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Dealing with Religious Bullies

cam44

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This 'friend' of whom you speak is a hypocrite and far from Christ.
She has done you a favour by revealing her true nature -- now RUN.
I'm not sure you need to 'say' anything ... and making any comment to someone like this that they are wrong will have no impact on them -- it will only antagonize her.

Just pleasantly go your on your own path ...
 
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Inkachu

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This 'friend' of whom you speak is a hypocrite and far from Christ.
She has done you a favour by revealing her true nature -- now RUN.
I'm not sure you need to 'say' anything ... and making any comment to someone like this that they are wrong will have no impact on them -- it will only antagonize her.

Just pleasantly go your on your own path ...

Totally unrelated, but I LOVE your signature! :thumbsup: Dune :thumbsup:
 
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DiscipleHeLovesToo

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Hi!
My parents have a friend who is very religious and believes that
attending church is wrong. Among many things she really
believes that if you attend a church you are in danger of losing
your salvation.

We use to be friends and used to talk on the phone often about Biblical
things and we never had a disagreement.
Well, about a year ago, I was going to move away with a part of my family but really wanted to stay in the same town in order to go to college. This friend had been friendly enough so I thought it would be okay
to ask if I could stay at their house at least until my parents could find a house back in town(rent is really high in this town so we couldn't find a place and our landlord's daughter wanted our house back because she couldn't afford her apartment anymore).

So...I asked her if I could stay with them-I had spent the night with them several times because I'm also friends with her daughter, so I felt fine asking. After I asked her(I was also in tears because I had to give my cat away)she coldly replied," Well, if I knew you were repentant and that you would seek God instead of worldly things I would let you, but because you aren't-then no. You just keep seeking all these worldly things."

First of all she has been to college and she hopes that her daughter will go to college, but when I told her my hope was to go to college she said I was "unrepentant".
There are a lot more discrepancies in her behavior and inconsistencies that I cannot mention but both my mom and I are starting to get the feeling that for some reason she just has decided that she does not like me very much.

She talks about people losing their salvation all the time. She has never apologized to me for what she said(even though I apologized to her for telling her she was wrong in her assessment of me) because I think she honestly still believes that I am not holy enough, and I don't really know why.

A lot more has happened like she has refused to pray with me and my family, she claims, because I told her I was a Calvinist, and she believes
that the Bible says you cannot pray with someone if you are not united on everything.

Is there anything I can say to her to show her that what she is doing is wrong and not just to say "You hurt me". That point is inconsequential and moot.

What is a smart answer, not cruel, but smart-intelligent way to say
"look, you're wrong and I hope you see that someday" or even just to show her that she is not God and that she needs to leave me alone?

Sorry for such a long post!
Thank you!:crossrc:

shift the focus from others to her own relationship with God and His all-powerful Love. some potential questions to ask her:

do you still need God's mercy and forgiveness? what about other people?

Christ died for the ungodly - were you ungodly once? what if God had judged you then? should you judge others now, or does God still have mercy for those who don't know Him yet?

did Jesus die for your sins? was there ever a time when you didn't realize this? did He die for everyone else's sins too? could it be that there are people who haven't realized this yet?

God IS Love, so if Love isn't in something, then God isn't in that thing - where is the Love of God for others in your judgment of them?

Love never fails - focus on love, as God IS Love
 
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