I have a lot of fundamentalist Christians on my Facebook page -mostly friends and family. When they go through a rough time some of them cry out to god via Facebook. Be it through graphics with sappy sweet sayings on it, rally calls for prayer, or through personal statements of how they're feeling at the moment. When I was a Christian I would answer them in the standard way. Something like "Just hang on. God will.....(blah blah blah). God still loves you." etc. Now I look at the situation and I want to make some sort of statement about wasting time and effort but I know it would only serve to upset them more. It's like hearing cries in the darkness for me now.
Here's the progression of posts from a friend of mine. It's fairly standard of what I read:
It started with a copy and paste of Psalm 55:17. It's a verse about crying day and night to god, and god hearing the cry. This was backed up by another quote about how people are stressed out because they don't take their problem to god in prayer.
A few days later she posts this statement: "Sometimes I think God hears everyone but me."
Today she posts: "Ok....I've come to the conclusion that maybe I am
not really listening.....I want to, but maybe I am not truly hearing."
I.e. the reason why god hasn't responded is not because god hasn't responded. It's because she is having trouble listening.
It's like a slow train wreck. I hate to see people go through a hard time and I'd like to say some sort of encouraging words (and often I can find something kind to say) but what can you do when the problem they have is with a god that doesn't exist who isn't answering them?
Here's the progression of posts from a friend of mine. It's fairly standard of what I read:
It started with a copy and paste of Psalm 55:17. It's a verse about crying day and night to god, and god hearing the cry. This was backed up by another quote about how people are stressed out because they don't take their problem to god in prayer.
A few days later she posts this statement: "Sometimes I think God hears everyone but me."
Today she posts: "Ok....I've come to the conclusion that maybe I am
not really listening.....I want to, but maybe I am not truly hearing."
I.e. the reason why god hasn't responded is not because god hasn't responded. It's because she is having trouble listening.
It's like a slow train wreck. I hate to see people go through a hard time and I'd like to say some sort of encouraging words (and often I can find something kind to say) but what can you do when the problem they have is with a god that doesn't exist who isn't answering them?
I have studied the Bible and the theology behind Christianity for many years. I have been to many churches. I have walked the depth and the breadth of the religion and, as a result of this, I have a lot of bullshit to scrape off the bottom of my shoes. ~Ziploc Surprise
