Brother, I am personally in a state of relative dismay. I just came back from a very abrasive dinner, where I informed my former martial arts instructor that I was leaving the martial arts both for obedience to Christ and because of its theological (chi) origins. From there on out it was civilized for about 5 minutes and voices began raising after.

A list of some of the things he was saying was:

"What's the difference between Jesus' grace and chi energy? God created everything so my yoga and my karate is my way of becoming one with God, of utilizing my power and rising above my limits. You mean to tell me you're going to box yourself in with a narrow mind and stop doing this and utilizing your true power?"

"Roman Catholicism is pagan. (he then asked me about the Christmas tree, to which I responded that the tree itself has pagan origins but then he cut me off right there before I could continue laughing at me saying...) see? That's what I mean. You admitted it right there."

"Jesus is just a figment of your imagination. Where is he Ryan? Is Jesus with you? Where is he, I don't see him! The difference between me and you is that my experience is tangible. I do real things with yoga and martial arts. You're just subjecting yourself to something that isn't tangible at all. You're boxing in your whole life."

"I was an altar server for years, and I knew 3 gay priests and they all talked about the faith and all that $%^#@$. I can't believe someone as smart as you is getting involved in a cult."

"You just read some books and are blindly doing what they tell you to do."

More bigoted statements. This started because I spoke about the spiritual dangers of chi and yoga, and how yoga is not only spiritually dangerous (resulting in some demonic attacks) but idolatrous and that chi doesn't exist. He treated this as bogus, and when I mentioned this was based on legitimate theology and demonology he said I was being brainwashed into a cult.

I kind of lost my temper after a while because he kept cutting me off (kind of like the Christmas tree comment) even as I was trying to explain logical reasons for my faith, such as the overwhelming Old Testament evidence, the historical evidence attesting to the Bible, the scientifically verified Eucharistic miracles, ect. I didn't say anything too inappropriate to him, but I eventually called him a bigot and also said "You are completely defunct of the faculty of logic. You have no capability to think logically" a little while before he said he wouldn't listen to me because I "obviously" was devoid of logic. He then said, "See, where's the compassion of Christ in you? What's Christ doing for you now that you're talking this way?"

I am dismayed because I think I failed in representing Christ fully. Christ said we would be hated for His name. I am not dismayed for that. I am blessed for such persecution. But I wish I could help people like this. I feel like I lost a soul from Christ and could have been better.