"Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another."-- Homer

Have you ever been persecuted for your religious beliefs?

I'm not sure I would classify this as persecution, because let's face it....I'm not going to be beheaded in this day & age because I believe in God, but I did get into an argument the other night with a young gentleman who attacked me based on my religious beliefs. Now, I can't say for sure whether or not this person just wanted to attack me personally and my religious beliefs were a way for him to do so, or if he was so vehemently against my religion that he spouted off hate and I was an easy target because I work for a church and am not afraid to voice my opinion of God. (On a side note: This "having-an-opinion" thing is going to get me shot one day.)

I can tell you, he had no idea what he was talking about, so I'm pretty sure it was a personal attack on me. For whatever reason, you either love me or hate me (there's no inbetween) and this person hated me. At one point, he wanted me to quote scripture, which, let's face it, I'm no biblical scholar. I can't tell you which book or verse God, Jesus, Moses, whoever said what. But I can tell you what I believe personally, and why. You don't have to be a biblical scholar to believe or to even talk about faith. So I threw it back at him and told him to "Bring it on". I would stand toe to toe with this person and argue my beliefs if I had to. And I did. Until it got to the point when I realized he was just irrational and there wasn't any point in continuing the conversation. He really just didn't like me. And I found it comical. I walked away to the comment of "You're going to hell". Yep, yep, I am. And I'll see you there.

So what about you? Have you ever had to defend your religious beliefs? Or am I the only one out there who has haters?