One of my self pronounced atheist friends has helped me thru my grief process more than most of my Christian friends. He allows me to be mad when I’m mad and sad when I’m sad with no judgement or simply saying “bless your heart and saying they’d be praying for me. He has got in touch with me consistently just to check on me and ask if I need/want to vent. He’s never tried to “debunk” my Lord or talk negative about my faith or lack of. He allows me to talk about my relationship with God and never tries to talk me out of it.
The bizarre thing to me is I know how he was raised. He came up in a Christian home. As a matter of fact his dad is a baptist minister. He says he respects his families belief system but doesn’t follow it. At first I thought it was some sort of rebellion, and it maybe. His response to that is he understands why I would think that, but it isn’t.
Christians have really screwed up this Jesus for a lot of people. That makes me sad and angry. I don’t know how he makes it thru a day without God, especially with all he has seen in his life.
He probably knows more about the bible than I do, yet he finds comfort in science, not God. He knows who Jesus is and what he did here on earth. He understands the concept of a savior but that’s because he explores all ways of thinking.
I used to try to debate him years ago when he was going off to war. His comment to me was “Ya know the old saying goes, there’s no atheist in fox holes”. Guess what he came out of those foxholes alive, and still an atheist.
One thing about my atheist friend thats different than my Christian friends…he isn’t taking away from or adding unnecessary things to the gospel of Jesus.
Christians are screwing up others faith!