I never had a faith crisis moment where I woke up and realized "Oh my gosh, I don't believe this." I had a faith crisis moment looking around at everyone else in church and realizing, "Oh my gosh, THEY don't believe it."
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
It changed my views pretty hard on a few of the stated beliefs that they *did* actually seem to still believe, in a way a logical argument on those issues never could have.
A LOT of western Christians (myself included sometimes) don’t really want to do what it takes to be Christian (aka give up theirselves and follow Jesus’s way). It’s much easier to be a “cultural Christian” here which is worse than useless.
Truth isn’t dependent on being believed. That’s the problem - much of society says “I’ll only believe what I can understand” when that’s never actually true. We just apply it in select cases.
It was really hard watching my church and my family members redefine love according to their political views, especially in 2020. The people who taught me to love my neighbor decided that love didn't include wearing a mask or getting a vaccine because they didn't want it to.
The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. Give up the Saints and we lose the examples that were meant to help us grow in the faith. We should be hearing examples of the saints every day of the year to help us understand what it really means to be Christian.
My ebb and flow crises is caused by how readily people seem to believe and spread misinformation and outright lies if it fits with their viewpoint, even things that are easily verifiable.
I always took comfort in the William Lane Craig (and Lewis) assertion that myths take many generations to build, giving reliability to scripture given its nearness to events. But it sure seems that is not true when it comes to current events - how long has it been since Covid or Jan. 6?
This was me when I was a pastor in the 90s, but it was also the realization that my church people’s only fully shared, affirmative beliefs were hating Bill Clinton and listening to James Dobson and Rush Limbaugh.
They were a collection of people with conservative temperaments.
This. I have called this my "Young Goodman Brown" moment after the Nathaniel Hawthorne short story. Once the mask cracked they couldn't put it back on again, and I couldn't unsee what I saw.
I never had the crisis of “they don’t believe” but I’ve definitely had a realization of “they got some hypocrisy going on”. And I’ve learned some new beliefs that further separate me from those people, but most of them I’m convinced are people of faith (I guess I got lucky?)
I had that realization with my parents, but more in the sense that "oh they have no idea what they believe".
We inherited a bible trivia kit from my grandparents and I was going through some cards with them and they just.. didn't know practically anything about their scriptures.
My mom, a church goer for 50 years, who told me that God answered her prayers when Trump was elected, had no idea how many Gospels were in the new testament or who wrote the letter to the Romans. I'm not talking complicated trivia here. I'm talking Sunday school basics.
Mine came when I heard from God that I was to leave my own non-denom Evangelical church to follow my husband to the Methodist church and my brothers and sisters there in Christ started to say all sorts of nasty things to me about being "apostate" if I went there. Made me reexamine my belief.
Thank you! Strange horrible dislocation at first, but it turned out to be just what I needed to return to the same faith my greatgrandfather gave his life in service of. Wish there was a Methodist church here.
Tamarindo, Costa Rica. Nearest Methodist church is in Liberia about an hour and twenty minutes away. I go every now & then to the Catholic church here. Husband attends 1 of the 3 non-demons here. I refuse to go backwards like that. Do online church too. Denominations safer.
I kinda think the latter led me to the former. Because while faith is individual and one’s own responsibility, it isn’t typically built out of thin air. It rides on the back of a community.
I think for many evangelicals there is a major disconnect between what they believe and what they are being fed through conservative news media. Some are unable or unwilling to break this mold, but I've been surprised by who is willing.
I so appreciate you saying this. We went through this as staff and it was the darkest, most disorienting season of our lives. Now, it’s just maddening. But at least we know who they truly are.
I had both. And the first one almost wiped me out. The ground I thought I’d stood on my whole life wasn’t there anymore. It was the most before/after experience of my whole life.
Yeah that moment you realize the politics you thought aligned with your faith were actually in direct opposition to it was a WHOLE moment. The day my parents told me i sounded liberal was me going “oh wow… all I’m doing is telling you what Jesus taught…” 🤯
Comments
is
EXACTLY
it
They were a collection of people with conservative temperaments.
them: no, not like that
We inherited a bible trivia kit from my grandparents and I was going through some cards with them and they just.. didn't know practically anything about their scriptures.
We are all living in GRUDGE TOWN and it's scary!
#grudgetown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_pfVTVj_go