wow... great answers from everyone.... I have been encouraged as well....
in my situation, when I was young I was a very laid back person.... used to be that when I differed from someone, I didn't bother to bring it up that I thought differently.... I thought.... I have my views, they have theirs.... its not worth arguing about or really even discussing… they won’t change their views, I won’t change mine.... then.... I became a Christian.... I was naturally very very shy.... but eventually I was deeply hurt by Pentecostals who insisted I wasn't saved because I didn't speak in tongues (I know now not all Pentecostals say this) then I left this group of churches and suddenly found myself drawn to this very small group of Christians.... I was only 19 at the time.... still a very new Christian.... well this guy leading the group had me totally fooled.... he had used up an entire blackboard with what looked like a huge mathematical equation saying that Jesus would be returning June 14, 1982.... well I was totally freaked out.... so there we all were.... praying that night.... all expecting Jesus to return.... and... as you might have guessed by now, He didn't.... well that was it for me... the last straw.... I walked completely away from Church and Christians.... though I always had this nagging feeling however, that God was real.... I just thought He didn't want me, something was wrong with me personally... however, I eventually severeally hurt my back in 1988, and my whole world was rocked.... I was losing everything, the best job I ever had in the Pipefitters Union, my home… my whole way of life was gone….. so I thought I would go back to church... give it one more try…. I was very tentative, and while going there (a mildly Charismatic church, a child hood friend was attending there, that is why I decided to go there) I actually also went back because even after hurting my back I was “self medicating” because the pain was so intense…. And so I went back also because I was pretty much constantly drunk, using cocaine all the time, and one morning I tried to go to work after being up all night partying... I lost control of my car at about 65 miles an hour and hit a truck head on... and the thing was... no one was even hurt.... in fact.... after my car came to rest in a cornfield, I looked down and I still had a hold of my beer to make sure I didn't spill it!!!! At 6 ‘clock in the morning no less!!!!) anyways.... after hurting my back and realizing I could never go back to my very physical pipefitter job, I got to go to college and there I really began to question my faith.... I looked at New Age, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, lots of stuff.... I did not come from a Christian home so there was no “family background” in this or that church… they could have cared less what I believed as long as I didn’t tell them about it…. my parents had divorced when I was 16 after my mom had left me, my 3 younger sisters and dad for other men repeatedly starting around when I was 5, she was even doing drugs with me as a 15-16 yr old!!! .... so anyway…. Back to when I was going to school…. I start checking all these religions out.... secular philosophy as well... and gradually become more and more convinced of the truthfulness of Christianity, I transferred to a conservative Christian school graduating with a degree in biblical counseling and a double minor in apologetics and systematic theology.... so what does all this have to do with your OP? just this.... I often have been perceived in the same way you have, as being arrogant, prideful, narrow minded, dogmatic, you name it, because I know what I believe and why.... and my confidence in this turns people off... we live in a pluralistic age where if you are somewhat confident in religious or metaphysical beliefs, unless of course it is agnosticism, atheism, secular humanism, pluralism, you are automatically pegged by others as being a jerk, too dogmatic, too whatever.... so I encourage you to look at every situation you face with an eye towards what exactly it was that you think made them feel the way they do about you… what is something you said about your beliefs? Its ok to be confident about them, but we must always hear others out even if in the end, we know that in all likelihood we will still disagree….....so even if we are confident in our beliefs we must treat other people's beliefs with respect and dignity... but try to see if the problem isn't so much you as it is perhaps your confidence is what you believe, and that you are simply “guilty” for thinking you are right, remember, they think they are right too!!! Even if they don’t think about this fact
.... anyway, that alone (confidence in your religious beliefs) is enough to scare people away because in our culture one the greatest taboos of all is to dare to voice your opinion that someone is <GASP> wrong.... often, ironically enough, these same sorts of people fail to realize that they are being just as dogmatic when they claim that you can't be sure of this or that religious belief!! lol.... they may be unaware of their confidence in their religion, even if they think they don’t even have one!!! …. be it agnosticism or some kind of atheistic materialism or physicalism..... and they sure seem to have no problem coming across to you how very confident in their confidence that you should not be confident in what it is you believe!!! lol!!!! so I am just saying... watch out for those sorts of people, you may be getting some false guilt manipulation being thrown your way just because of the confidence you may have in some of your beliefs.... this confidence never excuses arrogance or anything on our part.... but don't let their dogmatic confident zealous agnosticism or atheism (or whatever belief they embrace) rob you of your certainty and joy..... so we have to be busy trying to maintain a balance of hearing others out, respecting them, and then finding a way to let them know… as respectfully as possibly, why it is you think they are wrong…. Some people will never receive the idea they may be wrong, we must be careful MOST OF ALL that that “somebody” is not us!!!!! ….. but in most cases it is best to do your duty before God, share what you take to be the truth, and then shake the dust from your Nikes or Converse and walk away if you are not received….
Blessings,
Ken