No Ex-Christian Was Ever Really a Christian

MC Donalds in Wodzisław (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is no secret that Christianity, in some form or another, is quite popular in the United States. Thus, it makes sense that most of the atheists I've encountered who have grown up here are ex-Christians like me. But our presence is troublesome for those who are still Christians because it suggests that they might be wrong.

With that in mind, here's another one for your "Christians say the darnedest things" file. This was not an email but a comment left on a recent post that ended up in moderation. I kicked this comment to moderation manually after I noticed that the commenter seemed to be trying to leave at least one similarly irrelevant comment on practically every post (a common sign of trolling). I did not end up approving this comment since it had no relevance to the post and violated the comment policy, but I thought I'd share it because it expresses a claim I hear with some regularity.

You say , you were a "Christian".......You never knew the word, what it means to proclaim your faith in Messiah. You grew up with "Christian or Reglious" parents, that doesn't make you any more Christian than going to Mc Donalds make you a hamburger. So no you never were a Christian, because those who were have been sealed forever....the very fact that you turned away from HIM tells us all that you never really knew HIM in the first place. Nevertheless, HE is still waiting for you to return in completeness. Its not HIS will that any perish....but for all to come to repentance and live.

I must confess that I kind of love this one, spelling errors and all. The line about how going to McDonald's does not make me a hamburger is classic, and I've always been a fan of unnecessary capitalization. But most of all, I love the blatant denial in evidence here. No "real Christian" ever leaves Christianity, and so anyone who leaves Christianity was never a "real Christian." It doesn't matter how many of us have left Christianity behind; we can be safely dismissed because we were never "real Christians" at all. Reality be damned! "HE" is all that matters.

The beauty of this type of thinking is that a very real problem for religious believers (i.e., significant numbers of atheists are former Christians, Muslims, etc.) does not have to be faced. It can simply be denied. And it is far better to deny reality than to question such a fragile faith.

You know, I think I am beginning to get over some of my ambivalence around sharing messages and comments like this. I may have to do it more often.