Dear Christian,
Do you feel far from god? Are you struggling with emotions of guilt, shame, frustration, or exhaustion when you think about your devotionals, prayer time, church activities, and ministry work?
I can easily recall acute feelings of guilt in respect to my Christian practices. I felt like my walk with the divine was often defined more by the belief that I should do something, rather than I was eager to do something. Even knowing what to do was a topic of confusion. How many prayer times is enough? Should I join another bible study? Do I need to attend church twice a week? Do most Christians do a daily devotional?
In retrospect, I realize that my closeness to god hinged fully on emotion and the satisfaction that came from doing well in what I thought was expected of me, and the natural high that occurred when enjoying myself and my thoughts during those times.
I know Christians often struggle with how to draw near to god. For example:
Read the Rest! Post a comment (3)As a former Christian, I’m used to capitalizing the word God when speaking about the Christian god, Yahweh. Hell, I even spent two years of my life spelling it G-d so I wouldn’t offend the guy with a vowel. Since I’m still detoxing from religion, I’m not quite sure how to frame references to the Christian god. Do I capitalize God as if it’s a name? What about referencing other gods? Should I perhaps start using “Yahweh” in order to differentiate between deities? Yikes, this is getting silly.
I want people to understand what I’m writing about and the context that comes with the word. If I say “God”, most people know what I’m referencing and the religion/beliefs that go along with it.
If I just do “god”, then it’s more ambiguous which deity/tradition I’m speaking about, but it keeps me from giving respect to something I don’t believe exists–and thus is not a proper noun.
If I use Yahweh, well… I don’t know. Perhaps I’m just not far enough away from my knee-rattling fear of blasphemy to feel comfortable using “the Name” yet.
I’m sure other non-theist bloggers out there have come up with a solution to my little dilemma. Any opinions or ideas? For now, I’m going to toss them all on the wall to see which one sticks.
I disagree that its historical and scientific accuracy proves it to be divinely inspired. For one thing, many novels and myths contain historically accurate settings (kings, wars, events, locations, etc.) but that does not make them true or divinely inspired.
Read the Rest! Post a comment (3)
Your pets can have adequate care after the Rapture (link). I’m sure this will soothe the worried minds of many Christians who–according to their bumper stickers–couldn’t care less if their car/bus/plane goes unmanned and crashes into a group of children/old folks home/nuclear reactor, but who can’t bear the thought of their pets fending for themselves like real animals after humans get hoovered up into the sky with Jesus.
How comforting.
Chris on 
Bill the Heathen on 
jabran on 
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