They aren't getting egged?
Ok... I have to let myself get distracted from my homework for a minute here... Because I'm getting distracted from walking to and from classes by people handing out bibles or trying to get me to sign up for their church's email list, or inviting me to join their bible study. They aren't pushy. I tell them "no thanks" with a smile and they evangelize someone else... But wow, people's views on talking about religion are different around here.
People here assume that everyone is a christian the way everyone in Seattle assume that everyone is a liberal. If you are in Seattle, you pretty much never have to exercise restraint about saying things that would be offensive to a conservative. If you are a conservative in Seattle, you pretty much don't let anyone find out that you are a conservative unless you really like to argue with people who don't listen to you.
It's the same thing here. You have free reign to say anything that would be offensive to a non-christian, and if you aren't christian you keep your mouth shut unless you don't want to have any friends.
Dissimilarly, in Seattle, except within your own religious group with members of that same religious group, you don't talk about religion. People take offense to it. People resent people who talk about religion. Religion is a topic that is taboo unless it has been carefully bade. In Seattle, if someone says anything that seems religious out of context, people become suspicous that they are being "judged" or that the speaker is trying to evangelize them into some weird cult.
In Lebanon,TN, people who walk around thrusting "the new testament" into your face don't even get egged. People randomely bring up religion daily. To me, it seems "totally out of left feild" (that means "out of the blue" in ball player language). But nobody bats an eye when someone starts talking about the promise they made to god, or the thing they did at their church, or the latest thing that they prayed about.
I'm not saying I haven't met athiests... Ok, I've met athiest. But I've not met one person who professes to be jewish or muslim or any other religion.
It's amazing how much "out of context" changes depending on the context.
People here assume that everyone is a christian the way everyone in Seattle assume that everyone is a liberal. If you are in Seattle, you pretty much never have to exercise restraint about saying things that would be offensive to a conservative. If you are a conservative in Seattle, you pretty much don't let anyone find out that you are a conservative unless you really like to argue with people who don't listen to you.
It's the same thing here. You have free reign to say anything that would be offensive to a non-christian, and if you aren't christian you keep your mouth shut unless you don't want to have any friends.
Dissimilarly, in Seattle, except within your own religious group with members of that same religious group, you don't talk about religion. People take offense to it. People resent people who talk about religion. Religion is a topic that is taboo unless it has been carefully bade. In Seattle, if someone says anything that seems religious out of context, people become suspicous that they are being "judged" or that the speaker is trying to evangelize them into some weird cult.
In Lebanon,TN, people who walk around thrusting "the new testament" into your face don't even get egged. People randomely bring up religion daily. To me, it seems "totally out of left feild" (that means "out of the blue" in ball player language). But nobody bats an eye when someone starts talking about the promise they made to god, or the thing they did at their church, or the latest thing that they prayed about.
I'm not saying I haven't met athiests... Ok, I've met athiest. But I've not met one person who professes to be jewish or muslim or any other religion.
It's amazing how much "out of context" changes depending on the context.