Facebook Faith #18 - No Does Not Mean No

Over the past few days, Facebook has had many repostings of various opinions concerning Roy Costner's graduation speech.  He was the young man who, after submitting his speech to the coordinators, chose instead to tear it up while on stage and pray to the god of his evangelicalism.

Of course, depending on one's Facebook following, such postings had varied reactions. At the pages of evangelicals there was a lot of fist-pumping and high-fives. Sticking it to the non-Christians in the crowd was almost as much fun as their Chick-fil-A run last year.

Over at the more liberal and hipster Christian sites, there was a lot of hand-wringing and facepalming. Once again, the more reasonable voices in the religion were going to have to clean up after the defecating neanderthals of the family.

One thing that became clear to me through this event is that, to many Christians, no does not mean no. There is no polite refusal accepted... there is no angry refusal heeded... they are going to foist themselves upon you, regardless of your resistance.

Christians hold the arrogant position that they have something you need... whether you know it or not. Therefore, like Roy Costner, they will lie, cheat, and inappropriately take over a public event while claiming the side of love, truth, and holiness.

Christopher Hitchens observed that it is really impossible, given their worldview, to do otherwise:

 "there is a real and serious difference between me and my religious friends, and the real and serious friends are sufficiently honest to admit it. I would be quite content to go to their children's bar mitzvahs, to marvel at their Gothic cathedrals, to "respect" their belief that the Koran was dictated, though exclusively in Arabic, to an illiterate merchant, or to interest myself in Wicca and Hindu and Jain consolations. And as it happens, I will continue to do this without insisting on the polite reciprocal condition—which is that they in turn leave me alone. But this, religion is ultimately incapable of doing." 

And about this one of my Christian friends said, "Thank God!"