Pinterest

…So easy to get distracted for a while. At least in my case, it takes me on random tangents through other people’s pins, clicking whenever I see something interesting. Today, I got distracted in a trail of clicking on pins about atheism.

Everything I read was in direct opposition to Christianity. There are other religions too, you know - why all the focus on Christianity and not Islam, Scientology, etc.? I would assume any other religion would be pretty anti-atheist, if they believe strongly enough in their chosen path. Then again, I’m not very well-versed in world religions.

Depressingly, almost everything I read was in direct opposition to Christianity in a perverted sense. It was in retaliation to some hypocritical Christian stance, usually highly Americanized, because - let’s face it - Christianity is not so purely portrayed to the rest of the world. Or, at least the atheists’ side of it.

They blasted Christians for wars, for killing, for discrimination, for ignorance of scientific fact…for hate. For the blatant displays of hate we so often put on. 

We live in such a gray world with topics the Bible doesn’t distinctly touch on. Fortunately (in a sense) I haven’t had to deal much with those topics yet; I’ve been given time to search for truth before I’m asked my opinion on these subjects. And I’ll be the first to admit that I live in a Christian bubble; seeing these windows into other perspectives is so eye-opening for me. It feels like that summer before junior high, at camp, when you give your life to Christ and the passion just burns into your being. You know that you’ll go home and do something radical; you’ll change the world. Which you entirely forget about once the emotional high wears off. 

But this is more of a rude awakening; I’ve been pierced with these ideas of hatred and hypocrisy that people perceive Christians as full of. Honestly, it depresses me. I want to jump through the computer screen, grab them by the shoulders and yell, “IT’S NOT REALLY LIKE THAT!!”

Yes, there are so many Christian-faith-proclaimers who set less-than-perfect examples. Yes, that includes me. I’m not perfect; far from it. But may I never be described as a person characterized by their pure, demonstrated hatred. 

It looks like I - and anyone else who feels the same - have a wall of cement to break through if I hope to at least show people what real Christianity is. I don’t want to shove God down throats. I just want to show that Christianity - in its real sense - isn’t hatred and killings and ignorance and the gospel of pick-and-choose. I want to give people the opportunity to choose for themselves by seeing the true representation of what their options are. I want them to pick Christ, of course, but I’m not going to make them. That’s up to God (thank goodness it’s not me). In fact, this whole operation is. If I want it to work.

“The world needs less experts and more examples” (Unknown) is finally making sense. I’m grasping the importance, the injustice of the current portrayal - and I’m determined to change it. One mind at a time.