{"id":153331,"date":"2021-08-20T09:30:13","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T13:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-what-if-a-friend-is-trying-to-force-religion-on-me\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T15:03:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:03:07","slug":"ask-a-priest-what-if-a-friend-is-trying-to-force-religion-on-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-what-if-a-friend-is-trying-to-force-religion-on-me\/","title":{"rendered":"“Ask a Priest: What If a Friend Is Trying to Force Religion on Me?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Q: How do you maintain a friendship with someone of a different faith? I am an atheist, and my best friend of 13 years recently became a Christian. I respect her beliefs and never try to change her mind. But she constantly accuses me of having demons and gets frustrated when I politely tell her I understand why she feels that way but I disagree. She keeps trying to push me toward faith, but I feel like as long as I’m a good, kind, charitable and honest person, that’s all that should matter. She is making me uncomfortable with how much she keeps pushing this on me. I don’t want to lose this friendship, but I refuse to lie and say I believe in God when I don’t. I just feel like if I can be respectful of her, she can do the same. After all, doesn’t Jesus say to love thy neighbor no matter what? I would be perfectly fine never talking about religion at all. But she just cannot drop the subject. I really don’t know what to do at this point. I know it’s weird, an atheist asking for spiritual advice \u2026. \u2013 E.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/em><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0It sounds as though your friend is enthusiastic about her newfound faith.<\/p>\n

It’s great that she wants to share her faith with you — her heart is probably in the right place. But sharing one’s faith means proposing it to others, not imposing <\/em>it.<\/p>\n

For now, you might just politely repeat your desire that she leave the religion issue alone for a while. You might ask her — and this might sound strange — to pray for you instead. Ask her to pray that the Holy Spirit enlighten you.<\/p>\n

This might help her channel her good intentions. And who knows? — maybe it could lead to a new chapter in your own life.<\/p>\n

Keep learning more with <\/span>Ask a Priest<\/a><\/p>\n

Got a question? Need an answer?<\/h3>\n

Today\u2019s secular world throws curve balls at us all the time. AskACatholicPriest is a Q&A feature that anyone can use. Just type your question HERE<\/a>\u00a0and you will get a personal response back from one of our priests at RCSpirituality. You can ask about anything \u2013 liturgy, prayer, moral questions, current events\u2026 Our goal is simply to provide a trustworthy forum for dependable Catholic guidance and information. So go ahead and ask your question\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153331"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=153331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}