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?