Friendly Atheist

This point of view of the Southern Baptists really doesn’t shock me at all. In fact, it’s exactly what I’d expect out of most fundamentalist denominations.
I was born into a Oklahoma Christian family. My parents were both ’saved’ before I was born. Before they were ‘born again’, they were going to the honky-tonks and swilling beer with all the other sinners. By the time I was born, they had become faithful in attending the First Church of the Nazarene. For those of my fellow non-believers who are unfamiliar with the Nazarenes, I can tell you that they are a dry, uninteresting ilk of believers… and they are fundamentalists who believe that the bible is literally the word of god and anything outside of their god’s will is evil.
In 1979, my folks moved the family from Oklahoma to West Texas. There, my parents decided there must be more to the religious experience than what they had experienced up to that point… I think my dad must have been talking church with a co-worker and became intrigued with the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. We began attending an Assembly of God church – this was my first experience with hearing people ’speaking in tongues’. One thing this group had in common with the Nazarene fundys was the belief that the bible is literally god’s word and anything outside of their view of god is inherently evil.
I didn’t really become immersed in the whole Charismatic movement until we moved to Louisiana and became members of the First Assembly of God in a small, central Louisiana city – what a culture difference! The people there were so much more emotionally expressive (a nice way of putting it) than any I’d ever seen. These people not only spoke in tongues, but they also gave messages in tongues and were ’slain in the spirit’ (that’s where you fall to the floor, shaking, quivering, and jabbering in tongues with your hands in the air, your eyes closed, and a goofy grin on your face). This group had the most militant view of others who did not line up with their take on the ‘word of god’.
After I became indoctrinated by this Louisiana group of A/G fundys, I also became a little bit insane. I was fearful of nuns – after all, Catholicism, as I was taught, was an evil cult that worships Mary (who is really not really the Mary that is Jesus’ mother, but the Whore of Babylon, or some such nonsense). I learned about faith, demonology, the evils of secularism, and other things through the teachings of televangelists such as Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Creflo Dollar, and Jesse Duplantis.
The lessons I learned about evil during my time spent with the militant fundamentalists also paved the way for my doubt in the movement and my
conversion to atheism – not the result my family would hope for – I’m the only atheist in my family. I was the only one in my family who questioned the faith and actually put it to the test. As a 16-year-old girl, my test was to see if the ‘message in tongues’ displays that my church loved so well was real. In my test, I reasoned that if it were real, I would be called down if I faked it (The whole idea behind the message in tongues is that one person very loudly speaks out a message in tongues that is interpreted by another person in the church for the understanding of all – it was viewed as a direct message or prophecy from God). So I faked a message in tongues, fully expexting to be called down for faking it – but I wasn’t called down. The so-called message was interpreted and I was elevated in status by the rest of the church for ‘being open to god as a vessel of his voice’.
Okay, so these people are teaching me? What can they really have to offer? Now I realize that all I learned from them was an unhealthy mixture of hatred, bigotry, fear, loathing, and ignorance. But at least I possessed a mind that fought the battle for me – and won out over stupidity (I’ve been a full-fledged atheist since 1998). Too bad there are millions of others in militant fundamentalist churches such as Assemblies of God, Southern Baptist churches, United Pentecostal churches, and others who refuse to obey their sense of reason.
I suspect that it was such a militant fundamentalist who dented the rear of my SUV right by the “reality bites” evolve fish eating the christian fish sticker… destruction of property fits in well with such an attitude of ignorance and hatred.

Old as I am, I don’t even know what an ‘Emergent Church’ is. Can somebody summarize this movement for me, and why Colson may feel threatened by it? Thanks

Mike C. won’t like this, but here’s my view about his and his wife’s ministry: the emergent church in my view is a means by which Christians (and maybe others) that could be or become a part of the problem can transition into becoming a part of the solution. I’d much prefer a young person that is susceptible to being radicalized by some fundamentalist to stumble upon Pastor Mike’s kinder and more reasonable way of being religious.

Sorry for making you an instrument of my grand vision, Mike.

Mike C. won’t like this, but here’s my view about his and his wife’s ministry: the emergent church in my view is a means by which Christians (and maybe others) that could be or become a part of the problem can transition into becoming a part of the solution.

