The Sermon, Part Deux

To continue the saga from my last post. My cousin obviously thought I meant something else by my email so I wrote this to clarify what I really meant. I tried to be as clear as possible without hurting her very fragile Christian feelings.

I think you misunderstood my email. It wasn't unsatisfactory to me, in fact it was everything I expected it to be and more. I enjoyed it very much because it forced me to be critical about the biblical and historical accounts Dr. Caner was claiming to be true. I don't just do this to religious people, I do this to everyone. It's called critical thinking. I can hardly watch the daily news without finding someone lying or stretching the truth about something to fit their own agenda. Everyone does it but I find it more disturbing when religious people do it.

I have no intention of trashing this CD. In fact, I was going to let several of my humanist friends listen to it so we could discuss it later. I did download to it my iPod which means I can burn my own CDs of this sermon to distribute amongst my friends. In other words, I would happily mail this one back to you if you will provide me with your address. Also, I can make multiple copies if you want to give them to others. Let me know!

Again, I appreciate the time it took for you to order and mail a copy of this sermon to me. It was both enjoyable and informative.

This is her reply:

OK, Summer. I can accept that explanation. And if you care to mail it back, my address is xxxxx.

Although I felt I handled the situation well, I felt she had already decided how she was going to respond based on what she thought I was going to say. This has been typical behavior for the fundies in my family. It's so important for us to spread the news far and wide that we atheists aren't bad and terrible people, that we aren't out to burn down churches or ban bibles. Our only goals are to keep government and religion separate and to be open about our atheism without fear of harm.