Got Religion?

Recently I have met more seriously religious people in one area than I have in many different places in years. When I say seriously religious, that does have a range that moves from the almost fanatical, to the resolved small time sinner. Yet at both ends of this spectrum I have been surprised at the faith, or at least blind obedience to their archaic belief system.

The first of these creepy yet enlightening encounters came at my very own door in the shape of two Jehova's Witness women. The leader was a woman in her early thirties, or quite possibly late, very oppressed teens who politely asked me what my bumper sticker meant. (I'll get back to that one) The other was a young girl, maybe 12 years old wearing a hopeless frumpy frock but with big beautiful, inspired eyes. I could see that the girl was at an incredibly influential stage and was very curious about me in an innocent and yet intense way. It suddenly mattered to me what this girl thought, and what she would take away from this meeting with this heathen. So I heaved a big sigh and put away my smart ass for a moment.

My bumper sticker (the only one I have) says: Goddess Bless. I love it, I put it on almost the very day I got the car. Anyway, so I said to the polite, determined, witch burner; "It is a blessing." She looked worried and more determined and said;
"But, you do realize that God is male." I had to give her credit for her balls.
"Well I am female and so I relate to the Goddess within me... " She opened her book and cut me off,
"It states very clearly that God is male here in this passage." and she goes on to recite some passage that I cannot at this moment recall. When she finished I smiled at the young girl and said,
"Honestly, I do not believe that God is concerned with what I call him or her, as long as I am a good person and have faith." Of course the woman could not allow this and spouted the good ole, "thou shalt not worship a false idol" on me and I decided that it was not balls that she had, but blindness to her own brand of blasphemy. To think that she should know better, should know the mind of her God because a book or a priest says so...!
I turned to the young girl again, who smiled at me and waited expectantly for my next bit of gentle wisdom. I wanted to grab her and pull her inside the house, to protect her. Probably so did the other woman. I said;
"All God's are one. It does not matter what you think you are supposed to call God, we are only human, we make mistakes. It's forgivable. I do not believe what you believe, I am sorry." She looked heart broken that I wasn't going to argue with her, or get nasty. Maybe she was desperate to save my soul cause the next thing she said was;
"We will pray for you." It caught me by delightful surprise. How wonderful! And so I said, quite emphatically;
"Thank You! Thank you very much, that is wonderful." The young girl beamed at me, I think just became her hero, and the woman just looked confused... she had no idea what to do with me and so just quickly herded the girl away.

Afterwards I had wished that I had had a bible handy, we could have had us a whopping good time of "Let's quote the bible to prove our point!"

The next experience was... well I think I will save that one for next time, I have been typing all day and my finger is actually starting to cramp. Ow.