@interstate40 / interstate40.tumblr.com
In honor of Tomodachi Life 2 getting announced here’s a painting of the iconic hotel
MCC Smart Eco-Speedster Concept, 1993
Perfect car for driving in this town
Okay you gotta see what it looks like from the outside too actually
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Who that man
blorbo from my petroglyphs
Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 5 news when?
Apparently this guy was at his mother in law’s house and they were all going through photo albums and he sees he photobombed his wife 11 years before they even met. I fucking love this.
this experience is so unrepeatable like i’m at a loss for words
So on a Jewish influencer's video about Passover preparations, someone asked why she does all that, and a Christian popped in to explain that none of this is necessary because of Jesus. When it was explained to them that we don't believe in Jesus or the New Testament and these things have no relevance in our religion, they got upset and started insisting Jesus is the son of God. Throughout the whole thing, they kept stating their beliefs as though they were objective fact (eg "Jesus is the son of God," rather than "in Christianity we believe Jesus is the son of God."
They acted as though these are all obvious and self-evident truths; one of them acted shocked that someone would see Jesus as just a random person of no significance, and another said that Jews are not doing right by God because we are rejecting Him by rejecting Jesus.
Now, none of this is particularly shocking, but I have questions for Christians and folks raised Christian:
- Why do people act like this?
- Do they know how unwelcome these kinds of comments are? Are they doing it anyway to prove a point?
- Why do they state their beliefs as fact when they know the people who are talking to don't share them? Do they think they'll convert us this way?
- Does it just really offend them that some people aren't into Jesus and they can't compute?
- Do they know that they're being disrespectful and don't care, or do they not know?
[As always, I cannot respond to replies, so if you reply and I don't acknowledge it I'm not ignoring you.]
Hi, raised Christian (though not evangelical) in a heavily evangelical part of the US. I'll take a stab at these.
Why do people act like this?
Christians are taught to. Christians, particularly evangelicals, are explicitly taught to "always be ready to share The Truth" (TM, captial letters, because they do indeed conceptualize it to be the singular objective truth, and see "belief" as merely a matter of accepting or not accepting that truth) in any circumstances, no matter how little they can expect it to be welcomed.
Do they know how unwelcome these kinds of comments are? Are they doing it anyway to prove a point?
Absolutely yes, and... kinda, though not always intentionally. The Christian Martyr Complex is real — you are taught that your message of The Truth (TM) will be unwelcome, because [insert bigoted assertions about people who are not Christians here] and they do not want to hear The Truth (TM).
The part they don't tell you is that this rude, unwelcome, and frankly ineffective kind of proselytizing mainly serves the purpose of reinforcing every terrible assertion your Christian Leaders have made about The Non-Christian World when people react in entirely predictable fashion to being browbeaten with an aggressive Jesus sales pitch. "See?" they'll say, "Jesus warned us the world would reject his followers."
Why do they state their beliefs as facts when they know the people they are talking to don't share them? Do they really think they'll convert us this way?
See above about the Christian definitions of Truth (TM) and belief — they have convinced themselves (or allowed themselves to be convinced) that anyone who does not practice Christianity is consciously rejecting the simple facts of the universe, or has been fooled into doing so. "Jesus is the son of God" is to them as factual as "water is wet." Whether they'll succeed in converting anyone is irrelevant — after all, failures are recast as evidence that Christianity has The Truth (TM) the world refuses to hear.
Does it just really offend them that some people aren't into Jesus and they can't compute?
Yes. And more than offend — the really emphatic ones? The ones who really, truly, in their heart of hearts believe they're doing the work of God? They're heartbroken and confused that people aren't eagerly jumping on their invitation to convert. They'll double down harder next time.
Do they know they're being disrespectful and don't care, or do they not know?
It varies, in my experience. Some Christians know it's disrespectful, but believe that an opportunity for people to hear The Truth (TM) is more important than any etiquette. Other Christians simply don't — have been taught not to — see how disrespectful they're being. Both of these tend to take a view of like... "But people need this message. If they understood, wouldn't they be grateful we never gave up?"
This type of Christian doesn't fully respect other beliefs, at the end of the day. They can't. They cannot view Judaism, in particular, as anything other than a prequel to Christianity. Holding this worldview in earnest depends on thinking of every other belief as an active rejection of The Truth (TM) that Christians are called to proclaim, and it fucks 'em up big time.
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I have a dear friend who once told me that, as a child, they used to cry and pray that my family would accept Jesus and come to their church, because they didn't want to go to heaven one day and me not be there too.
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Someone's going to #Not All Christians this, I'm sure.
My parents raised my siblings and I with a more pluralistic view, with the idea that we believe X, Y, and Z, and other people believe other things, and that doesn't make us right and them wrong, because the world is vast and complicated, and God even moreso.
Even so, I think my parents believe the faith they practice is a little more right. That Christian conception of The Truth (TM) as something singular and knowable — as something special to Christianity — seeps into everything.
