Thread: My friend is a fanatic born again Christian...

Annorexia is an obsessive-compulsive behavioral syndrome. What the kind missionary was able to discern was that your friends obsessiveness was transferrable. My own daughter was annorexic, but we were able to refocus her on being obsessive in her studies and now she is on her way to becoming a Doctor. But your friends case seems to have been more extreme, and the tendency for obsession to be deeper and more intense. When the capacity for obsession goes beyond any normal bounds, then ordinary objectives and goals can hardly be able to satisfy its compulsions, and there is where these Fanatical Cults have an advantage over anything that is not so Extreme and not so Crazy. Your friend would not have been pulled from death's door by anything of rational proportions.

In the teenage years the certain metabolisms and hormonal activities within the physiques of young women are at their swirling peak, and so we might suspect that your friends obsessive compulsiveness is now at its absolute height and that her condition might well improve in time as she progresses into the relative mellowness of true adulthood. It has now been six years since the most troubled time of my own daughter's annorexia and now she seems a good deal more easy-going. So give your friend some time.

Don't be an enabler. Tell her that you don't like her constant harasment over religion and if she can't get over it and stop bugging you, you can no longer be her friend. Unless she hot, in that case tell her your saved and Jesus wants her to bang you.

Originally posted by djk99
Don't be an enabler. Tell her that you don't like her constant harasment over religion and if she can't get over it and stop bugging you that you can no longer be her friend. Unless she hot, in that case tell her your saved and Jesus wants her to bang you.

The girl was an inch from death's door and was able to find in extreme Christianity a compulsion equal in intensity to extreme starvation while not being nearly so fatal, but all of this is still not to say that the poor child is not still very very mentally ill. And so it would be terribly inappropriate to do anything that could possibly knock her off what may not be a very firm balance. Would you want to take responsibility if you were suddenly to convince her against Christianity, only to send her back to her bout of lethal annorexia?

Originally posted by Leo Volont


The girl was an inch from death's door and was able to find in extreme Christianity a compulsion equal in intensity to extreme starvation while not being nearly so fatal, but all of this is still not to say that the poor child is not still very very mentally ill. And so it would be terribly inappropriate to do anything that could possibly knock her off what may not be a very firm balance. Would you want to take responsibility if you were suddenly to convince her against Christianity, only to send her back to her bout of lethal annorexia?

I think (hope) he was kidding.

By the way, this is a very tantalizing discussion.

Originally posted by djk99
Don't be an enabler. Tell her that you don't like her constant harasment over religion and if she can't get over it and stop bugging you that you can no longer be her friend. Unless she hot, in that case tell her your saved and Jesus wants her to bang you.

umm dude, They, are both female

friend who is a girl not girlfriend

Originally posted by ataraxis


I think (hope) he was kidding.

By the way, this is a very tantalizing discussion.

Oh yes. You know how tempted I was to fly in with my Anti-Protestant Diatribe, but found myself listening to my own advice about how this poor girl is not the least bit concerned with any actual Doctrines, but has simply latched onto what she has found to be an appealing Obsession, and that it would be extremely dangerous to take that Obsession away if one was not absolutely certain that one could either replace it with another equally harmless Obsession or be assured that she was finally cured of her Obsessiveness (but her friends would see that instantly as she would almost automatically lose her enthusiasm over her Fundamentalism).

Yes, this is not about Religion at all but still about the Annorexia and its complications.

Indeed, one can look at the History of Fasting and Acseticism within the Catholic Church and other Religious Spiritual Traditions and not be Albert Einstein to guess that here also Annorexia may not have played some small part. The same Traditions that encourage a self imposed Starvation also reward a degree of Religious Obsession. The Conditions go hand in glove.

Originally posted by RCLefty
Well, come on, LNF, we want to know how it's going. Any updates?

