The weird people strike again.

[GMan]

In my own little warped sense, I sort of feel sorry for him. Unable to really enjoy freedom.

[Confused.Nihilist]

I had an experience similar to this and I regret trying to be diplomatic about it. I think that I'm through with that approach. I was in Austin (Texas) for the weekend visiting family and attending a Flogging Molly concert at Stubb's. I met up with a friend afterwards and we proceeded to hit up a few bars.
We walked into a little dive on 7th street and someone taps me on the shoulder and asks me if I'm from Scotland; the usual type of question. I answer "no" and explain the origin of my initial interest in wearing kilts. You've got your patent response, we all do here.
This happened last week and I forget the exact line of questioning used but to make a long story short...and I am trying to clean up my language, this [female dog] who moved away from Glasgow last year thought that I was a fake for wearing a kilt and only those born in Scotland should be allowed to wear kilts. I employed every once of tact and all of the defenses I've picked up here on the forum but to no avail and I finally realized that I was getting NOWHERE as this elitist, racist individual looked away when she responded. So I walked away after thanking her for her blessing, albeit sarcastically. After all, sarcasm is a second language to me.
But I guess that was a bad experience because in these negative situations I now feel that should abandon a diplomatic approach in lieu of a less friendly response because clearly if they approach me with a negative attitude then there’s no chance whatsoever that I will convince them of my reasoning. Because there’s a huge difference between “I thought only people from Scotland wore kilts” and “I think only people from Scotland should wear kilts”. Don’t we all agree on that?
Well I’ve never wanted to pour a drink on a person more in my life she but was surrounded by guys, I didn’t have a drink yet and my only backup in a barfight was too knackered to be of any assistance. Because if you’ve never been in a fight with a woman, how do you know what you’re really capable of? I may be getting way off base here.
But back to reality. I think that it’s best to employ a diplomatic response in 99.9% of social interactions. In the other percentage, it’s probably best to just go with your instincts because you might regret it later.

[Roan Carter]

I finally realized that I was getting NOWHERE as this elitist, racist individual looked away when she responded. .

I find that the Japanese are the same way about their traditional loin cloth, the fundoshi. They think it should remain theirs alone. That's okay though. I wasn't planning on wearing a fundoshi in public any time soon.

What Scots fail to understand sometimes is that there are enough Celtic people in the states to take on all the empire and maybe even Mann, too.

[Nighthawk]

It may sound odd - given my 'profession' but people speaking 'Bible-ese' to perfect strangers, especially to lecture them totally Pi**es me off, Royally!

99% of the time it is done in total ignorance of what the passage really means. (It actually refers to Transvestite 'Priests' of several ancient deities with whom the Israelites had disapproving contact). More applicable to finding you in a pink frilly ball gown & red pumps.

It was certainly not referring to (Male) Kilts, Sarongs, Lava-Lavas, Graeco-Roman tunics or Togas, or Israelite robes at all. What a moron!

I have in my life found that there are three kinds of religious people:

1- Those that use religion as medium of control

2- Those who need the control/social structure

3- Those who actually believe (and sadly, these are the ones that I see the least of.)

People like the ones who will quote scripture at you in a supermarket are the people who fit neatly into Category 1. No amount of reason or logic or actual fact will convince them that they are wrong. It takes away their medium of control, so the reality doesn't matter. And as Ted said- what fun is life if we can't laugh at each other and ourselves? I tell my co workers all the time that they are on this earth to amuse me, and I them.

You're a priest, correct, Ozman? Many blessings to you, friend.

[Nighthawk]

In my own little warped sense, I sort of feel sorry for him. Unable to really enjoy freedom.

I very much feel sorry for people like that. Their minds are closed up tighter than a turtles behind. I quote my Grandpa Leddy a lot. He used to say that you can lead a jacka** to knowledge, but you can't make him think.

[slohairt]

Alas, what can you do? Of all the things a person could do with their time, some people insist on wasting theirs with actions like these. There really is no amount of reasoning with these types of people, so a snappy comeback or a response attempting to educate is also a waste of time. It's best to ignore them.

I do like the idea of pretending to not speak English!

[Tommie]

In my own little warped sense, I sort of feel sorry for him. Unable to really enjoy freedom.

You know in a way I sort of feel sorry for him also.
Heres a guy approching a perfect stranger wearing what he asumes is a modern day skirt,and begins to spout verses from the Bible that he himself does not even understand.
He must have missed class the day they discussed that bit of the Bible.
Ozman pretty much covered how it would have went.
I remember that from my High school days.

The world we live in is full of hypocrites.
You not going to change them so might just as well ignore them.

[beowulf67]

There will always be small and closed-minded people everywhere. And not just religious people. I feel sorry for them because they are stuck in their little world and ,I think, are afraid to expose themselves to things they don't understand. Where I live we generally refer to these people as "rednecks". They all aren't as funny as Larry the Cable Guy.

[ChromeScholar]

The older I get, the less inclined I am to waste my time arguing with these sort of people. To quote Lazarus Long (Robert Heinlein)

“Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.”

Hence the non-English speaking act. It's amazing how many people will accept what they consider wrong, or eccentric behavior from "ferriners", because "they just don't know any better".

[Kevlar70]

Contextualizing - when reading into the Scriptures our own cultural demarcations - is not helpful to the Scotsman. When the Protestant reformation came to the Highlands, did it negate kilt wearing? I have read of no instance of the outlawing of the kilt except by the English crown for vastly different reasons.

The Apostle Paul was writing in Asia (modern Turkey) and Rome primarily. If we were to look at the male garments of that day, we would think them fundamentally different than Western 21st century dress.