I’ll be honest and start off by saying: I am not a religious person. I was baptized and raised going to church as a kid, but I quit going to church about 8 years ago. I just believe in being a good person and living the best life for yourself.

My friend, I’ll call her Anna, is religious, she’s an African American southern baptist. She has never tried to shove religion down my throat but in the past month she’s been kinda sneaking it in conversations.

First she tells me that she thinks our mutual friend has a dark energy about her because she practices witchcraft and hangs out in graveyards. The friend doesn’t hang out in graveyards but practices positive witchcraft (is that a thing?). She also told me this apostle told her that I have ancestors who practiced witchcraft.

She says there’s a new apostle in her community and her family kind of took them in. His name is Brown. Brown apparently tells Anna things that she’s never revealed to anyone else. He tells her her friends are out to get her and they have evil in their hearts. This guy apparently goes wherever god tells him to to try and lead people to god. He’s also stayed at her house (I’m not sure if he if living there or what). Her, her family, and this apostle have church together at her house and have a “prayer line”, like a conference call between everyone. She’s on this prayer line every night. I was trying to be nice and let her do her thing while I just hung out on my phone. But this time she told the apostle that I was on the phone too...

Towards the end of the call he asked anna if he heard correctly that I was on the line too and she said yes. AND HE ASKS TO TALK TO ME!!! He goes like “how are you doing?”, and I say “I’m fine, yourself?” And he continues to ask “so M, are you saved?” And I look over to Anna like what the fuck? I say “yes I am” and he goes “do you currently attend church?” And I say “not currently”. He continues to ask “how have you been saved?” And I just say “I was baptized and attended church as a kid”, and this fucking stranger says “well that doesn’t make you saved.” He just goes on and on about how he wants to find me salvation and how “he’s not trying to call me out or put me on the spot”. Let me remind you that there are at least three other people on this fucking phone call. He asks me if he can try to save me tonight, and I’m panicking because I don’t know what the fuck to say bc I’m put on the spot, I’m irritated as fuck with Anna, so I ask her “what do I say?” And she says “just say you want to listen tonight”. So I tell Brown this and he says “that’s fine, but I do want to talk with you soon about your soul” or something like that.

I’m just so mad right now. I try to have respect for Anna’s beliefs but that just really crosses a line for me. Brown does not need to be putting me on the spot about something that isn’t even his fucking business. She should not have said anything about me being there without my fucking consent. I don’t even know what to say. Even if I was religious, that’s my fucking private business and no one should be forced or guilted to talk about it. Idek what to say to her.