Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts here. I couldn't agree more. People just tend to push each other into further extremes. It's hardly something unique to the world of religion. Even with my friend here, I can tell she just wants to avoid me going to hell. But the way she's gone about it has only pushed me and her friends further and further away from her and her religion. And the conversations that she's had with us about it I fear have only pushed her into deeper extremes, too.

Fortunately though, even after I assume she read this article, she and I have continued to talk privately and have agreed to remain friends. A rare silver lining to her radical beliefs are that she truly thinks anything I do or say against Christianity is simply the devil working through me and hardly a fault of my own.

I don't think that she's a bad person. I just think that she's been heavily indoctrinated. If nothing else, I can appreciate that her hateful words aren't coming from a place of true spite. It's a valuable distinction.

Thanks for reading!