A letter to all of my atheist, non-theist, antitheist, irreligious, or otherwise generally-not-a-fan-of-Christianity friends

Hey.

I hope that - whatever the nature of our relationship is or has been, however we met, how long we've known each other, whatever - I really hope that I have stored up enough cred with you that I can be frank about a couple things that have been eating away at my brain for the past few months. I want to just lay out a few points all in one go, because I've found - over and over and over again - that a lot of things get in the way of conversations I think we'd all rather have.

First off... The rumors are true, I am actually a Christian, I believe in God, I believe Jesus was God in the flesh, I believe He died and was resurrected, and I firmly, completely, sincerely believe that He knew what He was talking about.

And I know you're not there. That's cool, I promise I completely love you anyway.

I just feel like there's quite often a wall of communication barriers in our conversation because there are some ideas floating around out there that have distorted what this whole Christ-following thing is really supposed to be about. And goodness knows I can't speak for every Christian on the planet. (They certainly don't like me speaking TO them! BUH-DUM-PSSH) But I know that there are things that I believe that have routinely seemed to surprise you guys, so... let me just get it all out in the open, OK? Then let's see where we can go.

First off... And man, this is a big one... You can't judge a system by its abuses. Or by its abusers, for that matter.

I realize - more than you might think - that there are some really awful people in the world who have done some really awful things to other people in the world and have waved a cross around while doing it.

Those things were still awful.

The Crusades were bad. Protestant vs. Catholic violence is bad. The Spanish Inquisition was bad. Abortion clinic bombings are bad. Clerical child abuse and church cover-ups are bad. Pick a thing that anybody has ever done in the name of Christianity that trampled all over the rights of others, forced people to submit to someone else's idea of morality or propriety, or ever said that someone else wasn't good enough... That was bad.

And that's not even sorta kinda a little bit maybe close to anything like what Christianity is supposed to be.

Let's consider communism for a minute.

On a global scale, we can see pretty quickly and easily that communism comes with its fair share of problems. Corruption is inextricably linked to state communism. People are miserable. The Berlin Wall wasn't put up as scenery. People don't try to ride an inner tube from Cuba to Florida just to get to EPCOT. China doesn't censor the internet because it's worried about the citizenry looking at porn. IT AIN'T GOOD.

But on a smaller, voluntary, personally connected scale? Communism is AMAZING. Voluntary communism is a goal of mine. Straight up. I want to get a bunch of people together who have alike minds in their desire to live sustainably and reasonably, sharing food and homes and lives in an enriching environment of love and peace. But everybody else has to be on board with that idea for it to work, right? Everybody has to understand what the common goal is and how to reach it.

If I intentionally try to base my future hippie utopia on Stalin's USSR, I'm obviously gonna miss it. And similarly, if I only thought of communism as people carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, and couldn't see past the abuses to see the actual functionality of the true system, then I'd never have realized that goal that I want to work toward.

So is communism bad? Or is it just the abuse of communism that's bad? Can you accurately judge communism only by looking at the terrible things that people who happened to be communist were doing? Or do you look at the idea itself and see the good it strives to be?

Jesus is pretty open and plain about what He's trying to teach people, and Love is really the whole kit and caboodle. The rest of the New Testament dudes who weren't Jesus back that up. Love is what matters. I realize that there are gray areas and questions about exactly what Love IS, but I think we should all be able to see without any trouble what Love ISN'T.

Beating people up - verbally or physically - for being different isn't Love. So whenever somebody doing that claims to be doing it in the name of God, just remember they're full of crap. If they were paying attention to what God has actually made it really obvious He wants us to do, they wouldn't be out picketing funerals.

Which brings me to those guys.

We're not all those guys. Far more of us aren't those guys than are. Please stop associating us with those guys, because we aren't them, don't want to be them, and sure don't want to be mistaken for them.

Some systems - like, say, Nazism - are corrupt all the way through, and when you look at the ideas that the system presents as truth, you can see that they're probably things you don't want to be involved in, like your various supremacy and hate groups, or Beliebers.

