Since I’ve just recently started a DASH (Dodge Atheists and Secular Humanists) group for local non-believers I thought that issuing a response to this letter would be the perfect way to introduce the existence of our group (which is a huge deal in a small town in the Bible belt) as well as refute the revisionist claims touted by many supporters of this National Day of Prayer.

You can find my letter below or you can click here  to view it on the Dodge County News website. Your feedback is appreciated.

Dear Editor,

I want to quickly and respectfully address Mrs. Brenda Woodard’s letter from the April 25th edition of the Dodge County News on behalf of a group of nearly 40 local atheists, agnostics, and secular humanists who wanted to express their disagreement with this letter and with the spirit of the ” National Day of Prayer .”

We simply want to express to the people of this community that the Constitution of this land does not and never has called this a Christian nation and we’d simply prefer it if we could not be included under such a banner. It would no more be right if my prerogative was to call this nation a Muslim one when it clearly is not and does not represent all of the people in any way.

It should be noted that in 1796 the Treaty of Tripoli was ratified unanimously by the Senate and signed by Pres. John Adams, it states in Article 11 as an assurance to the Ottoman Muslims that were also signing it:

“As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…”

This is the thing that sets this nation apart from  those it was fleeing; that if you are to have a religion at all it is to be your own and not that of the state or the majority within the state.

We don’t intend to make a big deal of your event, though I’m not sure the Bible supports this sort of public display (Matthew 6:6). We don’t care if you pray, how you pray, or where you pray – we simply don’t want it assumed that we cannot be represented as legitimate members of our community and our nation because we do not ascribe to the doctrines of the majority.  Enjoy your event, just not in our names.

Anyone interested in our organization feel free to email us at dcatheists.secularhumanists@gmail.com for more information.

Respectfully Yours,

Matt Oxley
RagingRev.com
President, Dodge Atheists and Secular Humanists – D.A.S.H.

 

Now, you’ll notice that I’m not asking anyone to not participate in the National Day of Prayer, but that I’m simply asking that the title “Christian Nation” not be used as it is in the original letter.

Do you think I should have made protest of the National Day of Prayer and any government participation in it? or should we simply let bygones be bygones when it comes to exercising religious authority on government property?

I’ve got mixed feelings on the matter.

This last Saturday I was doing some audio work at the local Pondtown Festival;  a little arts, crafts, and music festival in the tiny city of Rhine, GA about 20 minutes from where I live.  As I was sitting behind the sound booth I noticed a sign off in the distance amongst the crowds of people that were about a block down the road that said something about Jesus and Hell.  Immediately I knew exactly who it was though I couldn’t quite read his sign yet. This was a street preacher.

His name is Derek, and he is a street preacher that spends most of his time in the Philippines as a pastor and evangelist. Derek is from the same town that I’m from and he visits here every so often to see his family and speak at many of the local churches. On his current visit he’s been going around to various events performing street evangelism with a number of the youth from area churches.

After I noticed this sign in the distance I knew I had to take a few minutes to go talk to him – Derek and I know one another and I heard him speak a time or two back when I was still a believer so talking to him isn’t such a big deal. So, I walk up to him and ready the camera on my phone – he notices me and kind of gives me a smile and a laugh as I snap a picture.

As I approach more closely I say, “Nice sign, but can you prove it?”. We shake hands, laugh, and exchange niceties from here. Derek and I have largely been limited to making small talk – we both know where we stand and we know how severe our differences are.  I know that Derek believes that I’ll be destined for an eternity in hell if I don’t come into a “repentant relationship with Jesus Christ.”  He believes that and I know he believes that, but Derek doesn’t treat me differently because of it.

You see, Derek isn’t like the typical street preacher. He isn’t yelling at people or berating them verbally – he has a sign on his front and back that states what he believes to be true and he is handing out tracts that tell people how he believes they can be saved and as far as I know he tries to present his beliefs in such a way that doesn’t directly attack people even though his sign is admittedly meant for shock value.

I may find his beliefs to be appalling and I may find his unproven claims to be abusive and absurd simply by their nature – but I’m learning to separate what someone believes from who someone is. Derek, despite what many of my godless cohorts might believe, is a nice guy trying to save people from a threat that seems very real to him.  As I was talking to him I recognized that not only have I lived with that same mission in my life, but that he and I have some other very real traits in common even today.