Actually that’s a great definition. In fact, I use that language of “being part of the solution” vs. “being part of the problem” myself quite frequently at our church.

Hey Mike C, you have conversations in coffee shops, don’t you? In fact don’t you work in a coffee shop or something?

Yeah, I work in a coffee shop. And I often have conversations there too. ::gasp::

That guy may be talking about you.

I guarantee that he is. In fact, I once wrote a letter to Colson complaining about his unfair caricature of the emerging church and he wrote me a letter back in which he claimed to be familiar with the EC but then proceeded to misspell the name of the one author he claimed to have read.

Anyway, I’m glad to know I’m in good company on Colson’s “Axis of Evil” – Muslims, Atheists, and Me!

Sometimes you can tell a lot about a person by who he counts as his enemies.

Says a lot about the Southern Baptists when they have to turn to a convicted felon for moral guidance.

(My last two attempts to post disappeared, so I hope I don’t end up doubling up…)

Mike C said: Anyway, I’m glad to know I’m in good company on Colson’s “Axis of Evil” – Muslims, Atheists, and Me!

A Southern Baptist version of the Axis of Evil was exactly my thought in my email to Hemant about this article. Authoritarians, non-authoritarians, believers, unbelievers, and apostates; the SBC takes all comers who would dare challenge their…I mean God’s, authority! I once saw a bumper sticker that said, “Fundamentalism,” and below that, “Means never having to change your mind.”

Which has me wondering, Mike, since you’re one of those who changed your mind about fundamentalism:
In regard to what the article said about the EC being “popular among younger Baptists and other evangelicals”: is it? What are the age and previous religious affiliation demographics in the EC?

What Colson is very worried about is “thought”. People talk and sometimes, accidentally, think while doing so in places like coffee shops. This is indeed very dangerous for religion, especially conservative and literal religions. Receieved wisdom handed down is where it’s at for them.

I’ve noticed this happening whenever people in a Church start to get “too liberal”…..

I once saw a bumper sticker that said, “Fundamentalism,” and below that, “Means never having to change your mind.”

I’m not really a graffiti person, but I’d be awfully tempted to alter “change” to “use”.

You know I’ve noticed whenever a Church gets too “liberal” (or certain members of it do)-atheists are blamed. When I started becoming really liberal, some conservative people I ran into into at the Church I was at at the time said it was the work of “atheists”. Nevermind up till then I had only met on person who said she was an atheist and we never even talked about religion. My liberalism was the result of coming into contact with more of the real world. You guys really do get blamed for everything!

Atheists may get blamed for everything, Maria, but it doesn’t mean that it’s true and it’s not true. I get tired of people blaming others for something they had nothing to do with. It’s all crazy, but I honestly believe, some churches need to take a look at themselves. Their extremism sometimes creates atheists. Some extremely religious families help contribute to other family members rejection of religion. So, in essence, it can very well be Christians who need to be blamed.

Steelman, I can only imagine the conversations you and I could have about our past religious experiences. Ah, the book burnings, the rock-n-roll album/cassette/8-track bonfires (you don’t want your marshmallows roasted over that one, fer sure), the ouija board burnings… makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside… kinda like a strawberry that rolled under the kitchen cabinet and was lost for a couple of months.

Colson also dismissed a burgeoning movement known as “the emergent church” _ popular among younger Baptists and other evangelicals _ as “abandoning the search for truth” in favor of “conversations in coffee shops.”

So I guess Jesus is in trouble for talking to the Samaritan woman at the well instead of inviting her to “church”.

So I guess Jesus is in trouble for talking to the Samaritan woman at the well instead of inviting her to “church”.

You know you gotta wonder how some of these “Christian leaders” would act today if they actually met the real Jesus……..

Islam. It’s “evil incarnate.”

Atheism. It’s “virulent.”

Christian coffee shops??!?

Oh good grief! Atheism is a virus now? PLEASE! OK, I’ll shut up before I go on a rant that gets my foot in mouth and I start sounding like Dawkins.

[...] Both Hemant and PZ Myers have posts discussing Chuck Colson’s recent diatribe to a group of Southern Baptists in which he outlines the 3 threats to Christianity as being Islam, atheists and the Emergent Church. [...]