But other systems - like, say, enjoying ice cream - have some pretty good things going for them. It's just that, yes, unfortunately, there are complete jerkwhistles out there who also enjoy ice cream and might do things that ruin it for the rest of us. Like Dippin' Dots. But the existence of Dippin' Dots doesn't mean that all ice cream is bad! It just means that even good ideas can be corrupted into horrible, soulless, foul little frozen balls of Styrofoam and artificial flavoring.

What I'm saying here is that Christianity is one of those ice cream systems. How can you really hate on a philosophy that is COMPLETELY tied into, based on, and practiced through unconditional, self-sacrificing, genuine LOVE for everyone?

Bad Christians don't make Christianity bad.

And you know what else? We're not all "young earth" people. Some of us can actually accept God and scientific evidence at the same time. I know there are yahoos all around fighting to make sure science textbooks talk about Creationism, and believe it or not, I don't think that's necessary, or helpful, or intelligent. I think it's a sign of some really dangerous - and even worse lazy - theology.

(I'd like to take a moment to get meta with you for a sec and talk about this blog post that you, my atheist/nontheist/antitheist/whatever friend, are reading, because I promise you, plenty of my Christian friends are reading this one too, and I'm about to say some stuff that a lot of them do not like to hear. But hey, there's plenty of folk out there who already think I'm going to hell just for liking the Indigo Girls, so it's not like I'm gonna make things any worse.)

We can talk about where the idea of the "young earth" comes from, but I assure you, it doesn't matter. Like, man, not at all. Not a bit. Not for a second. It's pointless. I personally believe that there is no decent scriptural defense for insisting that Creationism be taught in schools, or even that Christian kids shouldn't know that the earth sure looks like it's about 4.5 billion years old.

So dudes, please hear me out when I say that my belief in God does not prevent me from believing in dinosaurs or the Big Bang or the awesome of Carl Sagan.

But it really doesn't matter... either way.

You know why?

Because science does not - can not - answer the questions that faith asks.

They're not the same thing. They're not even close.

Science observes what can be observed.

Faith is concerned with things that cannot be observed.

God can't be scienced away. There's no good reason for anyone to try to use God to get rid of science. The two don't cancel each other out any more than drinking eggnog prevents you from being named Jeff.

Look, even Richard Dawkins admits that he can't be SURE God doesn't exist. It's not a provable or disprovable thing. Science can uncover the mysteries of every subatomic particle of matter, and it can translate the base code of the pulsars and quasars at the farthest distances of the universe. Science can, does, and should tell us everything we could possibly ever dream of knowing about the depth and beauty and power of the natural world.

But science can't say a thing about the supernatural.

That's not its job. That's not what it does. That's not how it works.

Whether or not the supernatural exists, that's an entirely different conversation that I'm totally willing to have. But the next one of you guys that tries to tell me you don't believe in God because of the Large Hadron Collider, I'm throwing a beer at your face, as well as whatever bottle, glass, or can it is in. So knock it off.

So now that we've cleared away some of what seem to be very pervasive obstacles I'd like to throw out just one little confession to go with it.

Yeah, I totally am trying to get you in on this thing. Call it trying to convert you, call it proselytizing, call it whatever you feel like calling it, I'm at least owning up to definitely wanting you to see the same things I see and experience them for yourself and then make a decision about what you believe. I want that to happen. I genuinely believe that earnestly trying to follow the teachings of Jesus is inevitably rewarded (in this life, by the way) with inexpressibly, incalculably positive benefits. I think it is good, and I want to share. Same thing I do with my movies and my music and my comics and my beer.

But if I start shoving it down your throat, I give you full permission to set me right by whatever means you feel necessary, because yeah, that ain't cool. Jesus didn't think too highly of it. Kinda ticked Him off right royal. So whenever I do screw it up... Don't blame Jesus, 'cause that's all me.