Update:

Earlier today (this is two weeks after the picture above was taken) Derek and I met for coffee and we talked about a lot of things that, to me, highlight the fact that Derek and I are more alike than we are different; we both care about our community and want the best for it, we both appreciate critical thought and asking questions,  we both prefer sincere questioning and exploring doubt to blind following, and we both believe in doing good things in our community (Derek admittedly has better resources for doing this work than I do, as no one in this area would be inclined write a check to further any cause that was founded by me).

Derek cares about his community, but his fears are misguided and misdirected – he fears that those around him will end up in an eternal fire, separated from god and as a former believer myself it’s hard for me to fault him for it.  I care about my community and I fear that my community will forever be known for it’s poverty and the bigotry still spouted by many of it’s citizens or that more young homosexuals and atheists in this will never feel comfortable in their own skin because of the persecution they are likely to face.

My street preacher friend is warm, funny, and concerned.  He’s far from perfect, he doesn’t understand the damage he does when he calls something a sin that is outside of someone’s control – he doesn’t know how much that hurts yet.   That’s all I’d change about him though, the rest I can live with.

I won’t change that by shouting him down when he’s standing on the street with his signs. I’m gonna change it, and anyone else that I can by showing them the faces of those whom they condemn.  That’s something I’ll be focusing on here in the coming weeks.

They both do so in the same ways; by ostracizing those unsure of their claims, demonizing them as deceivers, and apostatizing them in order prevent their dissent from spreading. Doubters and the questions that plague them, according to these holy texts, are like a cancer that will spread unless you cut it out and kill it.

From the Qur’an we have one of many warnings to those that would dare doubt the message of Islam:

Surah 10:94-95

And if thou art in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto thee, then question those who read the Scripture before thee. Verily the Truth from thy Lord hath come unto thee. So be not thou of the waverers. And be not thou of those who deny the revelations of Allah, for then wert thou of the losers.

And the Bible:

2 John 1:7-10 (KJV)

⁷For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

⁸Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

⁹Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

¹⁰If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed.

She was right.

There are certain things that I consider grounds for engagement and exploitation of children is prime among them. This documentary contained three examples of such exploitation and three examples of adults that were either clueless or intently malicious.

The first child, Kanon Timpton – age 4,  became famous when a video of him mimicking his father’s  United Pentecostal preaching style on stage received millions of views on Youtube and went viral for weeks.  I remember the first time I saw it and how disgusted I was; not only at the millions of people that thought this was either cute or somehow evidence of the power of their god, but also the parents and the church full of people that were cheering him on.

Kanon’s “preaching” consists of little more than well timed shouting and breathing into the microphone – outside of those things the content is no better than gibberish with sprinklings of words like “God”, “Jesus”, and “Victory” while pointing at or slapping the Bible dramatically – a Bible he isn’t old enough to read. He’s merely mocking  his father, picking up on the mannerisms and words that are most often used – and reveling in the applause of the crowd. His Father believes that the “Holy Ghost” is interceding when his child is on stage despite all the obvious signs that all the words and actions of this child are empty.

The other two young men are a bit older;  12 year old Terry Durham from Ft. Lauterdale, FL and  12 year old Matheus Moraes from Rio de Janeiro.  Both of these young men carry themselves like adults when in front of the camera and the crowd. They are both being groomed by people that can gain from their success.  Durham’s grandmother, a Baptist minister herself,  has been convicted of fraud in the past and in order to “protect him” must handle all of the monetary transactions for him.  Moraes is surrounded by professional ministers that focus on a Word of Faith doctrine that produces ample proceeds in the offering plate. He is extremely well dressed (though surrounded by poverty) and even has a website where you can buy his DVDs and become a partner with his ministry in the style of Benny Hinn and other televangelists.

The latter two provide an insight as to what can be expected from 4 year old Kanon further down the road.  Once his mimicry starts to include intelligent English and seems less rehearsed he too will be thrust into a preaching tour and he will be considered a prodigy by thousands of people, I suspect that the UPC church (A  fundamentalist cult) will use him to grow their numbers and influence. Doing so will be a crime against this little boy and will destroy any semblance of a childhood he might have.

