(disclaimer: if you are easily offended by matters of others' faith, do not read on.)
i think that god is trying to find me in south korea. everywhere i go i run into another korean woman trying to sign me up for her church.
when i was a kid my dad used to drag me to church every sunday. i'd be relegated to the sunday school with all the other kids and i found it interminably boring. then when i moved to quebec i became fast friends with a girl whose mother was a devout christian. they went to church every sunday and said grace before every meal... they approved every song and book their children were exposed to - to make sure there wasn't anything evil in it - they were the definition of piety in all respects... and they desperately wanted to make me one of god's children.
i wasn't allowed to sleep over at their house unless it was saturday. that meant i had to go to church with them in the morning. i remember them bringing me to a billy graham function once and making me accept jesus into my heart. i still haven't figured out what this means.
i suppose that if it means trying to be a good person, then i have, but what does jesus have to do with it? i was brought up with good morals and beliefs, and i try to be a good person... do unto others... etc... but i just don't get where the church has to fit in... when i was in cegep i took a class called 'christianity and buddhism' (uh, ya, i know) just to see if i could figure out what all the fuss was about. my final grade was 5%. i just stopped going...
organised religion just isn't for me. i've never felt a connection to any god that any religion has touted. i see religion as an archaic means of controlling the masses. that being said, i do believe in some higher power; in something that is more powerful than us - call it god, fate, karma, science, really, you can call it whatever you want...
but i digress. today i was walking to the gym and this korean woman came barrelling at me - running at top speed - i thought she must have seen someone behind me, but no, she was coming to see me. she wanted to know if i remembered her.
"uh, no. sorry." look of confusion on my face...
"oh, meet. there" pointing down the street behind me...
"oh, ok. sorry. i don't know" the best phrase that all koreans know and understand.
then she just started rambling on in korean to me. i had to keep saying no, sorry, don't know, etc... i just wanted to get to the (damn) gym! finally it dawned on me that she'd stopped me in the street a few months ago trying to get me to go to her church, or give her my phone number and address so she could contact me. well, she was at it again.
apparently her church is in the same building as my gym - woo hoo... she was trying to get me to say that i'd go. i very politely said "i'm sorry, i don't go to church" but she wasn't having any of that. maybe i should have been more rude... (they always are) she managed to get my address out of me and i guess that means i can expect a visit at any time. what BS.
argh! what am i to do... how many times do i have to tell a korean that i don't go to church, don't want to go to church and will not go to their church??? will i have to get mean about it? there is just no end in sight, they're everywhere - the people and the churches. and they're so pushy and aggressive about it all too. maybe i should just start telling them i'm jewish.
i think that god is trying to find me in south korea. everywhere i go i run into another korean woman trying to sign me up for her church.
when i was a kid my dad used to drag me to church every sunday. i'd be relegated to the sunday school with all the other kids and i found it interminably boring. then when i moved to quebec i became fast friends with a girl whose mother was a devout christian. they went to church every sunday and said grace before every meal... they approved every song and book their children were exposed to - to make sure there wasn't anything evil in it - they were the definition of piety in all respects... and they desperately wanted to make me one of god's children.
i wasn't allowed to sleep over at their house unless it was saturday. that meant i had to go to church with them in the morning. i remember them bringing me to a billy graham function once and making me accept jesus into my heart. i still haven't figured out what this means.
i suppose that if it means trying to be a good person, then i have, but what does jesus have to do with it? i was brought up with good morals and beliefs, and i try to be a good person... do unto others... etc... but i just don't get where the church has to fit in... when i was in cegep i took a class called 'christianity and buddhism' (uh, ya, i know) just to see if i could figure out what all the fuss was about. my final grade was 5%. i just stopped going...
organised religion just isn't for me. i've never felt a connection to any god that any religion has touted. i see religion as an archaic means of controlling the masses. that being said, i do believe in some higher power; in something that is more powerful than us - call it god, fate, karma, science, really, you can call it whatever you want...
but i digress. today i was walking to the gym and this korean woman came barrelling at me - running at top speed - i thought she must have seen someone behind me, but no, she was coming to see me. she wanted to know if i remembered her.
"uh, no. sorry." look of confusion on my face...
"oh, meet. there" pointing down the street behind me...
"oh, ok. sorry. i don't know" the best phrase that all koreans know and understand.
then she just started rambling on in korean to me. i had to keep saying no, sorry, don't know, etc... i just wanted to get to the (damn) gym! finally it dawned on me that she'd stopped me in the street a few months ago trying to get me to go to her church, or give her my phone number and address so she could contact me. well, she was at it again.
apparently her church is in the same building as my gym - woo hoo... she was trying to get me to say that i'd go. i very politely said "i'm sorry, i don't go to church" but she wasn't having any of that. maybe i should have been more rude... (they always are) she managed to get my address out of me and i guess that means i can expect a visit at any time. what BS.
argh! what am i to do... how many times do i have to tell a korean that i don't go to church, don't want to go to church and will not go to their church??? will i have to get mean about it? there is just no end in sight, they're everywhere - the people and the churches. and they're so pushy and aggressive about it all too. maybe i should just start telling them i'm jewish.
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