I'm practicing Pagan, I'm a very introvert guy, for a few months I was going to a Christian prayer group mostly to get out of the house/work, meet people and get some kicks. After a little while I didn't regurgitate all the stuff they said and I didn’t know all the hymns and bible verses; it began to get quite obvious I was not like them, I felt like I was undercover or something! I left the group but I'm in a very small town so I bump into a lot of the people in the store on the street, at the post office and especially the cafe. I'm tired of all that stuff and I’m very sick off being around them. They are under the impression I am a Christian because I am just a nice person. I rather not tell them otherwise, ever have some Christian come up give you a pamphlet and ask if you believe in Jesus Christ. What happens when you say no? They bother you about the lords prayer and how he died on the cross and questions on the subtext of "do you want to make it to heaven?" Think of that amp x100. This woman from the group very friendly very attractive always bothering me for a conversation, I usually give in because she's attractive, but she even sees me as moody. On the most part some times during a day I don't feel like socializing with people specially to someone on the subject I have no remote interest in.. I regret ever going to those group meetings.
They are not the problem. You are. They are well meaning and as long as you let them think you are interested in what they have to say they will continue to be concerned (harass) for you. You need to learn to be firm, yet maintain a civil demeanor. I know because I have been there. You could say, "Look, I really appreciate your concern, but I would rather we talk about something else. I am very familiar with the Gospel, I do not subscribe to it, thank you no." You have to make it respectfully clear you are disinclined to go their way. good luck, JKHolman
The question you must ask yourself is; "Why do I regret what I did?" Do you regret going because these people now want to see you as one of their's and that disturbs you? Do you regret because you feel as though you are somehow letting them down? Perhaps you regret not because of those but because you don't want them to know that you lied?
Yes, I have heard the second part of indy's sig quote before....but not the first part... I really like that "Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small"- THAT explains how to make life a WHOLE LOT simpler and if only I'd actually finally learn that once and for all.
You are regretting for the event of experience in the past choices meant to be this learning experience. Right? But the conscious truth for it being for-played would have been to see those encounters as learned for, you say, "Regret". Really no one tells you that as either fact or the comparable worth, natural worth, of these people getting together. So you "Remorse" the wish for a better Concept of the encounter. Maybe if the people could deceive themselves with passion, and be hypocrites, and just bump into each other; somehow I think remorse could have the essence of falling in Love. No, regret some things, not all things. A true valuable opinion for the meaning of these meetings resides everyone who is there. There is always some fore-play, and it is now an individually creative ideal. Time is for no regrets; for the remorse of filling in the oncoming present with improvement for the capacity to survive in spite of all of your short-comings.
I quite like the happy Christians. Then again, I can pop open my King James and point out the polytheism in Genesis. No, not snuck into subtext if you squint just right, out right idol worship in plain text(31:32, if you care to check me). Then again, I'm also the ass that will point out that they are new age to their faces when they get to irritating, then point out the bible passage that proves it. See the thing many people forget about paganism in practice on a large scale such as a city or nation is that there is typically a high god/goddess/ancestor that you better have an offering for regardless of your family or personal devotion and the tribes of Israel were no different. when the bible was put together the majority of other gods one could pray to were left out, but since it was part of the culture of the writers, not everything could be scraped while maintaining the senses of a complete collected work, so odd ball quotes like that one from Genesis are still in there. Even the JW who comes by and actually knows her book will admit that the bible says there are other gods, no, not false gods, but inferior according to Christianity. I would recommend sitting down and actually reading through and highlighting bible verses that just don't mesh with the new age application of the faith, then using them to make your acquaintances wonder about the bits of the book that the church doesn't like to talk about in public.
I once met with a pastor weekly for discussions about the bible because I had a genuine literary interest in the book, over several months it kind of turned into a group effort of the church to convert me. The first reply was the most accurate. I had to tell him straight up that I have been meeting with him to discuss the book as a book. after that meeting, our weekly get togethers stopped, and the rest of the church goers didn't pay me much attention. I was a little upset because I really enjoyed all of their company and was enjoying learning more about the bible. When they found out I had no interest in signing up for heaven, that was that. I even considered faking it so that I could get all of my "friends" back. Muster up that courage and tell them no! It wiill be difficult, it really will be, but you can do it.
