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Original poster

How do I explain why I don't like text messages about God ??

26 replies

mumofeight · 10/06/2007 01:34

I am a variety of pagan, and I do not believe in a christian god or the devil etc. I have a few friends who insisit on passing me these chain text messages/emails which babble on about God and heaven and the love of God comforting, some even suggesting that the recipient( in this case me !) are sent from God to be a friend to this particualar person or another.

Now I am quite new as Pagans go, and was raised a christian. I have friends who do not believe in God, soon as they told me that, I made sure that I never sent on stuff like this. Simply thenm telling me that they did not believe in such things was enough for me.

Now the boots on the other foot!! I have made it clear to all the people concerned that I am a pagan, and explained briefly what that means, I have even said quite bluntly ' Please don't send me this stuff, I respect your beliefs, I respect your right and desire to follow your faith but please do the same for me. God is not part of my belief system' but still they send them !!

Usually I am being asked to return the text/email to prove I care about the sender. Well i do care, I just refuse to send on stuff that I do not believe in !!

So wise women ( and men ) how would you suggest that I try to stop them. Or do I just accept that they will not get the message and ignore the messages and risk upsetting them ?

OP posts:
twinsetandpearls · 10/06/2007 01:35

Have you asked them to stop?

twinsetandpearls · 10/06/2007 01:36

Sorry didn;t read your message properley

twinsetandpearls · 10/06/2007 01:36

It all sounds rather odd, I go to church every week but God has never sent me a text message.

Original poster
mumofeight · 10/06/2007 01:37

Yes tried that, said that in my OP

OP posts:
Original poster
mumofeight · 10/06/2007 01:38

Pmsl sorry twinset crossposted No the texts aren't from God, just make lots of referneces to God, and suggest that I am some sort of godly sunbeam !! Fair enough I might be wonderful, but definitly not a sunbeam from a God I don't believe in.

OP posts:
twinsetandpearls · 10/06/2007 01:40

Even if they are not from God it all seems odd, no one has ever sent me a religous text message.

Are they from some strange cult?

Original poster
mumofeight · 10/06/2007 01:49

No twinset They are from FRIENDS ! Sorry forget it, I was trying to get advice, did not expect to get questioned as to the truth of what I was asking !

OP posts:
Genidef · 10/06/2007 01:55

don't reply. or turn equally evangelical on them and hope they get the hint.

twinsetandpearls · 10/06/2007 02:11

I was not questionning you at all! I just said it was a little bit odd.

flippin eck that is the last time I try and rescue someone from unanswered threads,

NotQuiteCockney · 10/06/2007 07:06

I've never had this either. Are you British? This doesn't seem like a very British thing to do ...

What do they say when you explain your beliefs and ask them to respect them?

(I certainly wouldn't return the text - I'd either ignore it or talk to them again ... I guess ...)

Jas · 10/06/2007 07:20

I have a friend who sends me these. I see her daily, she knows I am an athiest. I just delete them, tbh. I would probably try saying something again if I were getting enough to irritate, but they are fairly infrequent in my case, and really not worth risking a good friendship over.

TheodoresMummy · 10/06/2007 10:07

Yes, I get these too, from my effing MIL !!!

I just delete them, never replied.

She doesn't seem to take the hint tho....

If she ever mentions it I will tell her that I don't want to receive them.

sniff · 10/06/2007 10:11

I used to get stuff like this on email until I went a litle bit mad one day and said that all types of this form of commincation made me

chain letters, chain emails & now chain texts

I would send one back saying you do care but all forms of chain correspondance offends me

Pruners · 10/06/2007 10:12

Message withdrawn

DominiConnor · 10/06/2007 10:30

Mumof8, they seem quite happy to risk upsetting you ?
Bizarrely, I get more people trying to convert me than the average. That's because I'm prepared to argue anything that I currently believe in.

But they lose, actually it's stopped being such good sport trying to convert them back.
Over the last decade, I've observed a calamitous drop in both the intelligence and intellectual integrity of people trying to convert me.

Used to be the case that they could form surprisingly good arguments, indeed modern logic was invented by a bloke whose first use for it was to prove the existence of God.

