I have always been fascinated with the way people think. My favorite class in college was Philosophy (I actually considered being a philosophy minor in college). The class was enthralling to me because there were so many different views being shared. In this Philosophy class there were 3 profs.
One was a Southern Baptist Preachers Kid.
One was an Agnostic.
One was an Atheist.
And the Graduate Assistant was openly lesbian; her philosophy was a hodge-podge of every textbook...at times I don't think she even really knew what she believed.
I just loved to sit in the room and talk. I soaked up the insight of the people. Took notes. Even though I was attending a "Chrisian" college, the room was 90% people who God did not have an active role in their daily lives. I gained insight and understanding, and began to see people for who they were (and I loved seeing what made them tick).
With the "coming out" of Pete Stark as America's first acknowledged Atheist Congressman, Atheism and Humanistic beliefs are certainly the buzz. What that being said, I think there's an article that we as Christians should be aware of.
This is taken from About.com "Coming Out to Your Family: Should You Reveal Your Atheism to your Family and Parents?"
What if Your Family Wants You to Keep Going to Church?: If you are young and living at home, there probably isn’t much you can do no matter what your family’s motivations are. If there is no way you can reasonably get out of going to church, the most you can do is try using the trips as a learning experience. If, on the other hand, you are independent, you’ll have to decide which is more important: going to church services you hate, or maintaining some measure of family harmony. (Read More...)
What If Your Family Tries To Reconvert You?: If you are young and living at home, your options will be limited and you may have to put up with a certain amount of such proselytizing from your family. If you are an adult and independent, however, you may have to choose between putting up with your family’s behavior and causing the rift between you to grow wider. You may, for example, be faced with the possibility of simply walking away from your family, at least temporarily, if they refuse to respect you. (Read More...)For us as Christians to reach the lost, we need to understand the lost. We cannot cram the gospel into people that don't believe, that won't believe. It literally is a square peg and a round hole. And forcing the gospel on people that don't want to hear it, well, that may do more damage than good? And I've heard the argument of "well, they're lost now. How can they be more lost?" If the About.com articles are indicative of the way an athiest would feel, they would rather "simply walk away from [a] family" if their religious beliefs were not accepted. And what chance do we ever have of reaching the lost if they are not in our lives?
Seems to me the "church" forgets where it came from, and how we are as guilty in the eyes of God as the lost are. Thanks be to His Grace for forgiving us. Lord, let us be forgiving of others. Let us see in them what You see in us. Let us show You, and not religious, judgmental culture to others.
Colossians 2:8 NIV - See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
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