Maybe the first video was of 18 month old Kanon WAS cute to some degree. I mean, how can something a little baby does not be cute right? Were that video the end of Kanon’s story I’d be less concerned – but because I know what his future will hold I am absolutely disgusted and worried for him. I fear that his fate will be like those that came before him and that his life will mean only what his handlers want it to mean, much like Marjoe Gortner and unlike Marjoe; Kanon, Moraes, and Durham may not find themselves able to escape.

I think these kids show us two things;  that some adults will go to any lengths and use any tool they can find to push their religion (and make a profit from it in the process),  and that manipulating people through the art of magnetism is so easy that even a child can learn it and do it well (In the cases of Durham and Moraes).

If these children and all that might come after them are to no longer be exploited there is going to have to be a change in the Christian community.  Instead of finding this stuff cute you must instead begin to find it disgusting and exploitative. You,  Christians, must  take a stance against it and protest these movements within your own ranks. This is yet another problem within the church that  I and the rest of the atheist community can’t fix for you. You’ll have to gather up the gumption to do it yourself. I challenge you to do so and take a stand for these kids.

Here’s a short preview of the documentary, which I’m sure will be re-aired at a later date. If your blood pressure doesn’t similarly rise then I highly recommend you rethink a few things. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below

Tebow, God’s Favorite Quarterback:

I hang out  and socialize with an inordinate amount of Christians, it’s something I’m open to and greatly enjoy – but rather recently it seems that the most common topic among many of them is now none other than Tim Tebow, the quarterback (he throws the football) for the Denver Broncos (a team in the NFL). Tebow’s iconographic rise to Christian stardom seems to be the result of his willingness to make public expressions of his faith.

From a Superbowl commercial in 2010 with a decidedly pro-life message (and sponsored by Focus on the Family) ,to the now trademark Tebowing that seems to be a new spontaneous fad among all sorts of Christians, and frequent mention of his faith during interviews you cannot avoid the fact that Tim Tebow is a Christian and proud of it. Christians seem to have been desperate for a well known sports star to call their own and they’ve found one in this Heisman winner and are quick to defend any ill words directed his way.

In yet another example of how sometimes we atheists only need to sit back and wait for someone to say something ridiculously stupid his pastor, Wayne Hanson of Summit Church in Colorado, has even gone so far as to attribute a 6 win streak earlier this year to being “God’s Favor“.

The God of the Christian Bible has a vested interest in American Football.

Just let that sink in for a moment.

There are Christians that believe that football, and not even the good kind, is an event so important to the Christian God that he is willing to intervene in some way to ensure that his favored team or player makes the playoffs.

Floods in Taiwan, fires in Texas and California, drought in Georgia and Africa, extreme famine across large swaths of the African continent, tsunamis in Japan and India – all being ignored, presumably because Jehovah is too busy watching Tebow make the winning pass.

I believe, and I truly hope I’m right here,  that this belief represents a minority of the Christian community.

Tebow and the Bible

I don’t know this guy personally so I’d be remiss to say that he’s probably some jerk that likes to push his faith on people.  In fact, I don’t actually believe that to be the case. I believe that Tim Tebow is likely very sincere in his faith, I believe that his reputation as a kind-hearted team-mate is an actual representation of who he is. I don’t have an issue with him one bit outside of the fear that he might be evangelical enough to be a neo-conservative that believes he has the right to limit the freedoms of other people. I believe that he really wants to use his status to bring people into his faith and that he truly wants to preserve his virginity until he is married. Not one of these things is surprising to me, and they shouldn’t be, as these things are largely mandated in the Christian Bible and I personally exhibited the same behaviors (minus the ability to throw a football in anything resembling a spiral) when I was a Christian.

The issue with Tebow’s faith comes with a reading of Matthew’s Gospel 6: 5-6

5“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”  ~ ESV

Maybe Tim didn’t get exposed to this verse during his rearing. When I was a young and immature Christian I ignored this verse too, it didn’t sink in until much later in my faith that perhaps any showboating I might be doing would have the opposite of a desired effect – in that it might put attention on me, rather than God. My Christian life is long gone, but I still think it important that Christians know their Bible and do as it says. Believers, take notes.

