MizSeeker's quote, "I
did inform her after one absolutely insane conversation that it did not matter what religion you were as long as you were a good person and treated people..." reminded me of one instance...
My (very Southern) father-in-law, who lived next door, and was about 90 at the time, called me up and told me to come over. "Git ovah heah, QUICK!" he said.
Very concerned, I dropped everything and ran over.
He was in his living room with his Bible on the coffee table, open to a passage that he had circled in red.
He told me to sit next to him, and he pointed to the passage. I read it. It had something to do with Jesus saving us. I said, "Uh-huh." And I smiled. And he started to preach to me and said I needed to be saved.
I politely replied that I felt I was a good person and lived a good life, and I treated people well, and... Then he cut me off, and rather uncharacteristically, he growled, "That don't make no difference a' t'all!" He told me the MOST important thing was that I be saved.
I continued to listen politely for about a half an hour to his preaching.
He was wearing out, and so I was I. So I said, "Well, I better be going." It was clear he was going to get nowhere with me.
He said okay, and then (this is the funniest thing), as he got up off the couch, he said very distinctly and somewhat sarcastically UNDER HIS BREATH, "So, are ya saved?" And equally distinctly and sarcastically UNDER MY BREATH, I replied, "Sure am!" And he replied, "Glad to hear it!"
And he never mentioned it again.
If only I'd "agreed" to it much earlier, we both would have been better off.
lovebrentwood