I am not a Christian or Theist at all,
but I was raised in a Christian home.
I stayed in the church into my teens,
and I tried really hard to fit in, as a kid,
and I took part in a youth group that competitively studied the New Testament
against teams from other churches.
Plenty of Christians were more or less decent people,
many were awful people,
but very few, in retrospect,
really embodied, IMO,
what it meant to really be a Christian.
Only one lady leaps to mind.
She was an older lady, a teacher, and an immigrant from Eastern Europe.
She was extremely kind and gentle....and it wasn't an affectation.
She was very humble, and patient.
But lots of people, Theist and Atheist alike, have those traits.
What made her stand out to me as a real Christian,
as opposed to all those who professed Christianity but always disappointed me,
was this:
She genuinely seemed to possess that fabled inner Peace That Passeth All Understanding.
When this lady faced something that left her with uncertainty,
she didn't get her panties in a twist like so many xtians do;
you could see her making the inward decision to "turn it over to God".
She seemed to refrain from passing any judgment,
which I find is the probably the single greatest stumbling block of most, in the church.
she accepted when things didn't make sense to her,
because she believed that God understood it,
and that was all that mattered.
She seemed to always be listening for the "still, small voice" of guidance.
She didn't get angry or defensive when faced with stuff most xtians get their back up, about,
she didn't seem to want to "control" anything that most xtians want to control.
She wasn't preachy;
she didn't seek to lead, at all,
and it's a shame more people in our church didn't follow her example.
(Curiously enough, however,
her grown son was one of the most uptight, repressed, judgmental, sanctimonious, bureaucratic, manipulative, unctuous, insufferable people in the church
...and he even looked like Ned Flanders, I shit you not....but Ned Flanders was a more likeable guy).
but I was raised in a Christian home.
I stayed in the church into my teens,
and I tried really hard to fit in, as a kid,
and I took part in a youth group that competitively studied the New Testament
against teams from other churches.
Plenty of Christians were more or less decent people,
many were awful people,
but very few, in retrospect,
really embodied, IMO,
what it meant to really be a Christian.
Only one lady leaps to mind.
She was an older lady, a teacher, and an immigrant from Eastern Europe.
She was extremely kind and gentle....and it wasn't an affectation.
She was very humble, and patient.
But lots of people, Theist and Atheist alike, have those traits.
What made her stand out to me as a real Christian,
as opposed to all those who professed Christianity but always disappointed me,
was this:
She genuinely seemed to possess that fabled inner Peace That Passeth All Understanding.
When this lady faced something that left her with uncertainty,
she didn't get her panties in a twist like so many xtians do;
you could see her making the inward decision to "turn it over to God".
She seemed to refrain from passing any judgment,
which I find is the probably the single greatest stumbling block of most, in the church.
she accepted when things didn't make sense to her,
because she believed that God understood it,
and that was all that mattered.
She seemed to always be listening for the "still, small voice" of guidance.
She didn't get angry or defensive when faced with stuff most xtians get their back up, about,
she didn't seem to want to "control" anything that most xtians want to control.
She wasn't preachy;
she didn't seek to lead, at all,
and it's a shame more people in our church didn't follow her example.
(Curiously enough, however,
her grown son was one of the most uptight, repressed, judgmental, sanctimonious, bureaucratic, manipulative, unctuous, insufferable people in the church
...and he even looked like Ned Flanders, I shit you not....but Ned Flanders was a more likeable guy).
