Goodbye to a friend?

So, I have this friend...

My friend is a right-wing-conservative born-again christian. She likes to send lots of email around like prayer requests and prayer circles. Sometimes she sends out propaganda emails, basically going on about how the US is a christian nation and condemning non-christians, many of these emails end up telling non-christians to shut up and sit down.

I get very very angry from these emails and debate every time I get one as to whether or not I will respond. I know that what I have to say to her will probably end our friendship: I am a practicing pagan. I know from past experience that this news will terrify her, which is not my intent. Added bonus.

Anyway, I really don't know if I should email her back or not. For some reason I always back down. On one hand, I'm not going to change her mind, nothing I do or say will make her think differently. She is full of fear, you can see it in her eyes when she speaks of people who 'don't believe.' It's almost animalistic. It can be frightening. Fear leads to hate and anger. I don't want to be hated by her for not believing in the 'same' god. I have always felt that kind of hate was so childish. Like, "my god is better than yours is, neener neener neener."

I sometimes wonder if I don't reply to her emails because of fear, not necissarily of her but of what she might do, but what on earth could she do? Pray for me?? Whopee shit. I that's what she needs to do to get through the thought that her friend of 5+ years has been a filthy heathen...well, it could be worse. She could burn me at the stake.

As it is now, I think I will tell her to stop sending me emails that say things like that because, as a non-christian myself, I take great umbridge at being told to sit down and shut up in a country that was founded on the basis of freedom of religion. I plan on telling her these emails make me very angry, and the anger is usually directed at her and, as I consider her a friend, I don't want to direct anger at her.

And I'm going to be seeing her in a couple weeks. If she responds very negativly to my non-christian status, I will suggest she can tell me to sit down and shut up when she sees me.

Peace.

Once upon a time, late last week...

About this time last year I was wondering what the hell a 'blog' was. Silly me. I used to be so up on the current trends in internet stuff having had a crash course in it 12 years ago. We were one of the first high schools to get wired, thanks to Gettysburg College, and I was in an html training course (again, thanks GC) before the college I actually attended was giving their students email addresses. So I was up on the current trends, hip to the internet stuff, creating web pages until my fingers bled.

And then I didn't give a shit.

So here I am. I think this should be fun.