Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Or the devil and the deep blue sea? To use the second saying over the first to describe my situation would just scream of irony. I'm a freethinker, and a happy one at that. Religion requires leaps of faith without offering any explaination other than 'have faith' (!), requires one to conform and accept the 'wisdom' of a religious leader, and in some cases places restrictions on the eating or personal habits of it's practitioners just to prove to other religions that they are different. I'm not saying that religion is bad, just that it's not for me.

One of the new friends I've met here and spend a significant amount of time with is part of a Christian group. Now, that's not a problem to me. This Christian group has loads of energy and seems very friendly, which is great; it also has a degree of self-organisation which is pretty competent and a defined leadership. The first few times I met members of the group was in the very first week of oreintation, and I wasn't even aware that the events were church organised, which shows that the group has at least some degree of strategial expertise. Over the past few weeks I've come to know quite a few of the church people, most of whom are really nice, and also somehow been adopted into one of the church's 'cells'. In cell, they talk about the bible and quote chapters of it, they also sing hymns and play relgious clips. In all honesty, that, along with listening to the pastor's sermons, makes my blood creep. I can't accept this way of thinking or their belief system, it just feels wrong.

The trouble is, I know some of these people quite well, and I don't want to throw that away. It's a brilliant move by the church by organizing a few events for the internationals and supporting them in the early stages of uni WITHOUT telling us that they were a church, because that allowed the unsuspecting to bond with their members. My family isn't thrilled at the prospect of me being part of a 'cell', well, neither am I. I'm also pretty sure that prolonged contact with any way of thinking will begin to influence my personal standpoint, which I detest. Unfortunately, at the moment outside the classroom and the church people the number of friends I can spend time with are miminmal. This should aleviate with the passing of time, but until then I'm stuck in a quandry. Minimize contact with the church people and not free uncomfortable due to the clashing beliefs while forfieting greater companionship; or go for their events and services while quitely choking back protests that logic is defied in all sermons but gaining a place in the community? Going for their events but not the services seems like a shortchange, because people don't do things for free.

I guess it all depends on how open this group is, and whether they can tolerate an unbeliever in their ranks.