The Passion of the Tebow

“The Liberal Media” – an ever present enemy of all thing right and good,  has been apparently fixated on attacking Tim Tebow because of his faith. I’ve not actually heard anyone give an example of this sort of attack, nor have I been witness to any of these attacks myself (as if I’d listen to sports radio) – but almost every Christian that talks about this guy in my presence is sure to talk about how he is being persecuted and that somehow Evangelical Christianity is “the only group left that it’s P.C. to publicly bash.”  This, coming from Christians in the American South, is absurd – as over 60% of Southerners and Americans are Christians themselves.

Perhaps becoming an icon of American Football and being seen by millions of people a week simply makes you privy to a certain amount of increased scrutiny over, lets say, your local high-school’s quarterback. Perhaps further, the willingness to make open and public displays of your faith is likely to bring a certain amount of scrutiny to the way a person lives that faith in ways that wouldn’t apply to Christians that didn’t have an actual prayer stance named after them.  I’m only guessing, but I don’t think anyone intends to make Tim Tebow a martyr – and anyone that believes that being under the watchful eye of sports commentators is in any way tantamount to persecution needs to recheck the dictionary as well as their priority list.

Just maybe being ” P.C. to publicly bash” isn’t the result of being an evangelical Christian, but the result of what evangelical Christianity represents today; bigoted, gay hating, anti-evolution extremes of the Christian right. It’s quite possible that this bashing is as politically correct and accepted as the bashing of an extremist Islamist group that desire to push the world into Sharia law. It’s not the fact that Christian groups exist but the hell-bent nature in which they bash absolutely everything they hate so unapologetically that makes them an target for backfires of hurt and anger they so often bring. To me, it seems that Tebow may just be a victim of those that called themselves Christians before him – and he might pay a small price for that, or he may just have to accept his new role as the idol of  angry believers unwilling to take their own medicine.

To conclude, I can only give the man the benefit of the doubt. Tim Tebow is probably one of the nicest, most humble Heisman trophy winners of all time and I hope that he is as genuine as he seems. I also hope that he takes this fame and opportunity to point out that he is neither worthy of worship,  divine intervention in the NFL, and to educate the masses on all the prayers his god isn’t answering from the millions dying daily as a result of natural disaster and famine.  If you are reading this post I also hope that you’ll do something about famine either in your own back yard or around the world by finding a way to benefit those in need.

Oh, and don’t claim god’s providence in a football game; that just makes you look stupid.

As a white Southerner I’ve been raised by the adults in my life to believe that “race mixing” is wrong.  I’ve been raised with the idea that black people are somehow inferior to whites and that it’s best that we just avoid associating with one another. The ‘ N ‘ word was probably the most commonly used word in my family growing up. None of these things are atypical of white people raised in the community I come from. In fact, my county is still arguing over Confederate flags – I couldn’t be more embarrassed by this fact.

All of these things I have always hated. I’ve argued with adults since I was about 8 years old about how ridiculous these assumptions were and how much some words hurt people. Racism has never made sense to me – but it’s always been around me. I do understand what it means, I understand how prevalent it is, and I know what it feels like to stand up for what is right completely alone.   While the rest of America may be well past the Civil Rights Movement, many parts of the South are still fighting it daily.

It’s important that my readers understand: I hate racism, I hate homophobia, I hate intolerance, I hate backwards thinking, and I hate bigotry. I don’t tolerate any of these things in my life and I never will. What I’m about to say isn’t in defense of bigotry in any way – let this be made exceedingly clear.

I believe that when the US Constitution demanded that Congress “make no law respecting the establishment of religion or preventing the free exercise thereof” that it meant just that.  Despite the many flaws of the men that wrote this document they recognized that any impedance on religious freedom or the freedom to speak freely was a grievous thing that given a society intent on liberty could never be tolerated.  Any attempts to force this church into marrying interracial couples by government, or even preventing the Westboro Baptist Church from doing the vile things they do in the name of their god should be crushed – by all of us.

