I had an acquaintance from the former church my wife and I went to (she's still nominally involved there) reach out to me, and wanted to talk. For context, the church we went to was a hard-core fundamentalist Christian church. Their view is "The Bible is the inerrant Word of God." No disrespect to those of you here that hold that worldview, but some of the members of this church are so rigid in their views, that if you speak outside of the context they have, they seem like they literally cannot compute it. You remember the "fembots" scene in Austin Powers where their heads explode? Yeah, kind of like that. 🤣

Before we even met up, I texted him, and said, "Just to let you know, I've filed the petition, and I'm pretty decided on this." He still wanted to meet up.

So sure enough...We met up for dinner, and as expected, he basically went into his "scriptural proof" speech, and said if the Bible didn't specifically say it was right, that it was wrong. He kept pounding on about it, and I finally said to him, "Look, I know your concern is genuine, and I know you have a very specific worldview, but you're not talking me out of this."

A part of me respects those that have unquestioning allegiance to a religious dogma. But another part of me pities them. When the guy finally realized he wasn't going to talk me out of my decision, he kind of backed off a little, and finally said, "Well, reach out if you ever need someone to talk to."

Bottom-line, don't let people guilt you into staying in a toxic relationship or situation. I've already done my grieving, and I'm moving on.