inorbit Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Living with Christians sometimes means it's really difficult to do the right thing... because the Christians are against it. Case in point: We have a mutual friend in our social circle who is in a tough spot. The house they have been renting is being foreclosed and they have to be out ... well, TODAY (it was learned about last week). This friend has been frantically looking for apartments, rooms for rent, etc, but has had no luck yet. The obvious thing is to let our friend crash at our house, right? They're clean, business professional, financially and emotionally stable, wouldn't be here probably more than a week, and are a delight to be around. What could be the problem? We have a spare room past the kitchen that we never use anyway, with an extra mattress we could bring in from the garage. And, this friend has spent weekends and such with us before, when they were looking to move to this city (about a year ago) and were in town for long weekends while job and house hunting. Well, one of the Christian roommates has a serious hang up about this. Why? This friend is the opposite gender of the rest of us in the house. The Christian roommate feels bad, of course, for turning our friend out into the cold, but what choice do they have? The Bible instructs them to "avoid the appearance of evil." After all, what would our neighbors think, if someone of the opposite gender were to stay in our house for a whole week?? ...I'm just sure we'd be the talk of the town. And that's what God cares about, right? How our righteousness is perceived by others? We can't have our neighbors thinking we're having sex out of wedlock! It would destroy our Christian witness! How will they ever see the love of Christ if we don't turn our friend down and not open our home to someone in need? The Christian roommate clearly senses the flaw and conflict in their own logic, but can't face it. Cognitive dissonance, anyone? Sorry for my sarcastic, snarky tone in this. Well, no I'm not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inorbit Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Maybe instead of worrying so much about looking like we're doing the right thing/what's expected of us by our cultural moral code, we should do the actual right thing and screw worrying about whether or not we're misunderstood. FUCK, it's just so messed up. The rest of us our contemplating a way to sneak our friend in anyway. We'd hate to see them have to pay for an overpriced hotel with all that they're going through right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator TrueFreedom Posted July 15, 2012 Moderator Share Posted July 15, 2012 Perhaps the one who has a problem with it can find another place to stay for a week! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConureDelSol Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Apparently my great aunt was like this. My mom told me the story of when my dad moved in with her and she wouldn't allow my mom to come into the house and had neighbors watch the house for her. One of the times my mom was actually in the house, she was sitting in the bathroom on the toilet (not going, mind you, just sitting on it talking to my dad) and my dad had his shirt off and was shaving. Apparently, his aunt saw this, screamed, and then ran away crying because she was THAT upset. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaiser01 Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Let her stay with you, its un gentlemen like to leave a lady out in the cold like that, fuck your friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
openpalm45 Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Oh man, that stuff is so familiar. That kind of thing was my LIFE back as a xian. The ministry I was a part of was huuuuuuuge on "avoiding the appearance of evil". You can take that shit soooo far. The line is impossible to find. ANYTHING could potentially be "the appearance of evil". How about asking them if turning away their friend looks like evil? And they need to avoid the appearance of evil by not giving them a place to stay? But oh yeah.. I forgot.... Christianity is more concerned with our sex lives than anything else, and having someone of the same gender in your home for 1 week is worse than possible looking like a selfish jerk. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackbauer Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 And I thought Christians weren't supposed to care what others think. They sure act that way in other areas. Just goes to show you how contradictory the message of Christianity really is. So much for "objectiveism". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdaddy Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Jesus didn't give a flying fuck about what people thought. Look who he rolled with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeverAgainV Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Let her stay & tell those people to get over it! What's the worse sin....to let someone go without help or a place to hang their heads...or the "appearance of evil"? This shit is one of the reasons I left xianity for good...there is so much bullshit the doesn't help, but ends up hurting....in gawd's name of course. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdaddy Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 This is EXACTLY the kind of by the book bullshit Jesus railed against. I guess they think Jebus would have said "Sorry homegirl, but I gotta maintain my rep. Now GTFO". ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thought2Much Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 What gets me about the whole "appearance of evil" bullshit is that it's based on... bullshit. The verse from which the phrase is pulled in the Bible means "to avoid evil wherever it appears," and not "don't do anything that might make anyone think you might possibly sin if you took whatever it is you're doing to it's ridiculous logical conclusion, even though you probably won't." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdaddy Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 See how stupid xians are? They'll get a fucking atheist backing up Jesus, they're so GD idiotic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted July 15, 2012 Super Moderator Share Posted July 15, 2012 That attitude would be a deal breaker for me. I've had enough of fucking Christians making life more difficult for normal people. The Christian roommate can bite me. Fuck 'em. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inorbit Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 It was something that always bothered me as a Christian, too, but this just left me with major cognitive dissonance. But, yeah, this roommate is very "uncomfortable" with the idea of having someone of the opposite sex staying "indefinitely." We're all thinking, "about a week, tops." Our roommate was bothered enough by it that they contacted the house owner (we are all renters) to get their input on the situation. The house owner lives out-of-state. The house owner is a Christian missionary, who has made clear his disdain for us already. This is going to go over well. The rest of us are all, "WTF? Why does he even care or need to know? You didn't ask his permission when you had your entire family of 10+ people crammed in here for a week. And you were outvoted on that one, too. We all made it clear we were not comfortable cramming that many people in the house, but you just couldn't turn down family, right?" The appeal to false authority in the face of cognitive dissonance. So classic. If I go over this roommate's head and invite our friend to stay anyway, I run the risk of being kicked out of the house, I'm sure. The strong risk. Can you feel the Christian love? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inorbit Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 I'm the only non-Christian roommate (closet one, at that). The others are all believers and even they think the one who has a problem with it is a fundy nut job. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaiser01 Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 I'm the only non-Christian roommate (closet one, at that). The others are all believers and even they think the one who has a problem with it is a fundy nut job. lol Tell them your an atheist and they will freak out and leave. I mean you do pray to Satan and have pictures of Mao, Stalin and Hitler in your room and all, I'm surprised they haven't figured it out by now. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Perhaps the one who has a problem with it can find another place to stay for a week! This. And the more I think about this situation the more irritated I feel myself becoming. Just the idea of being surrounded by Xians is bad enough, but this "appearance of evil" crap being put above common decency makes me almost violent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackbauer Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 I'm the only non-Christian roommate (closet one, at that). The others are all believers and even they think the one who has a problem with it is a fundy nut job. lol I'm not surprised. Even by Christian logic, that's pretty nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inorbit Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 I would be the one asked to leave, I promise. The roommate who has the problem with it also happens to be the house manager. My eyes are open for a place to move, trust me. The rates here in this house are amazing, though, and I really need the save the money right now (had some financial hardships lately). On the plus side, I've met a few ex-Christians through my other roommates, and others who have left the same ministry I left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted July 15, 2012 Super Moderator Share Posted July 15, 2012 The rates here in this house are amazing Rates in prison are even better. Hope you can find some decent people to move in with soon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inqui Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 I'm the only non-Christian roommate (closet one, at that). The others are all believers and even they think the one who has a problem with it is a fundy nut job. lol First rule of good writing: avoid redundancy. Anyway, can't you give them a Jesus lecture? I'm pretty sure that kind of thing was what he meant when he talked about how hypocrites keep the cup clean on the outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inorbit Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 Good news! The friend found somewhere else to say, and even thinks they found a permanent (apartment) solution! Cheers for good outcomes for friends down on their luck. *lifts glass* Bad news! The super conservative Christian roommate who had all the issue with this is coming home today, more fundy than ever. I'm less fundy than ever. I'm betting this will put the "fun" in "fundy!" lol ...*sigh* I want to be civil, loving, and tolerant, but I'm still in the closet here, too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdaddy Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I'm sure his denial of living quarters just happened to be part of gods plan! Look how it turned out!! IT MUST BE GAW-DUH!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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