Friendly Atheist by @hemantmehta » Introducing Your Atheist Partner to the Evangelical Parents


Introducing Your Atheist Partner to the Evangelical Parents


A step-by-step guide for those of you in inter-faithical relationships:

(via Glocal Christianity)

Post to Twitter Post to Digg Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon



11 Responses

  1. avatar Andrew Says:

    Helpful, I guess, but I don’t really agree with how they’ve portrayed “the atheist”…
    Evidently we’re all apathetic pyromaniacs who don’t know how to dress formally.

  2. avatar fmitchell Says:

    Then again, most evangelicals don’t wear foot-long crosses around their necks.

  3. avatar Derek Says:

    Evidently we’re all apathetic pyromaniacs who don’t know how to dress formally.

    What, the rest of you aren’t? Dammit…

  4. avatar Michael Russell Says:

    Yes, because releasing a video onto the Internet with a clearly visible and readable credit card number and expiration date is always a good thing…

  5. avatar C. L. Hanson Says:

    I thought it was great! I especially liked the part about briefing your partner not to compare God to Santa Claus.

  6. avatar Kevin Says:

    Here’s how my girlfriend did it and I would advise against doing it this way. She’d only been at university for a couple of months and one Sunday morning at breakfast when she was at home for the weekend she said something like this: “Mum, I’ve got a boyfriend.”
    Her mother, a church council member in an evangelical* church was speechless so she continued: “He’s coming with me next time I come home, so that we can go to xxx…”
    At some point her mother started to find her voice again: “What??..When?..How long..? Who?”
    After some quick questions her mother finally said: “OK, I suppose I’ll prepare the guest bedroom for him then.”
    To which my girlfriend very quickly responded with: “NO, he’s staying in my room!”
    And this is before she even mentions that I’m a vegetarian, a fresh milk drinker, an anti-theist and a Scotsman**.

    *an evangelical in Germany is probably more equivalent to Lutheran or Anglican than a US evangelical Church.
    ** this most Germans seem to think is cool, well at least compared to the English :-)

  7. avatar Jewel Says:

    Comparing God to Santa is how I came out to my parents, why not to his? ;-)

  8. avatar weaves Says:

    I’m so glad my parents are the understanding evangelicals. I didn’t even need to come out, they caught on to my disinterest at school (were pretty upset when i stopped going to church)

    and it’s gotten better from there!

  9. avatar Josh Nankivel Says:

    I loved the crosses around the parents’ necks. It was like Flavor Flav with the not-so-subtle symbolism that their faith is a burden they must carry around all day long.

    Josh Nankivel
    http://non-theist.com

  10. avatar hoverFrog Says:

    The advice assumes that not believing in gods is a big thing. Isn’t it good news for the evangelical as they have a captive audience to evangelise to and an opportunity to understand how those with differing views consider some topics.

    Every evangelical should send their daughters out to bring home an atheist. It’s how some cults operate, trading sex for new converts. Come on Christians, get with the program. ;)

  11. avatar Zeno Says:

    I don’t think that there are too many evangelicals who think sprinkling atheists with holy water is a good thing. Holy water, after all, is a Roman Catholic sacramental and thus suspect. It’s best saved for real emergencies, like vampires.

Leave a Comment

Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.

Subscribe without commenting

© Copyright Friendly Atheist by @hemantmehta 2009. All rights reserved. | Powered by Wordpress | Designed by Elegant WPT