Wonderful conversation.

[GAYtheist]

I'm sitting here in Starbuck's, and a gentleman walks in with a bible and sits down in front of men. After a while I ask if he's taking a philosophy course, and if he's a practicing Christian, and he is. For some reason we strike up a two hour conversation, and he was one of the most pleasant people I've ever talked to. Our conversation ranges from homosexuality, to the homophobia of some churches, to religion in school and government to abortion. It was really pleasant, neither of us ever trying to convince each other that we're right, just a chat. I am so happy to have met someone so open minded. Anyone else have something like this they can share?

[Tank]

Unfortunately not  

[Dretlin]

I'm sitting here in Starbuck's, and a gentleman walks in with a bible and sits down in front of men. After a while I ask if he's taking a philosophy course, and if he's a practicing Christian, and he is. For some reason we strike up a two hour conversation, and he was one of the most pleasant people I've ever talked to. Our conversation ranges from homosexuality, to the homophobia of some churches, to religion in school and government to abortion. It was really pleasant, neither of us ever trying to convince each other that we're right, just a chat. I am so happy to have met someone so open minded. Anyone else have something like this they can share?

I envy your encounter and hope it was not a one off.

[Martin TK]

I have a very dear old high school chum, we were also in the PhD program at the University of South Carolina together, different subject areas, but attending together so we often rode together to classes on the weekend and during the summer.

He is a theist, but not a practicing Christian, although he has been to "the Holy Land" a couple of times for research purposes.  He's the kind of guy who has done a LOT in his life, unlike me who has been teaching for 26 years.  He's been a chief of police, an EMT, a college professor, a freelance writer, and even went back to school to become a nurse, just to name a few.  He's traveled all over, lived on nearly every continent, except Australia and the Pole, has been married at least three times, and get this, considers himself a conservative.

Given all of his faults, which I tease him about a lot, he and I have a long standing relationship via online.  We take turns chosing a book to read, then we both read it, and we come back together online and debate/discuss it.  We never take each other's opinions too seriously, although we have had some interesting debates over the years.  I think that Pate is one of the smartest men I have ever known, and one of the most unusual, and I value his friendship like no other.  We will never see eye to eye on a LOT of things, but we are still friends and though sometimes we have stretches of time when we don't communicate much, we can always pick up where we left off.

Right now, we are reading "Tortured for Christ" by Richard Wurmbrand about the life and times of a Romanian Christian during the Communist rule in that country and the torture and imprisonment he suffered for his beliefs.  I can't wait to finish it and begin to talk about it.  The last book we debated/discussed was Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion" now that was Fun too.

[Tank]

Martin

Does your friend do forums?