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I don't have a pithy conclusion for this, and I don't think any of the above makes that kind of behavior any less rude or inappropriate. But that's why. It's baked in.
See, I think the part where I'm struggling to understand is like... if on the one hand they're prepared for their message to be rejected, why do some of them act so shocked and confused when it is?
Also, how would you recommended responding to people like this?
I think it's the doublethink? There's an optimism, I suppose, in going into these conversations with the conviction that people will receive your message with joy, and I think that's why the confusion hits so hard. Like, sure, you've maybe heard that rejection is common, but you're offering them good news! The best news! And these people seem so nice! Surely, if you just explain a little more...
Oof, that's the hard part. 😔
For starters I don't think anyone owes it to this kind of person to offer them patience. They are in fact the ones being rude. (And they've generally got extra shitty paternalistic ideas about Jews in particular.)
If you want to engage though, I honestly think the important thing is to keep in mind that they are really, truly convinced that what they're saying is true — or they have a lot of cognitive dissonance about the whole thing they're trying very hard to ignore because to not believe that would mean to place themselves outside of their entire community. Other people in the thread have talked about methods for dealing with people in high-control groups, and that's honestly what it is. You can't do it in one conversation, and you don't want to get roped into a debate. Kindly but firmly asserting that you do not share their beliefs and are not open to changing yours is probably the way to go.
Yeah, this all makes sense. Honestly, my goal isn't to convince them their beliefs are false, it's to educate them that Jews don't view Jesus as having significance.
I guess convincing them they're being rude and should stop would be nice but I don't think that's going to happen.
Yeah there's definitely this weird thing where like... a lot of Christians believe that non-Christians explicitly (1) know about and (2) reject Jesus as the Son of God.
Meanwhile, last night, my daughter (age 7) asked about Mardi Gras, and past the part about New Orleans, when I was like "Oh it's a different day each year because it's the day before Ash Wednesday, which is 40 days before Easter," my wife explained that Christians believe that Easter is when Jesus came back from the dead, and when my daughter asked more, my wife turned to me and was like "WELL that's the extent of my knowledge, go ahead, Momma!" Because my wife was not raised Christian. A lot of folks who ARE raised Christian for some reason assume that others know about, say, Lent and the 40 days and the time in the desert and are like "How could they reject someone who suffered so much and fought off the devil in the desert For Us?" and meanwhile like... that's... that's not a thing that non-Christians know. And also even if they know the stories, it's more like Hercules. Like. How could we reject the truth of Hercules he went through all those trials! The... 12? trials! He fought lions for us!
Anyway this is mostly rambling BUT it was interesting to parallel with my daughter last night being like "What's the deal with Mardi Gras?" and then going down a rabbit hole.
But like, if they know we reject Jesus, why are they shocked by it? Or maybe it's that they were shocked bc they were told Jesus has no significance to us; do they think "being anti-Jesus" is like, a cornerstone of our religion?
Yeah they tend to think it's active rejection like "I know and believe that Jesus fought off the temptations of the devil in the desert but I'd rather go with the devil," not like "neither Jesus nor the devil as you conceive of them are relevant to me."
I will add that Christian doctrine, across all sects, teaches that not becoming Christian means you are doomed to something other than perfect bliss in Heaven, though what exactly that means and looks like depends on the sect. You are therefore obligated, as a Christian, to try to convert people, either covertly (my Catholic church taught that you should be such a good example of Catholicism in public that people would just want to convert, and I've had people invite me to go to church/church activities with them to subtly try to get me to join) or overtly (going door to door, telling people they will go to hell if they don't repent, that sort of thing).
Like, best case scenario, you are elevating them from a not-great afterlife to a fantastic one. Worst case scenario, you are making sure they avoid eternal torment and suffering after they die. Either way, why wouldn't you want to prevent your friends and family and neighbors from experiencing something bad? What, would you also let them wander onto railroad tracks with a train coming, just because you don't want to be rude?
Rejecting the offer of "being saved" is therefore treated exactly like someone rejecting literally being saved, like someone straight out saying, "No no, I want to hang out on these very dangerous railroad tracks!": confusion and upset.
But surely they can't have reached adulthood without encountering non-Christians, right?
Depending on where they're from and how they were raised? That's entirely possible. One of the reasons a lot of hardcore Christians homeschool their children is to prevent exposure to non-Christians and non-Christian ideas, and the very hardcore ones are opposed to college education entirely because of the possibility that they might encounter unbelievers who might sway their children towards Satan. They likely know that non-Christians exist, but I think it's mostly hypothetical. Like, I know the country of Nauru exists and that it's an island, but literally nothing else about it, and I've certainly never gone there or met anyone from there.
I met a guy in college who wasn’t from the USA, and the country he was from was even more monolithically Christian than the USA. Religion got brought up at one point and when I said I was agnostic he was both completely floored and devastated that he was going back home soon, because now he didn’t have time to convert me.
over tourism is ruining the beach that makes you old
it doesn't even make you that old anymore.
last time i went i saw a baby there. that shouldn’t even be possible
