Dear Prudence,
I had a friend, “John,” with whom I was inseparable from 5th grade until junior year of college. I’ll probably never have a friend like that again. We were true friend soulmates. Long story short, he had a legitimate mental breakdown almost exactly 10 years ago, through which I completely supported him and his family. He sort of recovered normally, then promptly became ultra-religious out of nowhere. I, an unapologetic agnostic, tried not to let that get in the way of our friendship. I was a groomsman in his wedding, I never negatively commented on his belief system that I vehemently oppose, and I tried my best to support whatever life he felt he needed to live to be fulfilled.
But as you can imagine, it became difficult to relate to him about anything, given that the literal only thing he cared about was his faith. Our friendship waned, even though I still cared a lot for him. I am getting married in June and quarreled first with the notion of having him in the wedding party (which I quickly realized was a terrible idea) and settled on just simply inviting John and his wife. I knew he was not going to come. But when he sent me a letter of refusal asserting that this marriage was “fake” because it was not under the umbrella of his church, and how he would be unable to witness a sacrilegious event like my wedding, my blood began to boil, and I’m unsure how to proceed. I am completely fine completely closing the book on this relationship. But the urge to write him back and verbally tear him to shreds is growing by the minute.
—The Angry Agnostic