Why do some people refer to their faith when discussing seemingly unrelated matters?

That’s some instructor, telling students a dead person gave her career advice….

I just ignore this stuff when it happens. Can’t do anything about it, and although I would like to, calling them out isn’t going to help.

They do it because they really believe it. What your instructor said wasn’t irrelevant, but it was just plain stupid. They gave a reason why they changed careers, so that’s relevant to the discussion.

I had some older women at a bar start talking to me. I was telling them about my military experiences. They felt the need to ask me if I was religious. I said no, then they just had to point out: “Oh, well we’re christians…” Great…..moving on…..Lol.

It is totally wrong of someone to introduce faith into a classroom situation. I would have reported the instructor.

Because the world’s gone mad.

I would have said, Did Jesus also tell you that choosing to be a Christian would guarantee you a life of persecution and hardship? That’s what it says in his book. It says plain and simple that the world would turn its back on you… Hey guess what, your troubles just started because I’m reporting this conversation to your superiors. What’s Jesus going to say about that?

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Lol!

I think some people don’t have a great filter for making sure they don’t explain their entire, rambling, somewhat incoherent thought process first before answering what seems like a simple question. ::Looks at self, judgingly.:: Not saying that’s what’s happening with this woman necessarily, but it is a possibility.

@Aethelflaed Yes, like realizing that not everyone in the classroom may be a christian and therefore giving another reason as to why you changed your career path lol.

@Blueroses – I wonder about this as well. Another anectdotal related observation..my Jewish and Muslim friends and co-workers don’t do this—they don’t work in mentions about their faith in conversation.
I think it must be just a certain segment of the (Christian) population who feel they need to “witness” their faith in this manner.
Unfortunately, I think they plant the wrong sort of seed—it just causes bad feelings rather than being a demonstration of the virtues of their faith.

@Blackberry Or not realizing that your new beau doesn’t really give a crap about your family’s history of infertility, he just wants to know if you two will still be protected despite running out of condoms.

Excellent points, all. Especially @geeky_mama, that is what makes it stand out to me. My agnostic/atheist friends and friends with other faiths don’t do this blurting pronouncement thing. Like you say, @Aethelflaed, they have filters.

What made my particular example even more blaring is that later in the class, this instructor referred to another instructor as a “wonderful man, also strong in his faith”. The man she referred to is a fabulous lecturer but never once has mentioned his religious beliefs. I got the impression that she was elevating him because of a shared structure rather than his real abilites. :/

@Blueroses I know that there’s sometimes a feeling of “keeping it in the family” or something with various faiths. People will choose to go to a Christian dry cleaners even though they aren’t otherwise better than a dry cleaner who doesn’t advertise their faith. It’s like this idea that if you hire someone who prays to Jesus because they pray to Jesus, you’ll be more likely to go to heaven yourself. Or something, I honestly don’t get it when someone advertises themselves as the Christian movers or Christian computer fixers.

I sometimes wonder if it is an affliction.

I see the opposite. Non-believers seem to wear that little piece of trivia on their sleeve constantly.

I don’t know, but as a Christian, I find it annoying.

I think it’s a bit of what @Aethelflaed said about personal filtering, and I think it’s a bit of them reminding themselves with a pinch of I’m holier than thou.

My atheist/agnostic friends have never singled me out. I try to be respectful of their opinions and refuse to make them feel uncomfortable.

@perspicacious I really never see that. I don’t see non-believers putting that out until the subject of faith comes up in conversation. There aren’t any Atheist Carpet Cleaners – at least not around here.

I really liked an article posted on FB by Anef is Enuf, with this line: “I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians.” article here

I am confident that nowhere does Jesus say your career instructor was in the wrong field.

‘Love your neighbour’, yes
‘My kingdom is not of this world’ yes,
‘You are in the wrong field’ no.

Referring to Jesus in a trivial way just to support your decision making shows a lack of integrity.

I feel they do it because they have no other reasoning to back their point they are trying to make. “Oh, well, if I pull some kind of religious reference into this, then I must be right, and make complete sense.” That’s usally all I hear when that happens to me.

I think some Christian minds are filled with 95% religious fervor. Every thought is surrounded with it. ( I only said 95% because I don’t know if they sit on the toilet and pray to have a “good” BM followed by a “Thank you Jesus!”) There is no room for any thought unless it its encapsulated by faith. And this gives them such a glowing feeling that they want to share it with everyone. Just being generous. Faith is a wondrous gift.

I’m with @perspicacious

They just want to share it.

