To become a Christian you must first read and understand every other religion in the world. Otherwise you are narrow minded...

There are two men sitting across from me speaking in arabic. 

When I saw them walking in I thought it was funny because they look like italian mobsters. dressed really nicely and driving fancy cars. There was one connection I failed to make.

They came in while I was reading… Immediately one started calling me a name. Not an inappropriate name, an actual name, like runna or something. I didn't realize they were talking to me. I looked up and they said, are you runna? Nope. Oh, they said, you look exactly like our friend's daughter. Oh, haha. Turns out I could actually be their cousin.

They asked if I was arabic. I am syrian. they are lebanese. I listed of some of my families' last names like a good arabic girl, one of them said, oh, you're a Barraket? (well, yes, kind of, I'm related to the Barraket's, we actually say Barket, but Barraket is the proper way, just roll the R and add an a). 

cousin.

they then wanted me to prove my syrian residency, joking of course. They settled for the fact that I knew what taboulli was.

Then they tested my arabic, of which I speak none. They asked if I knew the arabic word for money. their way of asking was using the arabic word for money. I of course, to reiterate my point, said no. I don't know what massa-something means. Oh, haha, you no use no money, haha. Oh, haha, I said, yeah my parents never taught me arabic, they thought I said my parents didn't teach me money. sooo funny.

one just got up to leave, they have been sitting across from me this whole time. 

the other older one asks again for my dad's name. he's sure he's met him. I show him a picture of him and my mom on my computer. still nothing…

We never drew the connection but I'm sure it has something to do with real estate.

since he didn't go back to his seat I felt somewhat obligated to keep talking. he asked how many boyfriends I have. I probably should have lied. and said at least one. it was far from my mind that he would be hitting on me. He was like 40! I told him I go to the church around the corner and have a lot of guy friends who are like brothers. Just to get the point across that if I went missing people would notice. 

To try to deter him or at least turn off his desire for conversation I took the conversation in a direction I thought would cause him to leave. God and church. I very quickly felt like I was talking to an art student at UNF. He believes in the whole there are many ways to God. different religions are all right. no one is wrong. as long as you believe there is a God. 

well, hello every person I every reached out to in college. I knew exactly how it would end as soon as it started. Let's agree to disagree. 

But I couldn't just end it. I was in this conversation. somewhat unprepared. 

To type out everything we discussed would take a while…I'll do some bullet points:

-who Jesus is. (we disagreed)

-how to choose your religion(we disagreed)

-who goes to heaven or hell (we disagreed)

-how to talk about religion and what you believe (we disagreed)

-if the Bible is truth(disagreed)

Someone once said, in order to argue well, one must start with communicating the definitions. we can argue over how to run a business but if we don't define certain words or what the business is, we will argue in circles.

I must say, there were many times when I was lost for words. Then there were times when I had too many words and had to choose them wisely. Ultimately he wanted me to talk about religion and God without posing my own beliefs. I explained that I cannot separate who I am from what I believe. He found that among many things that I said to be bogus.

Five Books:

He posed a question. He was trying to explain that I am only a Christian because it is how I was raised and If I were raised another religion I would be that. 

question: if you had no prior knowledge of the Bible and you were told to go into this room with 5 books on a table. you have to choose which one you will follow to live your life. how would you choose? 

I answered, well, I would read one, taking into account how it affects me and then read the next until I found the right one.

He felt he made his point. I've only read the Bible and since I haven't read all the other options I am narrow minded and what I think is the only way to Christ is only that because it's all I know.

I answered back: Do you mind if I ask you a question. Sure he said, proud and smiling and intrigued.

I asked. Let's say you are put in a room with 5 women. One of them is to become your wife. 

Do you have sex with each one to figure out who your wife is?

He answered, if that is an option, then yes.

I answered back: See, this is where I disagree. I don't think I need to know every book in order to know that the Bible is the Truth. The absolute truth.

The conversation went on. and as I suspected we ended on me saying. Let's just agree to disagree. He laughed. because in his mind, he still agrees with me. and every other religion. (I've been to enough interfaith committee meetings to know the difference between modern tolerance and the definition of tolerance.) I will and did listen to his opinion and made it clear that I disagree and he made it clear that I'm being narrow minded. I agreed. proudly.