plain none of my business.
I’ll even discuss it with you. I’m fascinated by the history or religions, how they evolved, the similarities — many might be surprised at how closely the lives of Jesus and Hercules resemble each other — why you believe what you do and I believe what I do, you name it. I respect your beliefs. I want you to respect mine.
What I won’t tolerate is someone pushing his or her beliefs. It’s not OK if you knock on my door to try to convince me to join your religion and it’s not OK for a coworker (especially anonymously!) to leave literature on my desk. And it certainly is not going to turn me in the direction that person wants me to turn. In fact, my general inclination is to turn in the opposite direction. The more you want me to be Christian, the more I’m going to dig in my heals and insist on being anything but.
Some people on Facebook mentioned going to human resources (I do have an idea who may have left it). I wouldn’t do that. I don’t think anyone deserves to get in trouble over such an incident. I’m not unreasonable.
I did, however, visit one of the local New Age stores and bought this to hang in my cubicle in a rather conspicuous spot:
Good for you! I would love to know what they did after that. Did they stop with their pushing?
I don’t know who it was. It was just a booklet left on my desk and this was the first time. There hasn’t been a second one, so …
Upon seeing the Wicca symbol, I am sure the pamphlet-leaver is praying for you as hard as they can.
As long as whoever it is is praying silently and leaving me alone, I don’t care!
This is how I respond to those who knock on my door with the intent to invite me to share their faith practices: First I invite them in and listen, without comment, to what they have to say for as long as patience will allow.
Then, I explain to them: “I was born into a Jewish family and raised as a Jew. I no longer practice Judaism.” (this is not exactly true, but it is what I tell them) “Now, I could undergo the appropriate conversion ceremony and convert to your religion and then not practice it instead. But, if I am going to not practice a religion, I might just as well continue to not practice the one I have become accustomed to not practicing. I’m sorry, but it would just take too much effort to try to learn the appropriate ways to not practice a whole new faith.”
Mom thought I should send it to you. She said you’d get a kick out of it.
I don’t know for sure who left it, so I can’t really say anything. That’s why I hung the pentagram.
Hanging the pentagram was a clever way to communicate with an anonymous messenger.
You won’t have to send the tract to me. There was a graduation ceremony held in the Protestant chapel and copies of that tract were piled on a table, so I have one now.
I think hanging the pentagram is AWESOME!! Nice job
Your dad’s way of handling things is pretty great too.
Interesting story! Sad how some people must have a rule book to follow, follow it “religiously”, and aren’t satisfied until they get others to follow it with them. Such a stealthy little prostelizer too – kind of like those holy diners who leave the overworked, harrassed wait staff a fake money tip, open it and it’s a tract instead of a bankable note.
I actually kind of admire faith in others and I think having that faith brings them comfort. And, honestly, I don’t possess the hubris to insist anyone’s beliefs are wrong. I just don’t know that. I just want them to not try to push it on me.