Religious tension

No deep thoughts today (are there ever really any?) Just some recent experience.

Over on Facebook, of course, I get all sorts of things passed along - you know how it goes. Pictures, amusing stuff, political stuff. For me, science stuff, humanist stuff, equal rights sorts of things...

But those - despite how nicely argumentative things like pro-choice, humanist and pro-same sex marriage (in reality, pro-equality-of-marriage-for-everyone) can be, the one that I was surprised at was... fairly simple.

All it is is a fairly nifty way to cut a bottle and use it as a planter. (Soak yarn in nail polish remover. Tie around bottle. Light, let burn all around for 10-15 seconds. Dunk in cold water - it should split... ideally safely. Invert the piece with the neck in the other, fill with soil, let oil lantern hang down into other half of the bottle through the soil and into water in the bottom of the bottle... mini planter.)

I get a reply from my sister in law. Does it say it's a neat idea, or that it doesn't work? No. The only thing she focuses on... the web site it came from ("Wiccan by nature.")

"Wiccan?"

Now, I don't care. I have friends out west who are wiccan. I stuck my toes in it for a bit on my journey that led me from christianity to atheism. It's a fairly nice, mellow religion, heavy on respect (versus "Obey me or burn for eternity.")

My reply - "It just looked neat. All that matters."

"The website it came from looked weird. That matters."

Right. It's not Pray-zing Jeebus. It's a scary witch website! Oooh!

Now, this is pissing me off for two reasons. One, it's basically insulting my friends - who, I have to say, tend to behave in ways closer to the christian ideal than most christians. And second, it's more religious blinder BS. So...

"Weird how?"

No reply. Maybe she figured out she didn't want to go there with me. I don't think she realizes I'm atheist. Or maybe she went off complaining to my brother about it. I don't know. Maybe I'll hear about it still... after all, I don't go to church, and here I am sliding down the path to sin and demonic orgies or something. (Which apparently I missed the entire time I was involved. Darn.)

Yeah. I was getting primed, anyway, just waiting for the next reply for the next day or so...

But hey, Christianity is all love and acceptance (and telling people they'll burn for eternity.) Right?

Can we please get people away from this BS a little faster?