Love Your Enemies ...

I had heard from others that those that remain in the faith can be quite cruel toward those that have left. I had heard from those that experienced this that faith-filled people can try to destroy whatever good name you may have. However, despite being warned, I still thought better of those within the circles that I had once walked. I assumed (and, yes, I know that is a dangerous word) that these people were truly trying to follow the words of Christ and to live as he taught them and as he exampled for them. One such teaching of Christ, according to the New Testament is to love one's enemies (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27, 35). In fact, the words of Jesus command that his followers "do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which dispitefully use you and persecute you;" Christians who love only their own are likened to the publicans, who were very much hated in those days (Matthew 5:46).

Since I have de-converted there have been some who have treated me well, stating that they would pray for me and even asking if I needed anything. But these have been quite few and far between. I can count them on less than half of one hand. Others have accepted as fact that I am a child molester and have never even tried to contact me to see if I had anything to say about it. One site that I came across recently, belonging to a former member of Heritage Baptist Church, used the term "rape" in relation to me. To be fair to this individual, when I sent him an email about the inaccuracy of his statement, he changed it. Even so, why did he write it in the first place? I was never charged with rape at all. Why didn't this individual check with a legitimate source (myself or even the jail) before posting something like this?

But in recent days, things have taken a turn for the worse. On a particular forum that I frequent, a forum that is related to my job and a piece of software that I use for that job, an anonymous person started to post about the initial WDBJ7 news report, to call me a liar (claiming that I have been lying for 18 years now) and to try to bring me down as low as they could. One person, whom I have known for years on that forum, began to blast me after reading the news report from Channel 7 News (WDBJ7). Again, this person, who also claims to be a Christian, did not attempt to contact me to ask what this was all about. He just broke into a tirade against me and voiced his opinion about the ridiculousness of what I have posted here on this blog.

As one that had de-converted, I can see how Christians could feel threatened by me and might even consider me an enemy. But where in the Bible does it tell a Christian to try to destroy anyone's reputation? Since I have not been found guilty in a court of law (yet), are they not spreading gossip (another thing forbidden of Christians) by claiming as true what has not yet been proven? Where is the love that Jesus commands? How is it displayed by the hatred and vitriol that people like me experience when we make a decision to leave the faith?

I would ask those that consider themselves to be true Christians to ponder the following thought: by attempting to ruin a man's reputation, how does that make a de-converted person want to even consider Christianity as truth? By spewing hatred and accusations against someone, how does that make anyone believe that the words of Christ are true words? If those that claim that they are followers of Christ refuse to obey basic and clear commands written within their own holy book, how does that cause anyone outside of their faith to want to believe anything that they have to say about the Bible, Jesus or God?

Churches Gone Wild!

What is it about the Christian faith that makes it so easy to create a cult from it? Why is it that so many health and prosperity teachers arise from Christianity and not from the other religions out there? Do we hear of Muslim name it and claim it clerics? Do we see compounds of faithful zealots ready to drink poisoned Kool-Aid in the name of Brahma or Vishnu? While I am sure there are people who take advantage of other religions to exploit them, I am still interested in why this happens so frequently within the realm of Christianity.

At this point, I am certain that some Christians would claim that this is because the devil, God's ancient enemy, is doing his best to discredit the true church of Jesus Christ by bringing about all of these atrocities. These kinds of people would use all of this to try and establish Christianity as the one true religion. After all, which other religion has this going on? Obviously it is an attack against the truth! I know that arguments like this are used because I had used them myself.

Recently a news report was released about a church in Virginia called Calvary Temple which is exhibiting cult-like tendencies. According to the investigation, the pastor of that church, Star Scott, "urged some church members to divorce spouses and shun children who resisted the pastor's teachings." Scott also described those that left the church as "depraved," and Calvary's practice is to cut them off."

Click here to read the entire article.

While different churches with cult-like behavior may differ in their core teachings (doctrine), they all tend to exhibit one thing in common: they ostracize those that would dare to leave them and, in the process of doing so, try to paint those that have left in as bad a light as they can. They may call them apostates, reprobates, deluded, anti-Christs and a whole bunch of other names that are intended to destroy the reputation of those that have left while at the same time bringing fear to any that remain.

Whether one believes the Bible to be true or not, it is obvious to most people that churches that behave like this are clearly violating clear biblical teachings. While the Bible certainly does give instruction about separating from apostates, it never tells its followers to speak badly of them. Its New Testament leaders are never instructed to lord it over the faithful and their actions are to be selfless. It is amazing to me how many churches claim to follow the teachings of Christ and yet follow anything but what is written in red.