 Thanks Steve
I have pointed many people to your blog for the help it has given me and then this post came along and it was really great.
I was raised in a very oppressive cult religion. (Hint: They knock on your doors on the weekends to recruit under the guise of "sharing encouraging thoughts from the Bible" and try and leave magazines with you.)
Anyways, my wife and I (and our three kids) stopped going and since then my entire family (who are in the religion) has shunned me. I was already kind of on the road you spelled out in the article, namely "Why do I feel the need to justify myself to people who won't listen anyways?"
All the discussions I try to have with them results in them calling me selfish and a tool of Satan (yeah really!) and so forth. I have learned that it is not productive for me to try to reach them until the learn to be receptive themselves.
Like the Carnegie quote says, I can't force them to think a certain way - or at the very least expect them to be open to rational discussion - until they want to have an open honest discussion.
"They could be right", and I could be wrong - but we'll never know until we learn to communicate in a meaningful way.
Thanks,
IT
|