As readers of this blog will know, I am a committed atheist. I believe that all religion, superstition, and belief in the paranormal is a crock. I also feel that if you want to believe something stupid that's your own problem, so long as you keep it to yourself. Having said that, I have some concerns that I hope to vent a little on this blog.
I have a very close and personal friend (close enough that I don't feel my concern is a result of my being nosy) who is dating someone who is a practicing Pentecostal. Let us call the friend "F" and the Pentecostal significant other "P". F was raised a Roman Catholic and has often stated that they are not particularly religious and don't really feel a need to participate in organized religion. Recently (about six to seven months ago) F and P started dating. P got F to go to church with P and P's family and now F is attending church with P several times a week including Sunday services that last three hours. This church is pretty standard Pentecostal fare and, I am told, includes speaking in tongues and people passing out in the aisles. If you're interested in learning a little more about this sect of Christianity, read more here.
Now all of this is good and well and I wouldn't even mind normally because, hey it's something to make fun of. However, I recently learned that this church encourages tithing and F is donating ten percent of their paycheck to this church every week. For the record, F is a full-time student who works a decent paying job part-time and lives with their parents. In other words, F is far from self-sufficient. I find this development profoundly distressing and am not sure how to approach it. I've REALLY thought this through and have concluded that my concern is far from nosy and is merited.
So I appeal to you, my dear readers, to guide me. I know I've been incredibly delinquent in updating to this blog, but please, if you have any advice on how I can best approach my dear friend, please post an anonymous comment. It would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading, and apologies for excising gender-specific pronouns, as I think this may have made my writing a little awkward, but is well worth it to protect the identities of the parties involved.
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