I have a long list of apologies I need to make...I think of them often but will likely never apologize. They can only be taken as insincere. Yet, in this post, I offer an apology I should have made decades ago but only recently came to realize I needed to make it.
A preface...I spent the majority of my life a Christian...a sold out, neck deep Jesus-follower. I sold my life to the cause. Some of the greatest people I have met live fully in the Christian tradition. Some of my favorite people believe in a supernatural being. I owe many amazing life-experiences and even "good" character traits to my life of faith. I considered myself a liberal, open-minded, and radically inclusive Christian. I often said in the churches where I served, "This is a safe place. You are always welcome here." I took pride in carrying such a banner!
BUT...
I have come to realize, only now from the outside...an unintentional dehumanizing of atheists, agnostics and the non-believing. Although I always hated the Christian adage "There is a God-sized hole in your heart that only he can fill." (even Jesus eye-rolled that one), I too had my own belittling comments, ones I believed and ones to whose effect I remained oblivious.
"You can't experience FULL life without life in Christ. Jesus shows you what it means to be fully alive."
"You will never find true happiness without Jesus."
"There is no meaning if there is no God!"
"If God is dead...then so is hope!"
"There's no impetus for morality or selflessness without a moral God."
How dare I arbitrarily dictate the limits of someone's happiness, fulfillment, hope and selflessness. How dare I relay to them, "You can never be fully human unless you believe as I do." Since my transition to atheism I've realized how wrong I was. I have met many non-believers who experience a full life, define their living experience as happy, are bursting with meaning, wake up with hope and are in the business of selfless acts. There are plenty who don't, just as there are plenty of Christians who don't as well.
So to those atheists, agnostics and non-believers who I dismissed as self-deceived in assessing the status of their life, please accept the apology of a happy, full of meaning, and hopeful atheist.
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