Funeral rites for our right to individual spaces, I believe, are being held by religious fundies and freelance spiritual spammers on social networking platforms and instant messaging apps. I think it takes being loony, perhaps not in the clinical sense, to make a career of tormenting friends, virtual or real, with religious messages to which they never respond or are tolerated out of courtesy.
On Friday, I accepted a friend request from a guy with Pst (a contraction of pastor) preceding his name. I suspect that I accepted the request in error, as I usually do not accept requests from people with religious titles after an experience with one that thought his title was respect-producing and gave him the right to tell me what to do.
On WhatsApp groups created for totally different reasons, you’d find members running wild, with some posting as many as 50 per day. No jokes. They harvest from other platforms and wherever and share on impulse.
A few minutes I accepted Pst’s request, he crept into my messenger to say hello and I responded the same way. He thanked me for accepting the request and liked the comment out of courtesy. I find such creepy when done by men. I associate it with women, who are aiming to lay on one trick or the other, usually solicitation.
I thought that was the end of it until I saw five-line prayer. Not out of place, I thought, because he self-identified as a pastor. I did not respond. He also did not send another message until Sunday morning.
“God bless you sir. Good morning. How was your night and family?” he asked. “Fine,” I responded in the hope that he’d get the message that I was not keen on chatting. When I’m that way, I never ask about the person’s family, work or other stuff to provide a hint that I have no appetite for an elongation of the interaction.
The chap didn’t care. The next message, a question, was “How was service today?” I was irritated by his presumption that everybody goes to church and masked my irritation very poorly. Deliberately, I have to say. I told him I didn’t attend any service and actually don’t attend any. I have met mad people on Facebook, but he is a top-tier nutjob; the type persuaded that his preferences are the constitution for mankind.
First came “what do you mean you don’t go to church?” Next was “Is your pastor the one behaving that way?” I didn’t understand the first second question, but I understood the first and it came across like he thought I was demented or daft for not going to church. The arrogance of his tone set me off.
I asked why he thought his religious habit must be shared by all and sundry. He got the message. I see this often on Facebook. People, including the irredeemably dissolute, acting like they’re better human beings because they go to church or mosque. Some do it slyly; less in-your-face, but the belief they’re superior for attending church services, mostly perfunctorily, can’t be missed.
Interestingly, many are committed hawkers of “religion is a private relationship between you and God”, the biggest ruse I know of. It’s private, yet you’re not satisfied with proselytizing publicly but still flood inboxes and WhatsApp with messages.
Some four years ago, a Muslim friend reported a mutual friend’s insensitivity to me. Without fail, he said, the latter sent him a Christian message at dawn and at sundown. “Without Jesus, you’re nothing”, “Jesus is the only way” et al went to the inbox of a Muslim, an El-Hadj. for that matter.
If that was not provocation or insensitivity, I don’t know what else is. The complainer, an immensely tolerant person, had had it up to his oesophagus, the reason he told me. I confessed that he was doing same to me and I blocked messages from him after two weeks. Till today, that action remains. I didn’t ask if my friend applied the same measure or had a conversation with him.
Can we not live by “religion is a private relationship between you and God?” These things make me sick. Very sick.
On WhatsApp groups created for totally different reasons, you’d find members running wild, with some posting as many as 50 per day. No jokes. They harvest from other platforms and wherever and share on impulse. Zero respect for others, as they clog up the space for engagement on the purpose of such groups. Individual WhatsApp accounts are not left out. You’d find people who share on the group to which you belong doing same via a private chat.
I’d think if you want to pray for your friend, you could do that instead of being a bellend at dawn, during the day and at bedtime with unsolicited prefabricated stuff. Can’t adults understand that some people find such an invasion of their individual spaces? Do they think people actually spend time reading them one after the other, having made their own prayers? Can we not live by “religion is a private relationship between you and God?”
These things make me sick. Very sick.
