AGUEST SAID
Be well, be at peace... and don't let them get you down, dear Char (the greatest of love and peace to you!). It goes in cycles... and circles... and you just take a break from it all when you need to. Some leave it altogether (I've tried, but just keep having to go back - a glutton for punishment, obviously... but I know there are some dear ones there - the PMs, etc., that receive prove it to me).
So... do what you need to to revive and rejuvenate.
I think WE have to take care and keep in mind, though... and I know you MEANT this (as does everyone here)... that it isn't atheists over there, but only SOME atheists over there. We must make sure to make this distinction; to do less is unfair to our atheist friends... and even loved ones... as well as those there who don't give a hoot whether we even exist or not and so never get involved in the fray. These, all of them... far, far, FAR outweight and outnumber the, what... let's see... 10 or so (certainly less than 15) of the more radical folks who have censoring us as their primary goal. They only SEEM like a lot of folks because they are tenacious, relentless, sometimes aggressive, and sometimes even malicious.
But I have come to know that their rhetoric, propoganda, and even slander is not hidden and does not go unknown to the majority of the board's posters. That more don't speak up against their conduct isn't, IMHO, a "bad" thing - censoring ANYONE is a slipperly slope - people will eventually begin calling for censor of ANYTHING they don't "like."
We don't want that, though. And so, I have just learned to give them back their medicine, but with the "bitterness" (to their "tastebuds") of truth, rather than the bitterness of anger and hatred. And as a result, I have made several very good... CLOSE... friends of former opponents, even atheists... over the years, many of whom step and speak up... against those who don't believe as they don't believe.
Let your light shine, my sister. Don't hide it under a basket. Just remember to keep love in the front. Don't let anger overtake you: be wrathful, yet do not sin. And remember, always, to pray for those who persecute you... and/or our Lord.
Bottom line, dear one: this, too, shall pass. It always does.
Again, peace to you... and to your dear household!
YOUR servant and fellow slave of Christ,
SA
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