Leadingchurch.com

Faith in a Fiction

One of the books I looked through during my two weeks away was a book by an “ex-evangelical preacher” entitled “Call of God“. It’s a small book on Kindle where this man expresses why he left Christianity and the church and shares a number of stories from others who have done so as well.

Most of the reasons given for leaving the faith were a combination of the person no longer finding the Christian faith as it was portrayed to them as tenable with modern versions of the origin story often combined with a story of pain where God didn’t protect themselves or someone they loved from a disaster.

Many voices in the book basically express the assertion that “friends don’t let friends believe”. It is irresponsible to suggest to people that there is a god out there that rescues good people from calamities. We’d all be better off ditching the divine fiction, taking our destinies into our own hands and making a better world through technology, education and politics.

Richard’s Story

One of the stories in the book is told by “Richard” who outlines his upbringing by a devout Pentecostal mother and an alcoholic father. The turning point in his journey towards unbelief was a nasty custody battle for his son which he claims to have lost because of the court’s bias in favor of mothers rather than fathers. Many Christians prayed for him, laid hands on him, assured him that “God was on his side” and things would turn out as he believed they should only to lose custody and be impoverished by the other aspects of the custody judgment. He tells of the abuse his son suffered at the hands of his ex-wife and lands the blame squarely on God. There cannot be a God if this is how is story is unfolding!

Here is his turning point:

The sting of betrayal that I felt was enough to get me to realize that this god nonsense was nothing more than fairy tales and snake oil salesmanship. What kind of god would put my little son through such horrors and abuse, not to mention the hell and financial rape that I had to endure? Once I dismissed the notion of any supernatural interventions, and took matters into my own charge, and did the research myself, sought out Fathers Rights Groups, learned Pro-Se techniques, etc., then things finally started to improve for me and my son. I eventually won custody when he turned 14, and things have improved since.

Preacher, Ex (2013-06-07). The Call of God (pp. 74-75). . Kindle Edition.

This rather evangelical conversion story is clear. Life was bad while I believed, once I shed that foolishness things have been wonderful.

His conclusion is as follows:

The most obnoxious part is that many of them are the most judgmental, condescending, unloving, closed minded, arrogant, self-righteous, and ignorant people on the face of the earth! Some are just outright dangerously stupid, and have caused serious problems and even death by delaying (or denying) proper medical treatment with prayers.

Fact is that more people have killed and died in the name of god than any other cause and it’s still going on today. It is NOT a benign psychosis, but a dangerous one that needs to get snuffed out. People who subscribe to these tenants have a “god is on our side” mentality; they fly planes into buildings, decapitate nonbelievers or those who insult their gods and prophets, send out suicide bombers, prevent research and development that could save lives, deny other people’s rights to live as they want.

Preacher, Ex (2013-06-07). The Call of God (pp. 76-78). . Kindle Edition.

Stalin? Mao? I digress.

Are Christians Really That Passive? Continue reading →

North Jersey.com

From HuffPo

From The Twelve

From CT

There’s a special strain of immaturity that goes like this: “When something’s serious, I’ll take it seriously. But if something isn’t a big deal, it doesn’t matter how I act; and furthermore, why would I tire myself out by being responsible if it isn’t a big deal?” For example: a friend who makes a habit out of “borrowing” $20 and not paying you back, who expects you to take him seriously when he asks for $2000.

It’s the wishful belief in the inverse of the statement that “one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” It’s the kid who never does homework and then gets As on all his tests, or whose room is a pig-sty except for when it’s immaculate, whose entire life is the act of oscillating from extreme irresponsibility to responsibility, where achieving the latter means you don’t have to be it anymore.

After all, being responsible is hard. And it’s easier (and much more impressive) to lift a very heavy weight once instead of holding onto something light for a long time.

From CT

Except perhaps we have made too much of marriage. In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, perhaps local churches have acted as if monogamous sexual unions are the closest icon of heaven in this life. That no matter how much self-giving ministry or cultural creativity we undertake in our lifetimes, they are second-best without a spouse and children in tow.

If my gay and lesbian peers have the right to sexual union and companionship, why don’t I? If the scriptural passages forbidding homosexual behavior apply only to a particular context, then surely the passages about fornication (sexual behavior outside marriage) and Paul’s praise for singleness are also culturally bound. And so long as marriage ascends into the echelons of existential imperative—you must have this in order to be a complete human being—then my singleness becomes a problem. It is no longer a unique witness to the kingdom, where people “will neither marry nor are given in marriage.” It no longer reveals that the water of baptism is thicker than blood—that an entire generation of Christians could be single, and still God would renew his church. Instead, it becomes a second-class existence.

The Atlantic