LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY mr_quackenbush)

so i don't normally post to this community, but when I got on the bus tonight, it was crowded and i found myself sitting next to a young guy who looked pretty hip. he had an intelligent look on his face and a stylish haircut. he was carrying a laptop bag with buttons on the strap and was wearing converse and looked like just any other downtown office worker on his way home for a long weekend. he seemed, like a guy like me.

Then he got out his cell phone and began having a conversation on the phone that I couldn't help but overhear that obviously was the continuation of an ongoing discussion with a friend. It was obvious after a while that the friend didn't agree with the guy sitting next to me about what he was saying. I knew this because a.) most people wouldn't what the guy was saying which was possibly the most extreme and highly politicized version of premillenial dispensationalism i've ever heard come out of somebody else's mouth who wasn't on TV or writing on the internet, and b.) it sounded from the things that the guy was saying that his friend was engaged in a long term campaign to convince him otherwise.

I did my best to ignore the conversation, honestly. I felt a little uncomfortable as a third party observer to a conversation about a religious view that I didn't agree with. But then the guy said something made my jaw drop and it's still ringing in my ears. He said "Yeah, it's a really good book, it's well written and I'm sure there's a lot of good information in it, but honestly I'm not going to read it because there just isn't time. We've got to be ready because it's happening soon. The lord Jesus is going to return and we have to be prepared for it and that's what we have to devote all our energy towards."

From this and a couple other overheard snippets I gathered two things 1.) his friend is someone that disagrees with this guy but is someone who is also a Christian and is doing his best to direct this guy toward a different theological view point 2.) there are real people out there, people who are just like me in so many ways, who are so convinced that the end is nigh that they don't believe they have time to consider opposing viewpoints. That scared the crap out of me, and as soon as room opened up in the bus, I moved as far away from him as possible.

I wanted to post this to this community because I have no way to thank his friend. I'm not a Christian myself, but I have a lot of respect for the faith and for the eminently reasonable, decent, and thoughtful adherents of it. I'm sure that the unheard friend and I would disagree about many many things, but never the less here was a person who was patiently and reasonably (voices were never raised, the guy never seemed angry or acted threatened) trying to direct someone else away from a world view that I believe is often dangerous and highly intolerant. I know that there are members of this community who are very much like that friend. Christians who don't see reflected in some of the views of people like Tim LaHaye (that's what this guy sounded like, like a page out of the left behind series) the faith that means so much to them, and want to convince others that you can accept Jesus as your savior and it doesn't require a certain political agenda beyond loving god and loving others.

So for those of you out there, who take the time, who patiently argue, who respectfully disagree, who stand up against theocracy and power hungry hypocrites manipulating the teachings of Jesus in order to remake the world in their own image, well, this non-believer just wanted to say thanks. We probably disagree about a lot, but I got off the bus tonight convinced like never before that ultimately we're on the same side.