Why do I find Evangelical Christians irritating?

[Ariadne23]

It's the sanctimony. Evangelical churches are the lifestyle mommy blogs of religion.

[Inigima]

People who push their religious beliefs on other people and won't shut up about it are super annoying. I think that's about the size of it.

[kairparavel]

While the thread is about a particular subset of a subset, Swordfish has the right of it. Any fanatic or person with an overabundance of zeal in their raison d'etre (Swordfish outlined a few) is annoying AF.

[Kalbear]

For me, personally (and seriously) nothing has made me quite so uncomfortable as the woman who asked to pray for my son to beat cancer, in public, and do a little speech. 

I'm totally fine with them believing in whatever, but...why are you putting me in your magical ceremony? Why are you making yourself feel better about yourself by using my son's disease as a proxy? Do you actually believe that this is helping anyone other than you? Ehghhghgh.

[Guy Kilmore]

Scott,

I have also struggled with the same thing.  I think, it is the part, of, being, just look at me being "humble" that really kind of rubs the wrong way and tastes false.  It is like a song that is too audio engineered, it is technically correct, but it just sounds off.  It feels like sometimes people forget that it is better to lead by example than it is to tell what others to do.

I also think one's spirituality is a very private thing and well, just throwing it out there makes it feel like I'm suddenly thrust into your personal bubble.  As Kalbear said, I am forced to become apart of their ceremony for their comfort.

[Red Tiger]

27 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

For me, personally (and seriously) nothing has made me quite so uncomfortable as the woman who asked to pray for my son to beat cancer, in public, and do a little speech. 

I'm totally fine with them believing in whatever, but...why are you putting me in your magical ceremony? Why are you making yourself feel better about yourself by using my son's disease as a proxy? Do you actually believe that this is helping anyone other than you? Ehghhghgh.

How is your son now?

[DanteGabriel]

45 minutes ago, Ariadne23 said:

It's the sanctimony. Evangelical churches are the lifestyle mommy blogs of religion.

They are the P90X people (is that still a thing?) of religions.

44 minutes ago, Inigima said:

People who push their religious beliefs on other people and won't shut up about it are super annoying. I think that's about the size of it.

To me, what makes Evangelicals so grating is their open grasp at political power and their efforts to use the machinery of the state to impose their beliefs on others. Your faith is a weak and pitiful thing if you think it will be defeated without government intervention.

[Kalbear]

28 minutes ago, Red Tiger said:

How is your son now?

The last couple of weeks have been pretty rough. He's gotten a secondary infection and that hasn't cleared up at all. We've been waiting for it to clear up so we could do more chemo, but we can't wait any longer. So we're now doing something kind of risky and doing the chemo even with an active infection. 

I'll totally report anyone who says that they're praying for me

[Swordfish]

2 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

The last couple of weeks have been pretty rough. He's gotten a secondary infection and that hasn't cleared up at all. We've been waiting for it to clear up so we could do more chemo, but we can't wait any longer. So we're now doing something kind of risky and doing the chemo even with an active infection. 

I'll totally report anyone who says that they're praying for me

A toast to a speedy recovery instead....  

 

 

[Red Tiger]

21 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

The last couple of weeks have been pretty rough. He's gotten a secondary infection and that hasn't cleared up at all. We've been waiting for it to clear up so we could do more chemo, but we can't wait any longer. So we're now doing something kind of risky and doing the chemo even with an active infection. 

I'll totally report anyone who says that they're praying for me

Im very sorry to hear that.

As an atheist I will say that I wish you and your son all the best.

[DunderMifflin]

Nothing is more irritating than people THAT into anything.

Whether it's religion, atheism, veganism, politics, blogging, you name it. If they are super into it like that they are the worst.

newly converted people into something are even at a higher level of irritating 

[karaddin]

2 hours ago, Kalbear said:

Because you know in your heart of hearts that what they do is what you should be doing, and the frission of their outward faith bothers your supposed respectability.

You long to proselytize, to tell everyone the real truth and wear your faith openly.

You wish desperately to say to everyone:

• States rights are more important than federal rights
• Eminent domain is NEVER acceptable
• The South should have legally been able to secede
• The Penumbra is bullshit, TOTAL BULLSHIT 

You forgot one

* Movie Denethor is a corruption of the sacred text

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

3 minutes ago, karaddin said:

You forgot one

* Movie Denethor is a corruption of the sacred text

That one is true.

