Let’s be clear about this. I’m onto your ploy. Taking offense to me, “shoving my religion down your throat,” is a charade. You’re play acting and now you know that I know. So you can knock it off.
Drop the make-believe outrage. Stop squawking about the virtue of “keeping religion to myself” and “tolerating the beliefs of others,” because you’re doing neither of those things. Telling me not to cram my religion down your throat is cramming YOUR religion down my throat.
The important difference between you and me is that I don’t mind when you preach at me. I expect you to shove your beliefs in my face. That’s what you should do when you believe you have the truth. I’d be suspicious if you didn’t try to convert me to your faith.
I’m suspicious of anyone who is “personally against abortion” but doesn’t want to “force that point of view on someone else.” If you don’t think I should adopt your view, why did you express it? Why should I care what you think if you’re not trying to win me to your opinion? If you don’t believe I should adopt your convictions, I’m happy to ignore you. I’ve got better things to do than listen to you blather on topics you don’t care about.
There’s a line in my sandbox now. You cross that line when you express your thoughts about politics, relationships, parenting, sexuality, economics, fashion, home repair, basket weaving, or anything other topic important enough that you formed words about it. When you cross that line, you are “cramming your religion down my throat.” If you won’t admit to the cramming, then don’t cross the line. Stay on the other side of the sandbox.
Should you decide to cross the line, you’ll discover that it’s pretty hard to cram anything down my throat. My religion is rooted in Jesus Christ who was “The Truth.” According to the bible, my faith in Jesus has caused the Holy Spirit to fill me up. You can’t ‘cram’ untruth into me because the spirit of Truth is taking up all the space.
When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. I was at a loss how to investigate such matters; so I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges.
– Acts 25:18