I believe that people have the right to hate. I believe that people have the right to be bigoted closed-minded homophobes and to scream that hate from the rooftops if they so choose.  I believe that you and I have the right to shout back, to love, to speak to the virtues of tolerance and understanding, and to use our unified voices to change these minds – but we don’t have the right to silence them.

If you believe in democracy and freedom then you have to take the bad with the good, the grotesque with the beautiful. If we intend to keep the church out of the state (which we desperately need to work on), we must also keep the state out of the church.

I’m not surprised that a small country church in Kentucky is stuck in the 50′s, I wouldn’t be too surprised if one of the over 280 churches in my county decided to adopt the same policy – but what gives me hope is that these churches and the people that drive them will be gone in 10 years because they’ve lost the war of ideas.

Racism is slowly dying in the South, it’s been a long road  but every generation amazes me as it moves beyond the ideas that defined our past. Homophobia isn’t far behind – the generations of people  stuck on this old way of thought are dying out in groves and their children’s children are now having kids that don’t see color or hate, one day they will have kids and they’ll see even less. It’s getting better, tolerance is winning – but it isn’t winning because we tried to outlaw hate, it’s winning because we’ve decided not to let it continue within ourselves.

No matter how much I hate bigotry, racism, Westboro Baptist Church, and now Gulaney Freewill Baptist I believe fully in the rights of people and churches to hate whom they want to hate. I will despise everything about what these groups do, but I will defend their right to do it and I’ll take my battle into the marketplace of ideas.

Notes:

1: I’d like to make one exception to the claim of being raised around racism:  My mother, to the best of my memory, has never displayed racism. This is an incredibly rare thing in the South, but I credit her for befriending people of different races and helping me to be exposed to different people growing up.

2: There is , of course, one caveat to religious freedom:  When people are harmed, this should not be tolerated by anyone – and I fully endorse government intervention when lives are endangered.  I think this goes without saying, but if I don’t put it here someone will surely start to gripe.

This year, rather than discussing the pagan origins of the Christmas holiday (and others) or going off on yet another rant about how frustrated this whole thing makes me I’m going to ask that the members of the Christian faith that are reasonable enough to know that they don’t have a monopoly on holidays during the winter months hold the less scrupulous believers around them accountable for their words and actions. I’ve made this plea before – but in this instance it is a matter of timing.

This year, unlike previous years, I want to hear more believers discussing openly and condemning the right-fighting and hate mongering that occurs within their own community. I want to hear pastors talking about the fact that other holidays exist around this time and that it is perfectly OK for a retailer to try to include different faiths in their advertisements (and if the pastor really wants to impress me, they could talk about how the alleged Jesus wasn’t a consumerist or about how the early church was indeed a Socialist structure)

During my lengthy discussions with pastors and believers that I’m friends with I’ve noticed that there is a tendency for intelligent and critically thinking people within the Christian community to be far too silent and unwilling to challenge the many voices of irrationality, anger, and malcontent. In a prime example of the squeaky wheel getting all the oil, I believe that the good people within the community of all faiths are being outnumbered and over-encumbered by the numbers and the volume of those that fail to meet the standards of intelligence – unfortunately I can’t do anything to fix that outside of my own community identity and the task of repairing this problem lies directly at the feet of the silent thinkers within the church.

Much like Islam is most often associated with extremism or terrorism, Christianity is most often associated with closed minded bigotry, hypocrisy, and creationism. While many of these objectionable things are often very much a part of these faiths – one must wonder whether or not they present a majority of those that identify with these faiths. If this is the case then there must be some sort of obligation for those well reasoned and kind hearted believers to attempt to enforce change from within – or to move without to make something better. If, and I hope this is the case, the majority of believers are well reasoned and merely suffering cognitive dissonance in one single area of their lives – I think it’s well time to speak up and become considerably louder than their embarrassing counterparts.

If Fred Phelps, Pat Roberson, Jerry Falwell, and their less famous equivalents don’t represent the faith that you hold dear then you have a job to do in repairing the damage they’ve done in the name of your god. If ignorant Christians that want to monopolize a holiday season with rhetoric and hate don’t represent your faith, then it’s time to speak up and show the world around you – including the very believers we are discussing here, the error of their ways. If you are tired of being grouped in with bigots and hate mongers then it’s time to change that image or remove yourself from the association you hold with those people. I can think of no better time to begin than during the holiday season (except maybe the political season).

