Want a glimpse into the mindset?

[Bouncy Ball]

I had to run up to my daughter's school on my lunch hour and drop something off for her and ran into the father of one of her friends. I hadn't seen him in quite a while, but once upon a time, our families were quite friendly and got together a bit.

We were standing outside, chatting, when out of the blue he says, "Hey are you a socialist?" Then he laughed a bit.

Um. That was right after discussing WEEDS in our front lawns. But then, he was always looking for an opportunity to tell people what rush told him that day.

I looked at him and said "Define socialism."

He blinked, started and stopped, started and stopped. "Well, you know, Hitler" was what he finally came up with.

"Hitler was a fascist" I answered. "Can you tell me what socialism is?"

He laughed and said nevermind.

Then he asked where we've been going to church lately (we visited theirs once before being creeped out enough to never return) and I told him a UU church and of course had to explain what that stood for and what it's about.

He was baffled that we let "just anyone" attend. That it's creedless. I said that's one of the biggest things I like about it. Then he says "I guess you don't know about the book of Judges, huh?"

Now I immediately knew where he was going with this, because another bushbot mentioned the book of Judges to me back in November, with this SAME argument.

I said, "Yes, I am familiar with it, actually."

"Then you know it tells Christians to JUDGE others. That it's our DUTY."

"Hmmm," I said, "Funny how it's in the OLD Testament, which has no mention of Christians or Chrisitianity whatsoever. And it wouldn't, since Christ wasn't even BORN YET. And the title 'Judges' comes from the fact that it is written BY Judges, it is not meant as a directive to action. It's being used as a noun, not a verb." *

He just sort of looks at me out of the corner of his eye and says "It's coded. I'm serious. They talked about it in my church and I've got a DVD you can borrow that talks all about it. I'm dead serious."

I assured him I was sure he WAS serious, but that anyone who thinks Judges is some kind of carte blanche directive to Christians to judge others, AGAINST the very teachings of Christ, is "off their nut."

That's when he said "Well, got to run" and we exchanged pleasant goodbyes.

* My thanks to a fellow DUer for the information on Judges she gave me back in November. I ended up reading quite a bit about that book as a result of that first bushbot saying this.

Now, how exactly am I supposed to get through to people like that? Because if anyone would like to provide a blueprint or a step-by-step outline, I'd love it. As a Christian, supposedly I'm able to "take back" things from them, but when they are loonier than my old Aunt Pat, I don't see how that's possible.