.::. X'mas .::.
X'mas is usually spent with his family. I mostly enjoy the X'mas meanls and present exchanges. It's also his nephew, Glenn's birthday.
This year's X'mas, it's somewhat different. It's the first time both sides of his family came together on X'mas day. And his mother invited her church friends to come over for X'mas carolling.
It's my first experience and I didn't look forward to it at all. I know I hated people preaching to me. He simply told me that many people are coming to 'sing songs'. A bus load and 2 more car loads of them came. Everyone had to 'join in' and sit together. It wasn't only singing, the stories came after the singing and prayers. The kids had to be separated from the adults, both listening to different stories.
I hated it. As much as I tried to ignore the stories, what I heard pissed me off real bad. For some reason, my blood boils everytime people try to preach to me. The classic line today?
He even gave an analogy. It's like people being locked up in jail. Those who accept god's sacrifice for them will gain salvation and freedom while those who refuse to accept god's gift to them choose to continue to spend their lives in jail. And he said that all human beings were borned in sin for like 20 times.
There were many more ridiculous stuff which I found plain bias and resented having to sit through it all. To me, religion is created by man. It's something which people like to believe in to give them faith and strength.
Personally, only Christians have been preaching to me relentlessly. No other religions have ever even tried preaching to me. It turns me off just like a persistent sales person.
I hate it that they imply that you're stupid just because you did not believe in 'God'. It's like you'll find life less fulfilling or find less happiness just because you weren't a Christian and praised 'God'.
It doesn't matter even if you told these people that you were a buddhist or free-thinker. They would still try to 'sell' you your religion, and they don't find it rude to imply things like 'your' god is created by man while 'my' god is the one true God. I don't mind joining services now and then, when I feel like it. But it's one thing praising your god and another denouncing other peoples' gods. What I even hated more was that I had no choice - I could not choose not to sit through today's session or leave.
Today, I decided that I can't have a church wedding. I'll be a damn pissed off bride. I really don't foresee a day which I could stomach all these down.
Having said that, I know that not all Christians are like that. I've relatives and friends who are pretty religious, but they leave me alone. But one can't deny that Christians are the most active in 'recruiting' people. Even walking on the streets in Lourdes, people were trying to preach to us.
One thing I always wondered - By believing that your god is the one and only true god, doesn't that mean that other gods which others believe in is not the 'real' god? Yet there are so many religions around and they only believe that their god is the only real one.
I reckon it's difficult to get people to understand that different people have different opinions and believe in different things.
It's just like there are people who believe that couples who do not have kids are always less happy and it's because they are unable to have kids. Or those people who believe that it's a must and normal thing to get married and have kids to find happiness in life.
Is it really so difficult to understand and accept that different people are simply...different?
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