I hate religious people.

Oh, by “religious”, I mean people who have distorted perceptions of what their faith means.

More specifically, I’m referring to Christians who still have a lot to learn about what true Christianity means.

I give you specific examples. I once had roommates who were very religious. At dawn while I’m trying to revise lecture notes or write my thoughts in my journal, one of my roommates would be playing gospel music and singing or praying.

I don’t have a problem with someone exercising their faith. But when you find yourself in a certain environment, you need to adjust and adapt. My roommate could have used an earpiece to listen to his music and pray silently.

When you complain, you’re seen as weired. Perhaps you’re evil, may be a demon, and their prayers are making you uncomfortable.

Some days it’s a sermon, playing out loud from a laptop while I’ve just arrived from a lecture, exhausted and in need of a short sleep. They think that the sermon is so ‘powerful’ that everyone in the room must hear it.

Doesn’t true Christianity teach consideration for others? Doesn’t the Bible teach that even God rested after His work? Doesn’t the Bible teach that God is the God of orderliness and that there is time for everything?

I’ve noticed that people who overly demonstrate their religiosity are usually very shallow in their faith. Many people who live their faith are not apt to tell others how religious they are, hardly use religious terms in their conversations. Yet, others detect it, sense it, can see it in how they relate to other people around them.

My point is that, a true believer isn’t eager to let you know what faith they practice but simply relate to you as a human without discrimination based on your religion. A true believer is sensitive to the needs of people around them and does not impose their faith on others, but make others curious, after seeing the results of the principles guiding their lifestyle, to find out what faith they practice that teaches them to be so cultured.

There are simple, basic things you explain to an ordinary person you meet on the street and that person will see the logic in your explanations and take action if actions must be taken immediately. Some overly religious people will explain away their incompetence with religious clichés, or cover up their laziness with “waiting on the Lord for guidance”.

Take for instance, a girl a man meets somewhere and is interested in. She can simply decline his request for a relationship, accept or decide to go on a date and see how far it goes. My “religious people” might say that they’re praying about it.

Is the Lord truly against simply getting to know a person better in order to decide whether to take things further or not with them? Even a marriage where the couple spend a lot of time building good friendship before getting engaged or finally marrying, doesn’t such a marriage have a better chance of surviving?

To my religious people, the Lord must say “Yes my daughter! Marry him” before she agrees to fall in love with him and marry him without bothering to take time to know him better. I do not have a problem with a person praying and soulsearching to be sure if embarking on a certain journey of marriage is worth the trouble.

My problem is when simple opportunities to socialize and meet new friends and potential dates are frowned upon as “worldly”, socializing that could have produced business associates, great marriage partners, good friends and inspirational mentors and supporters.

There’s so much to say about religious people. One last instance to demonstrate a point.

I meet so many Christians who are eager to convert people from other faiths they know nothing about.

How do you convert a Muslim into Christianity if you never sit down with the Muslim and let him or her teach you about their faith and why they are in it, so you can ask any questions bothering you regarding their faith. You can then share your beliefs too and why you think others should join in it.

We should be able to sit with our friends and acquaintances and talk about our faiths without sounding derogatory and without engaging in heated arguments.

If God Himself has not forcibly converted anyone into the religion He feels all humanity must belong to, what is our business in shaming, insulting, discriminating other people’s faith? What is our business killing people who do not share our faith, or judging them as evil and shunning their company?

I am not saying every religious person is shallow or annoying. I am saying that many people have distorted perceptions of what their faith means. And it’s sad the zeal with which many act out of ignorance.