Quote:
Originally posted by ZTAMich
Also, and maybe someone will know how I felt, I feel more so with her that there's a heavy pressure to convert. More so than with any other religion. I've been to a Catholic Mass for Easter Vigil. At that service the family I was with and the priest knew I was Baptist and I never felt pressured. Even conversations with her about teaching I feel, like she's there in her head trying to figure out how to 'make me a mormon' I mean no disrespect, just....well it feels uncomfortable!
Can she and I be friends without religion being involved? We had such an awesome time out at a Broadway show Friday!!
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I've been there as well, in my case in high school. I was heavily pressured by my LDS boyfriend and the local missionaries (who apparently talked to my boyfriend's parents and decided to work on me). I realize that my boyfriend and his family were genuinely interested in showing the beauty of their faith (and I don't hold anything against them)... but it made me extremely uncomfortable... and because I was underage at the time, I really didn't know how to back out of it. I tried to explain that I didn't feel the pull they claimed I would toward the faith after reading the Book of Mormon. It didn't matter. Thankfully it ended when the missionaries called my father to ask if there was a time they could meet with him. My dad stopped it right there. Unfortunately, so did my relationship with my boyfriend.
In many ways, the LDS church members are encouraged to convert others-- because it's taught that their faith is the one with the truth. Many other Christian sects, mostly charismatic or evangical, do this as well. It can get extremely heavy, and is difficult to request that they back off without making it ugly since they genuinely do think they're doing something out of kindness for you by trying to bring you into their church. It can put you into that difficult place of telling them no without sounding completely disrespectful.
I would recommend that if you want to continue a friendship with her, to explain how you're feeling the pressure and (to make it completely unaccusatory) are concerned that you might have been giving off an incorrect vibe that you were interested in converting, when in reality you have found a foundation in your own faith that already fills your heart.