Nope, no updates yet. Her vacation from school is over and she's back in her Christian College. I'm waiting for her to call me, because last time I tried calling her when she was in school, she would give me a call back about once a month. I'm starting to think that maybe I don't have to worry about trying to revert her back to sanity. After reading various posts of advice here, I think that this faith of hers is the only thing that justifies her obsessive nature, in her eyes. Also, I'm starting to realize that she is not the person with whom I became friends with 7 years ago. She's broken off an engagement with a great guy because he wasn't "saved." Based on just that factor, I highly doubt that she would give up her fanatical worshiping just because a friend tries to explain to her that it's irrational. I can't help but feel a bit bitter because of the amount of time we've known each other, but I guess a friendship is not too different from a relationship in which you meet one person, and after a while they become someone else, and it's the death of that relationship. I wonder though, if this is just a phase in her life, which will pass one day, just like her eating disorder. I don't know if it will ever be possible for her to stop replacing one form of obsessive behavior with another. Even if she will ever realize that she doesn't have to be a fanatic to be spiritual, I don't know if she will go back to being the friend I knew years ago, or if this is one of those "life-altering" experiences after which she will never be the same. I don't know... I'm getting upset thinking about this. I wish her nothing but the best, but by the looks of it, it's highly unlikely that we will ever have the bond that we once had. The next time she gives me a call, I won't go into a whole spiritual battle with her, I'll just tell her in more or less words what I just said. I know that she won't accept it, but hopefully she will understand.

Everyone looks at religion through different eyes. Your friend is no different. She feels her feelings very strongly and expresses them in the manner she sees fit. Her uber-excited attitude towards Christ and her desire to spread "the word" is what a preacher friend of mine would call "being infused with the Holy Spirit."

I too am a "born again" Christian by definition, but I've never cared for that particular description--it sounds a little hackneyed. My philosophy dictates that those who attain this "born again" status never truly lost their faith in the first place. It could be that she feels embarrassed because she thinks she abandoned God in some way during the time she did not worship Him and therefore feels that she needs to act like this to gain His favor once more. No one should ever feel this way. God knows that we aren't perfect and I honestly don't think he expects us to be either. If we were perfect, we wouldn't need His help and He would have no reason to exist...nor would we.

Your friend is going through is an intense, emotional, and extremely personal experience that she must deal with on her own if your religious convictions are not compatible with hers. My advice is to always be at the ready for her to find a balance. If you are truly friends you will be able to get along again at some point in time. I have plenty of non-believer friends and we get along swimmingly. They know they can (at any time) ask me for advice if they choose a different path.

Always remember something Jesus once said: "Those who are not against us are for us." If only we could all live by that philosophy the world might not be such difficult place.

Just a friendly reminder, people. Try to keep things nice. There was a good discussion going on at one point.

I've attempted to salvage this thread by removing the innane posts and placing them in "Senseless Banter." For crying out loud people, grow up. Seriously.

Originally posted by A Lost Soul
Just a friendly reminder, people. Try to keep things nice. There was a good discussion going on at one point.

I noticed that myself. Discussions like these never end well, no?

wow.. im a christian too. But i think that lady that came to visit her brainwashed her...she's gone crazy.

Hey there Lucid Night Flight, I am christian and if you don't want to break her heart and you don't want to lie to yourself, then you have to change her little by little. What I mean by that is make her opened minded to the idea that different faiths can coexist in harmony. Show her that friendship don't have to be christian to exist. I don't know your history with her, but tell her how you never judged her when she wasn't christian, and that you guys have always been friends. Show her that belief doesn't have to interfere with others and that Jesus hanged around the sinners as it was said in Matthew 9: 11-13. Make her regain her friendship with her old friends, then you have to find a way to tell her that you don't believe. After she is a little more open minded to the idea that different faiths can be together in harmony. Well good luck.

Heh... this thread is 8 years old. I hope it's still not an issue

I stopped reading when you said your friend became a hardcore christian, basically, 'for the hell of it'. Doesn't surprise me though. I find that Christianity and logical fallacies go hand in hand.

Please don't necropost. Necroposting is posting in a thread that hasn't been active for years, especially if OP wasn't active as well.

*Locked*