"No" means "No." [View all]

[Trillo]

Today, after I left a store and was getting into my truck, I was accosted by an evangelizing Christian who felt it was his aggressive duty to invite me to his church, and...

I politely said "No, I'm not religious." I probably even smiled.

"Take the body of Christ and you get to live forever."

OMG, I've heard this all before. "No. Everybody lives forever! I'm not interested in your religion."

"No. You need to accept Jesus Christ to save your soul."

"Aren't you happy you live in a country that lets you say that? Have you ever read your bible? I have. It is full of lies. That's what I got from it." And I'm happy I live in a country that allows me to say that.

Finally, that shut the guy up. He looked really mad. I was in my truck, finally able to leave, but feeling none too good about having to assert myself as aggressively as I did, to dismiss the dude.

There was no good reason for the conversation to progress past the first point in the conversation when I politely said, "No, I'm not religious." That's it. End of story. Go away! Leave me alone! One "No" should be sufficient. It very frequently is not.

While I was driving home I connected this Christian evangelizing aggressiveness to the same aggressiveness that occurs in some males when a woman declines to have intercourse. Specifically, when she says "No", and instead gets raped. It seems the same thought process involved with the evangelizing Christian I experienced today, this inability to comprehend and accept that when someone tells them "No," it really does mean "No".