I can see why sometimes Christians find Fluther unwelcoming sometimes, just from this thread. I think I am feeling nicer than usual today, maybe

Anyway, to answer your question, there are people whose faith really does inform everything they do in life, all decisions, etc. It’s baffling to me, since it seems like the easy way out. I just nod and smile.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Well I mean….if you stumbled upon a christian forum, and asked basic questions, you may or may not start to feel unwelcome after awhile, even though you are still welcome. No one wants to intentionally be a minority in some aspects. You want to feel comfortable around like-minded people, right? I think it’s a sensitivity issue, because there are still christians here and we’re all friends :)

Please don’t get me wrong. I really respect people who live by their convictions. When it’s related to the topic ex: “I can’t make an appointment for Saturday. We don’t drive on the Sabbath.” I like that and respect the person all the more for adhering to their personal promise. It’s the out-of-nowhere “testifying” or “witnessing” as @geeky_mama said, that leaves me cold and wondering why the need to be a proselytizer?

I just think Jesus would be rolling his eyes most times that his name was mentioned.

It doesn’t bother me. Certain people mention God as a way of proving themselves superior, which is inappropriate and revolting. However, when someone mentions God because they are genuinely happy with their connection with Him and want to share that with me, I find it beautiful.

First of all, it isn’t wrong for someone to mention God in the classroom. Why is it horrible if someone genuinely believed that Jesus helped them pick out their career path today? I think that it took more courage for the instructor to say that Jesus helped them choose a career path, than to blatantly lie about it and choose a more conventional career choice method.

Secondly, sometimes there are people who use it in a “holier than thou” way and that is wrong. However, as many others have written, there are people who believe at the deepest level that they are contributing to the conversation/discussion/argument by what they have to say concerning their faith.

I just wonder if many of those who are bashing Christianity, would say the same if it was a different religion, such as Islam or Judaism.

“Why is it horrible if someone genuinely believed that Jesus helped them pick out their career path today?”

Because that would mean the Second Coming of Christ had taken place and nobody told me about it.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies How does that even remotely refer to the Second Coming?

Because that would mean the Second Coming of Christ had taken place, and instead of ridding the world of evil, he decided instead to become a job councilor.

@Schroedes13 We live in a country with a separation of church and state. No public school instructor should be mentioning how Jesus “told” her anything.

People who say things like “Jesus helped me find a job” probably haven’t even read the bible.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies That is not true whatsoever. Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”, Mathew 21:22 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.””, and 1 John 3:22 “and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” It has nothing to do with the Second Coming of Christ.

@SpatzieLover Even though there is a separation of church and state, this instructor wasn’t proselytizing. She was telling her life experience that also involved her faith. There is also the freedom of speech.

People who say things like “Jesus got me this job” don’t even know what they are talking about. In fact, it’s practically using the Lords name in vain.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies In my religion it is considered a sin

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies This is not a case of “Jesus got me this job”. The OP stated that the instructor said that Jesus told her she was in the wrong field. It doesn’t talk about him coming down from on high and handing her the job contract.

Point being, how did the T know it was Jesus? Couldn’t it have been Satan pretending to be Jesus?

Jesus told Jim Jones a whole bunch a stuff too. And Marshal Applewhite, and David Koresh were all supposedly in direct communication with the big J.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Faith is what usually distinguishes it. Some people have faith in what they feel/sense, others don’t.

I’ll have to pipe in here… If I stood up in front of my classroom and said Jesus helped me pick my career path, and a student reported it, I would be fired or faced serious censure. Same thing if I said I voted for Obama. I’m not allowed to discuss any personal involvement in religion or politics, period. That’s just how it is in the classrooms, at least at the 3 schools I worked at. One teacher in Montana I know was fired for telling the “personal experience” of her conversion. Sorry Schrode, but it’s true that some school districts will fire teachers for “personal experience” sharing in the areas of religion and politics. Teachers are not allowed ‘freedom of speech,’ that’s just how it is.

Edit:I should clarify… I am allowed to explain Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, Buddhism, etc all in the context of history or discuss allusions, but not personal opinions.

”I just wonder if many of those who are bashing Christianity, would say the same if it was a different religion, such as Islam or Judaism”

Millions of people protested a muslim community center many blocks away from the WTC site…..Lol. All religion is subject to criticism, but there just happens to be more christians in the U.S. that we come in contact with on a regular basis.

@linguaphile I think that’s wrong. I believe that teachers who are Christians shouldn’t be spouting evangelical conversion lectures all the time. But I think if there is a relevant point, such as the one the instructor made, it should be allowed. I also feel the same way about any other religion.

But I think if there is a relevant point, such as the one the instructor made, it should be allowed.

@Schroedes13 Relevant how? Should public school children look up to the heavens and expect their career paths to pop in their brains?