[Kalbear]

10 minutes ago, karaddin said:

You forgot one

* Movie Denethor is a corruption of the sacred text

[Hereward]

It is. It is the only thing Scot and I have ever agreed on.

[Kalbear]

There ya go, Scot. Whenever anyone says that they want to pray with you about something, just respond with something like 'yes, and let's pray that they release a corrected version of Denethor to wipe the abomination that he became off the LotR map'. 

[IheartIheartTesla]

So what you are saying is, evangelical Christians 'pray together' a lot?

[Rippounet]

I'm not sure why you do, but I'll tell you why I do.

About eight years ago I was doing some research in DC and staying at a place called the International Student House near Dupont Circle. ISH offers cheap accomodation for students, but you can't choose your roommate, so I ended up with this evangelical Christian dude who seemed rather nice.
Now I had it easy with my research. All I had to do was spend at least seven hours a day at the Library of Congress reading or watching old documents. This meant that more often than not I could spend the evenings making friends with great people from all around the world, which my roommate never did. Now sometimes I got back to the room rather late (and a bit drunk), but I pride myself for being a stealthy fellow and my bed was next to the door and the room rather large so I would slip in (without turning the lights on), take off my pants and just slide into my bed.
Then one night we had the talk. I mean, the one about religion. The dude starts asking me what I think of Jesus and all. I answer truthfully that I think Jesus's teachings are fantastic, but I don't know whether I see him as a deity (I consider myself an agnostic) and that I mostly enjoy the humanism in Christianity. He insists that I should accept Jesus as my lord and savior. I answer that I don't believe I need saving.
The conversation went on for a while, and for some reason I refused to go his way and convert to Evangelicalism. He didn't seem upset or anything and eventually we returned to our usual stuff.
In the next days he asked me every once in a while whether I'd reconsidered, but every time I said no. Not sure why though, I could have given him this small victory I guess, but it just didn't feel right and I like to develop my own spirituality.
Now as I said I would often go to bed late at night... He on the other hand got up early, around 5am. He was doing an internship for a Republican congressman... I'm not sure he really needed to get up that early (It's quick and easy to get to the Capitol from Dupont Circle) but he liked to take his time to dress real smart. And while I was always super careful not to wake him up he didn't exactly show the same consideration.
Then one night I come back to my room and as I slip into bed I feel some metal scrapping my skin. The guy had left a dozen coat hangers on my bed for some reason! That was a bit annoying but I assumed he'd just forgotten them there for some reason, put them on the floor and slept.
In the following days he woke me up every single morning while getting ready. At first I assumed I was the one with a lighter sleep. Then one morning I opened my eyelids without moving at all.
And I saw him slamming the drawers of his dresser. Again and again. For no fucking reason. He did it for about five minutes then resumed his dressing up and left.
That's when the coin dropped. The guy was waking me up on purpose every morning. And the coat hangers had not been an accident.
At first I thought maybe I'd been noisy myself and that this was just petty retaliation... But actually I hadn't even drank for a while, having made some nice friends which whom we'd just chat through the evening so that seemed unlikely. And assuming I'd woken him up he could have just told me anyway... The best conclusion I could come up with is that the guy thought I was living an unhealthy life and that he had to do something about it.
Two days later I was lucky to be able to get another room with one of my friends as a roommate.

So I don't know why you find Evangelicals irritating Scot, but I know why I do: with fanatics, you never know when they'll stop acting rational and start behaving like lunatics. IMHO those who preach the loudest about being good Christians are too often those who have trouble being one... And ever since I met that guy, I see all Evangelicals as being as creepy as a bunch of Walking Dead zombies...

 

[BloodRider]

Same reason you find liberals annoying.  They are always telling you how to be.  

Main difference is liberals are right.  

[Larry of the Lawn]

3 hours ago, sologdin said:

vegans by contrast are of course awesome, but not so awesome as raw food fruitarians, who sit at the apex of the food pyramid.

So true.  I remember vividly every raw food fruitarian I've ever consumed.  Special but oh so rare (when prepared appropriately) treats.  A must for any self-proclaimed Epicure.