Comments on: Turning from faith

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Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:10:12 +0000

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By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:21:10 +0000

As one who has encountered personal tragedy and the shunning of multiple congregations because of the sexual orientation of my son, I can tell you that I have not left the faith. I just don’t choose not to participate in corporate worship. The vast majority of people, including Christians AND Christian leaders, are self absorbed and nowhere to be found by those who find themselves in dire need of support. Truth be told, I have seen way to many shiny cars skid off the road from bad rubber! I guess the world needs intellectuals like you to help us simpler folks to understand the deep things of our faith. Thanks for the insight. It does help me to understand my situation better.

By: David T. Koyzis

David T. Koyzis — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:17:05 +0000

Wow! Thanks, Julie. I think you are dead on with this.

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:09:42 +0000

How about– the gradual construction of beliefs around one’s actions and preferences, instead of the other way around? Unable to reconcile your actions/preferences to the beliefs of your youth (or beliefs you might consider newly espousing), you decide change would be too painful.

By: Truth Unites... and Divides

Truth Unites... and Divides — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:39:13 +0000

I agree with C. Michael Patton. We should pay more attention to why people have left the faith and see what can be done or should be done.

I think we should also give attention to identifying various deadly wolves who should be removed from among the flock and to why there’s such passive and cowardly church leadership among undershepherds whose charge it is to protect and defend the flock. Wolves thrive and prey when they are enabled and welcomed by foolish flock and clergy.

Sadly, and tragically, some wolves are even in the clergy. Eg., the scandal of pedophile priests and/or pastors. How many people have left the faith because of that? And because of the cover-up by too many of those in church leadership? Who wants to be part of a church where priests/pastors molest children and the culprits aren’t punished? And instead, there’s a cover-up.

It’s sad.

By: thomas dunbar

thomas dunbar — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:20:10 +0000

“men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

By: C Michael Patton

C Michael Patton — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:06:54 +0000

Good stuff David. I am glad you are writing on this. I come across so many people who have left the faith for many of those reasons. I think we need to start paying more attention to this.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 03:43:58 +0000

While I would definitely agree with you that, as David Bentley Hart says, the problem of evil is really the only genuinely problematic rational barrier to Christian belief, we have to remember that even in the academy very few people have the privilege of extensive exploration of history, philosophy, and theology that can inoculate one against perceived threats to belief from, say, evolutionary theory or erroneous accounts of the Ecumenical Councils. Superficial as such reasons may seem, they are real reasons for extremely intelligent people (for example, those gifted in the natural sciences) to find little cogency in Christian belief. Even biblical studies furnishes plenty of reasons for a person to in good faith reject Christianity (see Bart Ehrman for an example of this).