Today, i had yet another unpleasant situation with a member i was helping.
Here’s how it went down:
This couple, dressed in rather flashy clothes, came in and needed some help. So i was the lucky one who got to help them, and it was an older couple. In my office we sit and converse about what they need, i tell them that i’ll call the appropriate department and then go from there. So while the gentleman was on the phone with another department, the lady and i were making small talk, which was nice because it’s always awkward if we are just sitting in silence. So the conversation comes to the fact that we are off on Sundays, and she asks if i go to church, i respond truthfully and say no. And at that very moment her whole demeanor changed, she was no longer pleasant chatty kathy, oh no she was on a mission. It’s funny because we were talking just normally and laughing, then the great big question of religion came to, and that divided us, killed the conversation. So then she has the audacity to ask me, “if you died today, do you think you would go to heaven or hell?’. And here is where i could feel myself getting flushed because i could not believe that she put me in that position having known her all of 5 minutes at the most. All i could think was, “is this really happening?!” I didn’t really know what to answer to that because obviously i couldn’t get defensive and put a philosophical/humanist argument given that i am in my work environment, so i said that that was something i really did not give much thought to. I should have said that i thought i would spend eternity in my idea of heaven, which would be becoming a part of mother earth, and not her religions idea of heaven, and that i did not believe in hell. I would have loved seeing her reaction to that, but again i am at my work and i could not do that.
By this point the look in her eyes has gone from pleasant to a very stern, judgmental look. And that is one of the things that i cannot understand about religious people: they preach that only god can judge us, but they are sure quick to make judgments about people who are not a part of their religion. So she begins telling me that there are some things that god wants us to do. The first one, she says, is to repent because we are sinners, she asks, “do you think that you are a sinner?” What i wanted to say is no i do not think that i am sinner, nothing in my life has been rooted in doing wrong to others, so no i do not think that i am a sinner. What i said to avoid confrontation, was that again i didn’t give that much thought. Luckily after that our visit was almost over so she did not get a chance to continue.
So here’s what bothers me about this event. Why are people so intolerant of different views and lifestyles? why do they feel the need to convert them to their religion/lifestyle? I could have given her a taste of her own medicine by preaching vegetarianism, given that she was wearing a fur coat and hat. I could have been confrontational about that, but the fact of the matter is that i am not that kind of person. I am not confrontational, i am a passive human being who is accepting of differences. I will never understand what gives people the right to judge others and write them off based on differences in lifestyles/views, especially in religious views.
After they left, i told my co-workers that she made me feel miserable because she pretty much insinuated that i was going to hell. Now that i have had time to reflect, i realized that if at her age she has not learned to be accepting of others, then she never will. And if there’s one thing that people by that time in life should know, it’s that we are all different beings, with different ideals and that diversity is one of the most important things in life.
So I hope that when I die I will become part of the great big skies I’ve been obsessed with lately. 
