string555
Banned
- 1,373
- Posts
- 6
- Years
- Age 32
- Wonderland
- Seen Mar 14, 2018
For reasons I'm not going to disclose, I spent about 6 months in a "Christian Recovery Home" at a time in my life. I had no choice about it, and so being forced to live there already left me in a bitter mood. That mood quickly grew worse when I realized the setup of the house. Mandatory bible readings, mandatory church attendance, basically all kinds of different ways to shove Christianity down your throat. Now, I have nothing against Christianity in general, but I absolutely hate when people try to force their religious beliefs on someone. I have my own personal beliefs that work for me, but I do not try to preach them to others. However, this story is not about poking holes in the Christian faith, it's about long-term social engineering.
I realized that I either had to live there, or live in the streets, so I was stuck there. As I said, I was very bitter about this situation, so I decided to play a game with them. My first move was to let people know that I believed in some kind of "Higher Power" (Which is actually true), but that I didn't really have a religion. I then acted more interested in Christianity and the bible, asking basic questions during readings that I thought any new Christian might ask. I continued from there by spending free time to supposedly read the bible, even though I was really skimming through it to gather small details I would use for making conversation.
It all seemed to be working nicely as I gave more hints about wanting to be an actual Christian. As time went on, I seemed to change to them, becoming more Christian-like. The head of the house even commented about "How malleable I was". I had learned enough to actually preach back the same ideas to them, sometimes making subtle "misinterpretations" which they quickly corrected me on, as I expected.
I do have to give them some credit, one of our roommates was openly gay, and yet they didn't hate him for it. They did, however, disagree with the way he was, and were convinced that he could magically change. I made friends with him, and was happy to run into him a couple of times after I had left the house. He seemed to be doing much better than he did at the recovery home.
Anyway, what really earned me my ticket to hell was one Sunday at church. Normally, I had work on the weekends, so I always missed church on Sunday. One day, I got off of work early and was told to come to church if I could make it. I decided it was a perfect opportunity to study the minds of these people some more, so I went. During part of it, they had this ritual where people could come up to the front and talk with someone to "Accept jesus into their hearts". There couldn't have been any better of an opportunity. First, I kind of shifted around my feet nervously, acting like I wanted to go up there, but just couldn't do it. They already believed I was a very nervous guy, so it went with the character. Then, finally, I stood up, and walked up to the front. I went through with the ritual that meant nothing to me, and they all bought it. The head of the household talked to me later and said something like "I saw you shifting around nervously, and I hoped that you would have the courage to go up there!".
So, for the next month and a half, I played into it more, doing more fake bible readings during my free time. I also asked deeper questions about Christianity. These people really thought I was their friend, their faithful, new Christian friend. Then the day finally came, I got to leave that place. I got numbers of some people there, and promised to visit the house and or church. I never did, never visited, never called, and I was so happy to be free from that place.
When I hear about these little social engineering tricks that only exist for a few moments, I think that they are cute. This was 6 months straight of doing it, and I never broke character even once. I've never had training in psychology and acting, it just seems to come natural to me. So, it should be obvious that I don't believe in hell, but if for some reason I am wrong, I got my ticket in hand from this fiasco.
-string555
I realized that I either had to live there, or live in the streets, so I was stuck there. As I said, I was very bitter about this situation, so I decided to play a game with them. My first move was to let people know that I believed in some kind of "Higher Power" (Which is actually true), but that I didn't really have a religion. I then acted more interested in Christianity and the bible, asking basic questions during readings that I thought any new Christian might ask. I continued from there by spending free time to supposedly read the bible, even though I was really skimming through it to gather small details I would use for making conversation.
It all seemed to be working nicely as I gave more hints about wanting to be an actual Christian. As time went on, I seemed to change to them, becoming more Christian-like. The head of the house even commented about "How malleable I was". I had learned enough to actually preach back the same ideas to them, sometimes making subtle "misinterpretations" which they quickly corrected me on, as I expected.
I do have to give them some credit, one of our roommates was openly gay, and yet they didn't hate him for it. They did, however, disagree with the way he was, and were convinced that he could magically change. I made friends with him, and was happy to run into him a couple of times after I had left the house. He seemed to be doing much better than he did at the recovery home.
Anyway, what really earned me my ticket to hell was one Sunday at church. Normally, I had work on the weekends, so I always missed church on Sunday. One day, I got off of work early and was told to come to church if I could make it. I decided it was a perfect opportunity to study the minds of these people some more, so I went. During part of it, they had this ritual where people could come up to the front and talk with someone to "Accept jesus into their hearts". There couldn't have been any better of an opportunity. First, I kind of shifted around my feet nervously, acting like I wanted to go up there, but just couldn't do it. They already believed I was a very nervous guy, so it went with the character. Then, finally, I stood up, and walked up to the front. I went through with the ritual that meant nothing to me, and they all bought it. The head of the household talked to me later and said something like "I saw you shifting around nervously, and I hoped that you would have the courage to go up there!".
So, for the next month and a half, I played into it more, doing more fake bible readings during my free time. I also asked deeper questions about Christianity. These people really thought I was their friend, their faithful, new Christian friend. Then the day finally came, I got to leave that place. I got numbers of some people there, and promised to visit the house and or church. I never did, never visited, never called, and I was so happy to be free from that place.
When I hear about these little social engineering tricks that only exist for a few moments, I think that they are cute. This was 6 months straight of doing it, and I never broke character even once. I've never had training in psychology and acting, it just seems to come natural to me. So, it should be obvious that I don't believe in hell, but if for some reason I am wrong, I got my ticket in hand from this fiasco.
-string555