@SpatzieLover No. She was illustrating one of the ways she found her present career. She was giving her life’s story. People are different. Some will attribute their good fortunes to their deities providence or to nothing at all but their own luck/coincidence.

@Schroedes13 “Faith is what usually distinguishes it. Some people have faith in what they feel/sense, others don’t.”

You really side stepped my question. How does “faith” determine that Jesus is legitimately speaking to the T, but not to Koresh, Applewhite, and Jones?

Faith determines that they believe Jesus spoke to them. Who am I to say that Jesus didn’t speak to them? That is not my place. I only work towards my personal relationship with Jesus Christ and don’t try and figure out whether He is having the same with others.

Come on dude… lot’s of people died because of the “faith” that Jones, Applewhite, and Koresh proclaimed to possess. Their faith was so great that people followed them to their doom.

Who are you to say? You’re a Christian with a responsibility to determine and expose other fraudulent Christians. If you can speak out about your faith, then you damn well better be ready to speak out against the false faiths of those who proclaim the rapture will take place last month causing numerous people to give up their careers or spend their entire retirement funds on buying billboards to proclaim their faith.

Simple question arises. How does one determine genuine faith from fraudulent faith? Lives depend upon answering that question.

I know that many people died because of those peoples actions. My heart goes out to their families.

I am not the one to say. If you read my above post, I specifically said I am responsible only for my faith and later in life, for the faith of my family. I don’t believe you can determine genuine faith from fraudulent faith. That conundrum is the reason that Christianity has been given a bad reputation already. Too many Christians have spoken out/acted against other faiths/beliefs.

This is the reason that Christianity today has over 20,000 different denominations.

Read the story of Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8. It’s a great example how to determine genuine faith from fraudulent faith.

None of the disciples ever claimed, “Jesus spoke to me and told me to do this or that” after he was crucified. They simply tried to mirror the life of Jesus in their own.

Just because they never did, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I think more Christians need to focus on what they’re doing instead of the actions of others.

Also, sorry to everyone else on this thread for seeming to do exactly what the thread was questioning about. My apologies.

That’s just not the case. The Church in Samaria wasn’t legitimate until Peter and John were sent from the Church in Jerusalem. They were very concerned what the other Christians were doing.

Jesus didn’t say, upon this rock I build my Churches (plural). Jesus built A Church. And any other congregations from surrounding townships were part of that one church and not a new and different one. The disciples were very specific about this, and often wrote letters to others to clean up their act. If more congregations were required to wait for the visitation from the one Church of Christ then you wouldn’t have 20,000 different denominations.

So for a church to be legitimate you think it needs the stamp of approval from man?

Read Acts 8. The Samarian Church wasn’t legitimate until Peter and John introduced them to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the only thing that can lead a person to Christ.

Without the HS, the faith is fraud.

I really think it depends entirely on the context. I like to bring Doctor Who into every conversation I can, and probably for the same – or very similar reasons – as those who bring their religion into every conversation. I’m usually thinking about it, can usually draw parallels (no matter how unlikely) to the conversation at hand, and want to either find other DW fans or make people into DW fans.
In my experience I’ve found that oftentimes when I’m debating an issue with someone of a strong religious persuasion, they almost use it as a scapegoat. I’m sure they don’t consider it as such, but with my beliefs, I do. I don’t think an argument can be won by saying “but God says so,” however I understand that that is a legitimate reason to someone that believes that anything percieved to be willed by their god is what is right.

There would have been a lot of things that would have been different, and for many, better.

Why should it? People inject stuff that seemed irrelevant into conversations all the time. Maybe a lot of those you fail to notice because your radar is set to Christian, and not all the other stiff. Would I be just as ingenuous if I said, why people inject their sexual orientation, be they gay or bi. People bring up all the time they are chair to this gay association, or that they are bi and they dated that man before they got together with their present woman. Did those sorts of facts help to the conversation? Maybe, and maybe not, but that is who those person are and felt it was. Maybe they were not even conscious noticing as you were of it.

@Hypocrisy_Central has a point…—people do interject stuff all the time. Now that I think about it, have you ever chatted with a pothead on a regular basis? They’re worse than Christians about bringing the conversation around to their topic of interest. They get together and talk about, pot. Evangelicals get together and talk about, evangelizing.

The religious paradigm enters the mind and then exits in lingual form. Language and inner metaphor begin to define experience. The religious imagery fills the imagination to the point where there is room for little else.

The religious paradigm defines experience. It is like expecting a blind person to understand visual descriptions and not to interpret them in a auditory or olfactory manner… that is what religious folks do. For them it is completely natural to interpret in this fashion. William Blake exemplifies an extreme of this idea.