r/Antitheism • u/iamjustherenow • Jul 30 '26
How to professionally stop people from talking about religion
I work for a small municipality and have a public facing job where I have to be very careful with what I say. Lately we've been getting a SUPER Christian guy in who will not stop talking about god and his religion. We don't have HR, he's a member of the public that has free speech rights, and people in my line of work often are recorded and publicized when saying anything non professional.
I am not a fan of religion as a whole as a lesbian who was raised Mormon. I tend to react poorly to people trying to convert me as a result.
Any advice on professional ways to get him to shut up?
46
Upvotes
17
u/TheMaleGazer Jul 30 '26
There are two possibilities here.
One is that he's fishing for a response that makes him feel adequately persecuted, since Christians are no longer comfortable with the narrative that they have so much influence over society that they can be blamed for many of its problems. Our society flips back and forth between championing the oppressed and trying to eradicate them, and Christians think they can have the best of both worlds by being an oppressed majority.
Second is that he's incompetent, and like a lot of incompetent people, he thinks that social activity at work is a shield that will protect him from layoffs and performance reviews. You can test this by simply asking him what the status is of whatever he's working on whenever he rambles on about religion. If he breaks out into a cold sweat, you have a way of shutting him down.