OK folks! Newsflash! I am now officially an oppressed minority. This means that I can be approached only with care and after a great deal of thought beforehand, preferably working from an approved script prepared beforehand, specifically designed by professionals (with fancy titles and letters after their name and everything!), so as not to cause the least offence. My disability? I've officially declared myself as a Christian at work.

Suddenly, people who've known me for years are.... well, not actually avoiding me, but they're certainly coming round less often and the choice of conversation has become somewhat more, ahem, "restricted" that before. It is ironic that most people within the office feel perfectly at ease talking to the Muslims I work with but feel uncomfortable talking to me. In fact, the people who are most "cool" about the situation are the Muslims. As one put it, "It's nice to see a white guy who actually believes that God exists!"

My "disability" is not without its benefits, of course. People who've tended to treat me as some sort of unofficial slave for the last decade have started to feel a little uneasy about their behaviour. A guilty conscience is a wonderful thing in the right hands. I'm hearing the word "please" far more than I used to. A recent conversation went something like, "Holidays? Not a problem - take them whenever you want. What holidays coincide with Christian festivals? Christmas and Easter? You don't say! Better bump you up to the top of the list then if it's RELIGIOUS. Pilgrimage to the Holy Land? Is that like Mecca?" (OK, the last bit was artistic licence on my part - but are getting the idea?)

So I'm being treated with kid gloves at the moment. I've also noticed that the "man-management" functions within my job seem to be going astray or they're being assigned to other "non-believing blokes" because the organisations idea on man-management is to be nasty to someone until they either do what they're told or leave (the theory is that if somebody dies when you hang them - keep hanging them until they get used to it). Suddenly, I'm too weak to be nasty anymore (actually, I'll let you into a little secret. I find it much better to be nice to people - it makes them smile more, they're more loyal and tend to work harder and longer for (whisper it quietly) NO EXTRA PAY simply because they like you).

I'm fairly sure that somewhere there's a little personnel chappy thumbing through a booklet entitles, "Christians - How They Differ From Normal People". Although, it won't describe me as a Christian - it'll probably call me "atheistically challenged" or a "repressed conventional behaviourist" or some other such nonsense.

There is another type of behaviour I'm experiencing too. I'm being treated as if I don't exist by some. I'm not sure whether this treatment is due to embarrassment, shame or just the feeling that I'm going to start "selling" God like a door-to-door Jehovah's Witness as soon as any conversation begins.

Just goes to show how far down the road towards oblivion society has gone. I'm depressed. I've always believed that, like a sermon, I should finish my writings on a high; but this time, I don't know how I can. How about:

"As for you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must give them a warning from me. Suppose I say to the wicked, "O wicked man, you must certainly die," and you do not warn the wicked about his behaviour. The wicked man will die in his sin, but I will hold you accountable for his death. But if you warn the wicked man to change his behaviour, and he refuses to change, he will die in his sin, but you have saved your own life"
Ezekiel 33:7-9

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, "The righteous by faith will live."
Romans 1:16-17

Conx

Copyright (c) Conway Billington

"Ministry is a matter that wears the brain, strains the heart, and drains the life of a man, if he attends to it as he should".

• Topic: Testimony

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