But not now. Typically they first try to undermine my self confidence, saying something is lacking from my life. This clearly works, and probably explains why the average IQ of religious people is going down so fast, since they're recruiting from the emotionally vulnerable.

Very quickly their "logical" arguments fall apart. I "must accept" the Bible, or rather their dumbed down take on it, and I certainly "must not ask that question".

But what gets me, is that what they believe is rarely anything to do with Christ. OK< I personally don't really believe he existed, but there is a clear form of a person in the New Testament. We all know that these were just made up, but I have to accept that they may have been divinely inspired.
My "favourite" is an approach widely used by
evangelicals at the moment. It's the "Am i bovvered ?" rip off of Catherine Tate.
What is depressing, is not the lack of innovation, but the historical inaccuracy. They claim that people ignored Jesus, which is just bizarre, in the Christian context.

I just have this vision that somewhere, a bunch of burned out 3rd rate failed scriptwriters churn out hackneyed and wildly inaccurate line for evangelicals.

TooTicky · 10/06/2007 10:57

I occasionally get emails like this. They are rambly, wet and annoying. I really can't see the point of them.
Would you consider sending similar but pagan-slanted texts to them to prove a point?

Original poster
mumofeight · 10/06/2007 12:11

I think some of you may have a good idea, next time they send me these sorts of stuff I will reply with an invite to the next pagan festival !! Bet not one of them, will turn up and maybe they will get the message.

Domini I could argue christian doctrine til the cows come home. i was raised in a christian religion, went to a church run school, the lot. I have been invited to attend the school reunion this september and there is a very micheivous side of me that is saying to dress in full pagan garb, robes, cloak , etc and turn up !! Bear in mind this is the school, that despite being run by a church refuse to teach eligous education as part of the curriculum as it would mean 'exposing' their pupils to 'demonic' beliefs. We were not allowed to listen to pop music as it was all blasphemous and satanic. we were encouraged to spend our summer holidays on evangelical missions, and if we deviated from the path we were ostracised (sp)

I have just re-read that last paragraph, and do you know I think for the first time I can see how cult like it is. . Thats shocking really as I never realsied before. But actually writing all that down kind of opened my eyes to it.

I decided later on in my life to educate myself about other religions as I realised I was shockingly ignorant. I read everything I could about all kinds of other religions, talked to followers of those religions, got to know people. I am I think anyway a much nicer person as a result. During my study I 'discovered' paganism, and everything just felt right, there is no psart that makes me feel uncomfortable, and , hard to explain but I know that its the right place for me !!

OP posts:
harrisey · 10/06/2007 19:42

Sounds like your school was awful, Mumof8. Ghastly.

Can I just point out that if I had made the kind of generalisations about pagans that have been made about evangelical CHristians in this thread, I would have had a good old Mumsnet shouting down. Yet I am an evangelical and recognise nothing about me or my friends in what you have said. Have never heard of horrible sappy God texting - ugh, awful.

We're not all stereotypical, you know!

jetjets · 10/06/2007 19:56

Message withdrawn

UnquietDad · 12/06/2007 13:00

Ds Gd txt?

In the bgnng ws the wrd.

throgmorton · 12/06/2007 14:02

LOL

n v wrd ws gd.

Tortington · 12/06/2007 14:06

send e-mail back saying sorry i dont believe - leave it at that.

not caring about someones belief system is a two way street once they start driving on it.

PrettyCandles · 12/06/2007 14:12

These chain messages are benign viruses. They don't harm your computer or phone, but rely on your superstition (or religiousness, or niceness) to transmit them further. Whether of not you do so doesn't reflect on your attitudes to your friends, nor does it affect your good/bad fortune or your likelihood to access heaven. All it does it tie up computer time. At least receiving and sending email is free, but you're paying for texts.

I just don't respond to these messages.

UnquietDad · 12/06/2007 15:59

n v wrd ws gd. WRD!

throgmorton · 12/06/2007 20:07

aayyy?

[crosses-arms-in-front-of-her-with-forefingers-pointin g emoticon]