I consider myself a very blessed man in a number of ways. This blog has become one of my great blessings. One of the reasons I love this blog community is the variety of people who interact on it. There has been an increase in the number of people who aren\u2019t Christians who comment on various posts. I want to share with you the perspective of one young woman on how she views Christians. These comments come directly from her comments on some of my posts. They have not been changed.<\/p>\n
I remember a rather outspoken evangelical Christian young woman I worked with \u2013 I\u2019d just moved to town, and we went to a movie together. Each week she invited me to her church, and I didn\u2019t want to offend her by saying \u201cNo thanks.\u201d As it was, I had Buddhist activities one Sunday and I was mentoring a young girl two other Sundays, but that theoretically left a Sunday open. We only worked together for 3 months, and it never worked out. I went to a different job.<\/i><\/p>\n
She showed up there one night, and jumped right to the church invite. No \u201cHey, how\u2019ve you been? Haven\u2019t seen you in a while!\u201d Nope \u2013 just \u201cDo you want to come to church with me this weekend?\u201d Since I was on to her game, I decided to play. I said, \u201cSure, I\u2019ll go to church with you, because I\u2019m interested in seeing what you\u2019re interested in. That\u2019s what friends do, after all. And I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll want to come with me to a Buddhist meeting to see what I\u2019m interested in, right?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cOh no!\u201d she replied. \u201cI just love the Lord so much!\u201d
\n<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d I said, \u201cthen there\u2019s no point in me going to your church because I\u2019m not interested in either becoming a Christian or joining your church.\u201d I never saw her again.<\/i><\/p>\n
That\u2019s how far Christian friendship extends \u2013 I\u2019ve seen it over and over and over. Christians look at everyone else as if they\u2019ve got targets painted on their foreheads. Nobody likes being hunted down or treated like someone else\u2019s project. We don\u2019t need to drop all our beliefs just to accept yours, and we don\u2019t need to become more like you just to be acceptable people, worthy of being regarded as people instead of targets. Love does not seek to create clones of itself. Selfishness does.<\/i><\/p>\nOn Being Self-centered and Judgmental<\/h3>\n
Keep your religious beliefs to yourself. If I have any interest in what you believe, I\u2019ll ask you. And if I don\u2019t ask you, then go right ahead and assume that your \u201cwitnessing\u201d will be unwelcome. I\u2019m sure that you like whatever you believe very much, and I\u2019m very happy that you like it. However, just as your favorite flavor of ice cream is not necessarily going to be mine, I wish you would assume that I\u2019m just as content with my own beliefs (or lack thereof) as you are with yours. Why not ask me first what *I* believe? Why not show an interest in what\u2019s interesting to me instead of expecting me to always be interested in what YOU\u2019RE interested in? Christians are so selfish and self-centered! Tell me \u2013 when was the last time an atheist rang your doorbell to tell you about his worldview? The reason the world hates Christians is because they behave badly, they\u2019re rude, boorish, arrogant, conceited, full of themselves, ignorant, and judgmental. Go ahead \u2013 accuse me of being judgmental now. Doesn\u2019t matter \u2013 I don\u2019t claim to follow a belief system that has actual rules AGAINST being judgmental, so it\u2019s *fine* for me to be!<\/i><\/i><\/p>\nOn Being Unwilling to Develop True Friendships with Non-Christians<\/h3>\n
As a mother of young children in a homeschooling environment, we found ourselves surrounded by Christians. Of course, the kids would become friends and we moms would chat while they played. Without a single exception, this \u201cacquaintanceship\u201d only progressed to the point that I had to make it clear that no, I would not acceptjesusasmypersonalsavior, and no, I would not be attending their church. Then the Christians never called again, and I was left to explain to my sad children why their new friends wouldn\u2019t be playing with them any more.<\/i><\/p>\n
When my son was just 6, the boys down the street told him he was not allowed to play with them because he wasn\u2019t a Christian. I went down to see what was going on (because my 4-yr-old daughter was going to go down there and teach those boys a lesson!) and I confirmed that what my son had reported was indeed what they\u2019d said. And the mother of one was right out in the front yard, 25 feet from me, pretending to be very focused on trimming some plants. She never said a word.<\/i><\/p>\n
Finally, the 6-yr-old girl across the street told my kids, ages 7 and 9, that if they weren\u2019t Christians, they would be going to hell. She certainly learned the \u201cGood News\u201d. And you Christians wonder why we non-Christians avoid you?? HINT: It\u2019s not because we\u2019re intimidated by your awesomeness and are just sitting here, pining for you, wishing you would like us. We already know you don\u2019t.<\/i><\/p>\nYour Response?<\/h3>\n
Frankly, I found these comments painfully true for many of us. Though my first reaction was one of defensiveness, the more I read them, the more I realize that this women has identified many of us Christians too clearly.<\/p>\n
What do you think? What is your response?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I consider myself a very blessed man in a number of ways. This blog has become one of my great blessings. One of the reasons I love this blog community is the variety of people who interact on it. There has been an increase in the number of people who aren\u2019t Christians who comment on…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,175,180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-grow","category-outreach-and-evangelism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n