Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Offended

Being an art major is pretty awesome. It pushes me into finding creative solutions for problems. It pushes me to be creative, even during times I'm not feeling it. I like a lot of the people I meet in the program. However, a lot of people I meet are atheist, which is fine with me, except for those who feel the need to offend my belief in God. Which happens a lot more than I'd like it to in my classes.

A few years ago, I witnessed someone who had been in my drawing class literally spit in the face of an evangelist preaching on campus.

I can't begin to count the number of times I have heard God being compared to Santa Claus.

And yesterday I had a conversation that included this, "I'm sorry there are no kids to rape so I'll just read from the Bible, I mean, it's boring and made up anyways." Let me put that into context for you: the teacher for my 8am class told us that if we are late, we can give a performance to the class instead of taking the half absence. The guy I was talking to and I were talking about the things we could do, I said, I'll keep a copy of the Constitution in my bag and read it if I'm late. Then he said, "You could just keep one of those little bibles they hand out and read that." Then he said "And when the teacher stops me I'll say:… (insert the quote from above here)"

I was SO offended by that. But it got me thinking, a lot of conversations I've heard that are anti-Christianity are largely based on misconceptions. Or conceptions based on one person who calls themselves Christian. Or what the media portrays.

But what makes me more made is that I don't have the guts to stand up for what I believe when I'm offended by people. I hate that about myself. I hate that I'm too shy to stand up to my peers when they offend me. So not only am I left feeling like I am the only 21-year-old in the world who believes in God, believes in saving sex until marriage, believes in marriage in general, etc. I'm also left feeling mad at myself for not being the person I am called to be. For not being a witness to God's glory.

2 comments:

  1. I'm with you, girl! Even though Christianity seems to be the common religion in America, there are so few true followers of Christ. I went to an extremely liberal college and constantly felt like I was the only one with these views you mentioned (re: sex, marriage, etc.) I finally got plugged into a community group and met some amazing people - my husband included.

    Hang in there, girl. He never said it would be easy! Also, there are tons of quality bloggers out there that aren't jerks. Don't waste your time reading the jerks. (BigMama is my fave. Just google her.)

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  2. Thanks for your comment! I actually am involved in a group through the national association of the church I go to, so I know a lot of wonderful people, who unfortunately live very far away So what I should have said is I feel like I am the only person on my campus/in the art department. But I digress.

    Your encouragement means a lot to me! And I just checked out BigMama, I've read two posts and I already love her!

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