Religion and Politics. These are two topics you will never see me post on my blog. Why? Because those are two of the most opinionated and sensitive topics out there. Because those are two topics that essentially started wars and tore apart families, friends, and mankind. Because I dislike those two topics.
So why am I talking about it now? Because something happened…
Recently, two people I know decided to give each other the silent treatment over a silly and stupid reason and as always, I’m caught in the middle. It was a simple matter of miscommunication and all it would take to fix this situation is an explanation but no, it was too much for both of them.
I hate being the middle-person. It meant I have to be a conduit channel for their communication. It’s like some of the holiday dinners I’ve seen in movies where the mother asks the son/daughter to pass the gravy even though it’s closer to the father.
A few weeks ago, I went to meet one of them and upon meeting, that person shoved a book into my hand. “This is an important book. Take good 
care of it.” That person said.
It was raining hard and I didn’t want to stand outside and analyze what I’ve just received. So I didn’t know what the book was until I showed the book to the other person. “Where did you get this?”
“She gave it to me.” I replied. That was when I saw it on the cover, written clearly in bold and golden lettering, Holy Bible. “What in the world?” I muttered.
“Why did you take it?” She shrieked. I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking. All I wanted was to get out of there. I never agreed to this in the first place.
“I told her I didn’t want it.” I lied. “But she sped away and I couldn’t catch her.”
“Don’t you know?”
“Know what?” I clenched my teeth while silently balling my fists.
“She gave you this book to tell you that your mother isn’t teaching you enough.” I don’t believe her. “Why are you so stupid?” Those words made me more angry than ever. I hate it when people treat me this way, like I’m still a little child who didn’t know better. “It’s obvious she’s using religion to get to you.”
I became instantaneously angry and annoyed, angry at being called stupid and annoyed at that person’s false assumption about me. True, I don’t talk about religion, ever, and when someone tries to turn me onto the topic, I’d only switch the topic in less than 5 minutes but it does not mean I don’t care.
I don’t like the subject because it’s too sensitive and there are too much opinion surrounding the subject that I’m afraid that if I approach this subject, I might offend somebody. However, that doesn’t mean I’m not knowledgeable of the text presented in the Bible or that I don’t read this holy book because believe me, I do.
Until now, the book is still resting between the front passenger seat of my car. I don’t know what to do with it since I can barely read Chinese and the Bible is in Chinese but once in a while, during a traffic stop, I’d sneak a glance at the book only to remind me of the annoyance of being the middle-person.
Image Credit: Google
What do you think? Don’t you think it’s a little rude to have a person shoving a book like the Bible into someone’s hands and say nothing?
This is Another Story 
I had a somewhat similar experience at my Secondary school in years 7 and 9. The first occasion was due to a visit by the Giddeons and they donated pocket sized editions of the new Testament to the all the pupils which as the Pastor said “are free you to take, if you do not want one simply leave it one your chair and we’ll collect it later.” So I declined and thought that was that. It was not, my then R.E. Teacher Mike Ion decided that in his mind optional meant something different and after a few lessons he dragged me out of class and pretty much forced me to take the ruddy thing.
Year 9 some students decided it hilarious to steal one teacher’s personal Bible and hide it in my bag, then rat me out saying I was stealing it and we’ll, let’s just say the book refined the word Missel.
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I guess it was not optional after all. Were you the only one who declined at the time?
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I am not 100% sure, certainly I was the only one in my class but I can’t say for the year as a whole. One girl, Kim Winch I think, told me she was going to bin it after school but changed her mind after the incident.
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She must’ve heard about you and the teacher.
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I guess so
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If I were to give the Quran to someone, I would give it in a language they can understand and tell them I can always help if you find it hard to understand.
Your stance over not talking much about religion is appreciable since you don’t want to hurt anyone…
But why would talking about religion make someone hurt? Like I have never experienced anything like this before.
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I absolutely agree, if one gives a book to someone, he/she should first of all give the book in the right language.
Talking about religion might hurt someone because everyone has their own opinions and not everyone knows everything. Therefore, saying the wrong thing would offense or hurt someone.
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Ohh I get you …
You are right everybody has their own believes.
As a Muslim whenever I talk to a Christian, or a Jew, I never try to impose my believes upon them. Instead I try finding the similarity between our believes.
And this makes our conversation easy and light.
I am pretty sure the religion you follow also teaches you the same.
The Quran says ” Let there be no compulsion in religion”
And it also teaches the Muslims to respect other religions.
As long as you respect others beliefs you have nothing to fear about 🙂
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I agree, “Let there be no compulsion in religion”. Sometimes, I think people pushes too hard for someone to believe.
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Yes, I think it is rude. I don’t talk about those subjects either for the same reason.
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Being the middle person is harrowing. Whenever I feel myself in such a situation, I don’t listen to either of the parties. Most people use it to their advantage by aligning to either of the parties. I ignore them. Shoving Bible in your hand incident was weird. Just ignore them for a while…they will come around.
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I sure hope so.
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I like talking about religion – different religions in fact – with people who can keep an open mind and aren’t easily offended. I remember I thought I’d never get along with an atheist and should avoid such topics while communicating with them, but one of my friends, whose worldview is completely different from mine, actually turned out to be quite understanding. Certain other people… not so much, so I totally understand your stance on not talking about the subject.
And yeah, it’s terrible being the middle person in an argument, especially since it started because of a pretty weird situation with the Bible (points for originality though). I hope the conflict gets resolved soon.
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I sure hope it gets resolved soon too.
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Definitely not a good position to be caught in and I totally understand your stance about these two sensitive topics. Very explosive and not worth the stress. Great post
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I agree. Not a good place to be in. Thank you for reading. 🙂
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You did not have an option, donate the book now. Don’t feel bad, just do it. This has happened to me, I donate.
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Unfortunately, I have the suspicion that I have to one day give it back, that this was a rental.
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Strong points!
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Thanks. 🙂
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