as it has been pointed out frequently in the rts tags, and in the notes of many of my posts at this point, christians really do believe that in any circumstance where someone left christianity, the christianity was somehow false to begin with. whether they blame the ex-christian for not having been “all-in” (despite knowing NOTHING about that person’s relationship with god) or whether they blame the church/pastors/leaders of those ex-christians for not teaching “real christianity”, they still refuse to acknowledge the reality that someone can be a real christian at one point and then an ex-christian later.
people can be well-taught in the bible, fully dedicated, genuinely all-in, and still end up deciding to or having to leave the faith years down the road. some christians know that it is judgemental and condescending to believe that another christian just isnt trying hard enough, while others dont, but all bets are off for many of each group when it comes to nonbelievers who claim to have been christian in the past
from my own experience, i think that many christians NEED to believe this. maybe because they rely on the idea that theyll always believe for the rest of their life in order to feel secure in the guarantee of their savlation. maybe because they need to believe that the people who put in the effort and are Good Christians could never end up going to hell in the end. maybe because they just want to believe that they can save an ex-christian loved one
there are christians i know who have never behaved this way to me, and they are my dear friends. i dont intend to disrespect christianity itself, because i know it can be helpful to people, and my relationship with christ was once the dearest thing to me.
the issue is that the loudest voices are always those of christians who overlook compassion at every turn, and that seek to invalidate accounts of negative experiences with christianity by delegitimizing the human parties involved. i could argue all day in both secular and biblical terms about why this is a problem, but i cant help but feel that if someone has already discounted my experiences as a christian in their mind, nothing i say could ever get through to them. if i use secular terms, it makes no sense to them. if i use biblical terms, i am a false teacher. the frustration of such a double-bind doesn’t feel worth the effort.
the christians who dont discount the experiences of others are already doing it. the ones who do may never listen. i guess i’m just saying this to say to other ex-christians, or to christians who are struggling with doubt knowing that these doubts would be used against them by their own christian brothers and sisters: you’re not alone.
baratheonpilled
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