Question for Christians - no evangelical atheists please

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I have a question that is mainly for Christians. Non-Christians are welcome to try to answer, but please could any evangelical atheists out there try to refrain from flooding the thread with flippant comments and mockery - there are plenty of other threads for that sort of thing.

I was brought up a Christian, but I am not one anymore. I do not have any particular religion at the moment. However, although for a short time I considered myself anti-religion, I do not think that way anymore.

My question to Christians is - how would you feel if there was someone close to you who left Christianity (either for another religion or for atheism)? Would you not be desperate for them to see the error of their ways for the sake of their own soul? Could you even think about them in the same way as you once did? If someone close to you were to leave Christianity, would you prefer that they joined another religion or that they became an atheist? I have heard many religious people say that they view the various world religions as just like different paths to the same truth, but is this really the case for a revealed religion like Christianity?

Are any atheists allowed to answer?

I'm one of those "evangelical atheists" you go on about and I really couldn't give a toss about anyone else's religion, as long as they're not rubbing it in my face.

It doesn't matter to me what people believe so long as they don't try to use what they believe against me.

Some prefer wicca.

I meant more like Christians calling me the devil or something

Of course they are. I can't stop them.

It is not easy to express what you want to say within a short thread title, but what I'm trying to say is that in this thread I am interested in finding out how Christians feel about people they know leaving Christianity, and that in this thread I am rather less interested in reading critiques of Christianity by non-Christians, or in seeing atheists line up to tell me they don't care.

Are you a Christian?

I guess it depends largely on what country you live in and what community you are part of. There are parts of America where leaving Christianity simply is not done or you become a social outcast and it can even affect your ability to get (or keep) a job.

I see your location is England. Most Christians I know (C of E) wouldn't really care much if you left Christianity. But if you live in a devout Catholic family / community you may face more problems, but certainly not as bad as parts of America where leaving Christianity is almost like admitting to being a paedophile devil worshipper.

That's what I'm saying. It might be slightly more of a problem (if I'm just talking about Christianity here, and not the other religions) with, say, Polish Roman Catholic communities, or some of the Black and Evangelical churches, but in general Christian/secular/non-religious English people don't really care.

Meh ... whatever ...


No.


No.


See answer to #1, above.


There are many different signs that point to God, but only One True Path.

I once asked someone close to me how it makes her feel to believe that I will go to hell while she will go to heaven. I think she just said that it's terrible and she tries not to think about it.

You can be within the same church with people who are deluded and fatally erroneous. Finding truth once does not guarantee you anything without any effort of will on your behalf, let alone 'other' factors. You're not lukewarm about it and are honest to yourself, and that could be a path closer to Christ than pretending to be a Christian for immediate earthly conveniences and fragile sense of own infallibility.

I was raised in a pretty devout catholic household. After college, I converted to Russian orthodox for a few years. At the same time, my sister announced her atheism and came out of the closet about her homosexuality. Now here is the odd thing. My parents were way much more concerned about me switching Christian denominations then they were about my sister and her atheism and lifestyle. About her they'd say 'meh, its just who she is'. Now about me, I got the whole its soul crushing and your going to hell speech. Even had the catholic bishop call me and say the same thing.

Given their catholic belief structure, this is the opposite reaction that I would have expected.

Now that I am a "who gives a crap" atarian. I am OK again.

Christians are confusing at best.

I am Ras Tafari.

I'm just coming back to it from such a place and....I really don't know what to think on a lot of levels. Something seems wrong. Either we have a rather despotic universe where the closest thing to 'good' is still pretty ruthless by our standards or, I still haven't reached my final destination yet or my best understanding of it.

A friend of mine who's been a devoted Christian - albeit cutting his own caviates in it - has a girlfriend who's one of the best people I've met in a long time and happens to be Palestinian Muslim. I really wouldn't have much faith in a system that would take the faith she grew up with out on her based on a fine-detail or technicality.

I see at as there being two different kinds of Christians: Those who pay lip-service to Christianity as a religion and those who find a genuine experience and relationship with God. People who are "raised Christian" but don't really "get it" can turn around and walk away any time they want. People who undeniably encounter God on a personal level can't easily turn away from it; or if they do, they won't come back. I think you either make a genuine commitment to faith in Christ or you don't, and if it's something you can turn away from it was never real to begin with.

So I don't think someone "leaving" Christianity is something for a Christian to get bent out of shape over--not because of some fall-from-grace or whatever, but because abandoning Christ, which is impossible for a believer, simply reveals the true state of the heart of the one leaving the religion. What a believer should do, however, is everything he or she can to give that person any spiritual and emotional support as possible to hopefully bring that person back to a place where perhaps that person can come to a genuine faith in Christ. That and, of course, constant prayer. Beyond that, as is the case for all people, believers or not, the fate of a person's soul lies in the hands of God.

While rejecting a faith is certainly upsetting, ultimately what Christians need to realize is that each individual has to be responsible for choosing his own path. Of course I want my children to grow up to place their faith in Christ. We practically live at church, they attend a Christian school, etc. Perhaps we can "hedge our bets" or make it easier for them by having the influence we have over our kids, but in the end they are the ones who have to make that decision. We can't make it for them. And no amount of sermons, school, Bible reading, family time, whatever is going to guarantee that whatever our kids say really comes from a genuine change of heart. That's between them and God.

And, too, people often become disenchanted with the trappings of religions without abandoning Christ and genuine dedication to God. Or they become angry with life circumstances that are at odds with how they expect life to be under God's care. Or it could merely be that trying to live a spiritually disciplined life is too difficult for them under so many secular pressures. So "leaving Christianity" isn't about abandoning faith or falling from grace. It's more about maturity and experience, and that doesn't bear any negative implications on salvation.