I recently learned that a friend of Facebook was an atheist. I emailed him with the premise of "Did you ever believe in God, and if so, what changed?" The response was overwhelming and something that I have never encountered. I fired my best shots and guess what? I failed...sort of.
So knowing the potential for more rejection, I posted on Facebook and requested for anyone who did not believe in God to message me their email address, that I had some questions. I received five messages. Four atheists and one who doesn't believe in the Bible, but does believe in God and His son Jesus.
I received four email replies and one face to face conversation based on the following questions.
- Did you ever believe in God and His son Jesus? If so, what changed? What happened?
- How do you view the Christian Church?
- How do you view Christians?
The responses were heartbreaking. This is what they had to say in relation to the questions above.
Responses to Question 1
" I always questioned why we did what we did and why I was considers [sic] a lesser human since I was a female, why my brothers could be alter boys, but I couldn't since I didn't have a penis, etc."
"...since my brother "disowned" me Christmas Eve when I was 16 since I was questioning the core of his values). He didn't apologize until I was 30 and his wife made him see that I'm a good person who loves him, his kids, and her. But he still doesn't have anything to do with me,"
"......people saying that everything is "God's will", especially in bad situations like the death or illness of a child...but I cannot accept that there is a God that could but doesn't prevent some of the most evil occurrences such as mass genocides, babies being tortured and killed, etc."
"Secondly, as I was growing up, many of the kids that I attended public school with who regularly attended church and youth groups and such were both A) incredibly judgemental [sic] and B) incredibly hypocritical. On one hand, I would be judged for either not attending church/youth group (later in high school), or attending the wrong church (early in high school). I once had a girl tell me quite seriously that she learned at church that I would go to hell if I didn't believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible...That same girl was a giant pot head. A lot of the kids at my school that I heard "talking the Christian talk" were often not particularly nice people, got drunk regularly, did drugs, and some were even pregnant before graduation. My close friends and I however, none of which went to church or claimed any particular religion, were great students, were super active in the community, and had tons of fun and were happy despite never touching drugs or alcohol. To me as an 18 year old, everything that I was seeing in my experience with Christianity was just distasteful and drove me away from it."
Responses to Question 2
"The Christian church is a business just like wal-mart, but they are selling salvation rather than widgets."
"...I see all organized religions as a way for the few to control the masses. Like most institutions it comes down to power and money."
"Eh, most denominations mean well, but in my experience the church creates a lot of very narrow minded, judgemental [sic] people who like to force their views on others and don't necessarily follow the true message."
"I've looked at a lot of churches and the majority of them seem to have focused on the Bible being a rulebook, and they teach about how to follow all the rules exactly. Others seem so much like a song/dance/show, and a place to see and be seen, that the whole point of church is lost. Both of them seem to miss the point that I get from what Jesus showed us, and that's love for other people."
Responses to Question 3
"I know many good Christians who go above and beyond to help those in need. I also know significantly more who are hypocritical, judgmental, lazy, and down right mean."
"I decided that even if there was a God he was not likely to appreciate church goers who didn't believe in him at all but showed up occasionally "just in case"."
"I'm also tired of what I call the "Social Christian", and those are the ones that go to church every Sunday but they're only there because that's what they're "supposed" to do, and the extent of the Church's impact on them ends when they walk out of the building. The ones you're surprised to learn go to church because they sure don't live like it: gossiping, refusing to give anything to the poor, judging everybody. Or the ones who treat church like the social event of the week and are just there to see and be seen. But the second you tell them you don't go to church, they're suddenly all taken aback and offended that they're even in the presence of a "heathen". I feel like there's a lot of Christians by name only but they don't seem to be living it."
What Hurt the Most- the following was at the end of one of the emails.
"And I also fully expect for you to dislike me now since, just like Muslims, by not believing I [sic] your God I am inferior. Which is a catch 22 because a good Christian should see me as good human being who goes out of my way to prevent suffering and spread love (I am a vegan mind you!) but a good Christian would also understand that being good is far less important than simply believing blindly."
Do you see a pattern here? I SAID DO YOU SEE A PATTERN HERE? We Christians say and do some of the stupidest things. We have our own "churchy talk" that makes us look like complete fools. We play church and even post videos pretending the spirit of the Lord is on us. We joke about the "HOLY" Ghost and think people aren't affected by it. When bad things happen or we don't get what we want, we say "well it was or wasn't God's will..." Yes God has a will for our lives however he allows us to make choices. If every movement we made was God's will or not then we would simply be robots. Bad things happen to good people. How do you answer someone who asks if there was a God, then why do all these bad things happen? We are some of the meanest people, and some of the worst employees. We use God as an ATM always tying everything to financial gain. Yes I want to be blessed financially however WHAT WAS THE PRIORITY OF JESUS? Financial gain? NO! It was seeking the lost. Church, we have lost our first love.
So how do you kill an Atheist without a weapon? Just keep doing what most of us are doing. Because, if we believe what we actually say, then they will enter Hell. Yes it was ultimately their choice but which one of us helped shape their decision?
Did I successfully lead any of the respondents to Christ? No. I did a lot of apologizing to them. I planted some seeds. Please water my seeds.
The Greatest Failure of Christians
1. We do not share Jesus.
2. We do not know why we believe what we believe.
3. We do not live according to what we preach.
