One of my duties as guest activities coordinator is to manager three bulletin boards which I am to fill with material that could be of interest to our guests. Today, someone dropped off some interesting fliers from a nearby Buddhist temple about their weekly meditation retreats. I thought that could interest our guests, so I just about put them up when one of my colleagues stopped me and told me I needed to run that by our manager. His reasoning? The fliers are anti-Christian and Buddhism is a cult.
"No, it's not," I replied.
"It is," he insisted.
"Oh, I'm not getting into a religious argument."
I then left since I was so dumbfounded.
This is one thing about the west that I find very difficult; a lot of people I encounter are 'very' Christian and Conservative, the kind of people to whom you can't just say something 'liberal' without it being thrown in your face.
I made the decision quite some time ago not to argue religion with irrational people. It's one of the few places in my life where I have just about mastered pacifism.
But this situation irks me in that I don't feel that I should need to clear the inclusion of those posters on our board as it smacks of censorship. Of course, a lot of our guests are very Christian and Conservative westerners, so it's important to cater to them. *rolls eyes*
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8 comments:
I didn't know that whole countries were involved in a cult ;-)
Darn if you do and darn if you don't. Good for you for walking away. You're nice for saying irrational. I would of said stupid ;-)
Welcome to Canada's "Bible Belt"! I too have a harder time walking away.
I found you! This Blog is so much more interesting than the other one!
Weather is great here in Mexico. No winds and certainly no frost!
Croft
Julie: very good point about WHOLE COUNTRIES being under the influence of a cult. As for 'stupid', I'm trying to be more diplomatic!
Croft: More interesting, but much more personal. Of course, people who visit the main blog will eventually find their way here, but I still like to separate certain elements of my life.
Can I join you in Mexico? :-)
Come on down! Oliver is nice but Pátzcuaro has it beat in almost every way! In fact, Pátzcuaro has almost any place in Canada beat!
Since the end of October, I have been kicking myself for coming to BC instead of going somewhere warm. I could have boondocked in New Mexico for cheap and had it easy instead of coming here where I am slaving away for what I feel is absolutely nothing. Next year, I'm following you to old Mexico. :-)
How very frustrating; you were right to just leave it, as you probably weren't going to win that argument. Some people are too set in their ways of thinking.
You know me and being diplomatic, not my stong suit ;-) Hope things get better.
Green Fairy, I don't think that conversing with fanatics even constitutes 'arguing' as there is no way anyone will 'win'! :-)
Julie, you have loooots of other qualities! :-)
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