Why is it so hard for this man to treat me with respect? He knows I am a Christian but he continues to ask me for sex. All I want is for him to be my friend. But he says, I am a man. Can a man be a woman’s friend without being intimate?

Your being Christian is not the issue. Men being platonic friends with women is not the issue. You wanting this man to be your platonic friend alone is not the issue.

The issue is this man doesn’t respect you, doesn’t respect women or your decision, and is setting you up for further sexual harassment, if not sexual assault. The issue is this man and many like him suffer from a massive sense of entitlement to women’s romantic and sexual affections. The issue is this man is trying to find the line where you’ll stop fighting back and will consider that consent, even though that (sexual harassment / sexual assault / rape) is the furthest thing from it. I advise taking any and all relationship offers (including platonic ones) off the table and running, not walking, as far and as fast as you can from him.

Trust me, there are plenty of partnered/married Christian (and Muslim and Jewish and Shinto and atheist and agnostic …) men who are as insufferable and potentially dangerous as this joker that’s refusing to accept your “no.” Marital sexual harassment and rape are still an unfortunate reality.

Your boundaries are yours, they’re inviolable, and anyone that tries to argue you out of them or go around them or or ignore them or violate them or pressure you or bullshit you or gaslight you isn’t worth having any kind of relationship with.

It’s not hard for him to treat you with respect. He is simply choosing not to (which should tell you everything you need to know).