Begin correcting your pastors and your fellow believers when they are wrong. Make people accountable for the words they say and the claims they make. The next time someone makes an egregious claim or sensationalizes a portion of a fact – call them out on it.  If you decide to take up this cause…good luck.

Losing faith comes with many difficult trials for most.  Facing the reality of death is one of those trials, coming to grips with the knowledge that what you once looked forward to may be the absolute end of your existence entirely. Recognizing this can be painful and scary not only when we consider our own lifespan but also of those we love.

I don’t know what happens after we die, it seems that our organs and our brains stop functioning and with that our consciousness does as well. I don’t have any reason to believe that we have  “souls” or  “spirits” even though those things sound nice. I think this one life is all we have, anyone that claims to know otherwise is lying or is falsely convinced that he is correct.

Often during the transition from faith to doubt many find themselves facing an existential crisis where the end result of life becomes overwhelming and scary, life without something to shoot for might seem purposeless and depressing. For me this recognition of ultimate fatality made me recognize the scarcity of life; with less than 100 years to do as much as I can as opposed to the eternity I once believed in, I suddenly have more purpose than ever. I have lots to do if I want to make an impact on my world and my society – now more than ever life is full of purpose and meaning because it is so rare , so short, and so fleeting.  I appreciate life more now than I did as a believer and one of my biggest fears is wasting it on falsities.  I no longer have eternity to look forward to and in the market of life this scarcity makes it all the more valuable.

I don’t think any of this means that we can’t be sad about death or that we shouldn’t be afraid to die, fearing death is one of the mechanisms of survival we’ve evolved to have. Death of a loved one hurts, it’s supposed to hurt to not have someone you love around any longer – death is an inconvenient and uncomfortable truth that will happen to all of us and grieving is normal and perfectly fine.

Defining “making the best of it” isn’t something I can do for anyone – I think you have to decide that for yourself. What do you want your life to represent? What do you value enough to dedicate this one life to?  I can answer those things for myself, but they are as varied as the human race.

Fatality doesn’t make life meaningless, it makes life more precious and meaningful.  Remember that and make the best of what you have.

Brian Knapp writes for ChoosingHats.com

If you prefer to download and listen later or on your MP3 Player you can download it Here.

(total run time is about 1 hour and 47 minutes)

I’ll have a commentary on the debate shortly, in the mean time please feel free to provide critique of my positions (or Brian’s) in the comments below.

Please don’t misunderstand me, there aren’t very many things that I agree with in the Bible – but of the few things I find agreeable is the mandate that those that believe should provide ministry (or help) to those in need – the homeless, the poor, the widows, and the orphans.  Managing to forget for a moment all of the fire, brimstone, rape, and genocide – these initiatives are worthwhile and respectable – if not largely forgotten and considerably less possible considering the current state of the Christian body as a bloated and  inefficient bureaucracy.

The Reality

Dodge County Georgia, the county I live in, has 271 different Christian churches and according to the 2010 Census around 22,000 people.

1:80 - the ratio of churches to people in Dodge County, GA

1:80 – that’s the ratio of churches to people in the county I live in. The poverty rate is %23.4.

Each of these churches has to take up monetary gifts from congregants to pay for electric bills, any loans on the buildings, taxes, various other expenses,  and staff. These things must be paid before a dime goes to charitable causes – for many smaller churches it’s nearly impossible to pay the monthly expenses alone, much less use any leftovers for the benefit of those that could use the assistance.

One of the most sickening things about the way these churches are organized is the fact that in large part there are “white” churches and there are “black” churches – the lines of segregation in the South are most well visualized by looking at church attendance. One instance that I find particularly infuriating is with two little country churches that I frequently pass by (one of which I attended when very young) – these Southern Baptist churches are less than 100 feet apart yet one has white attendees and the other has black attendees…this seems to me like insanity.  The church I left wasn’t like this, that much I’m glad for – we had people from all backgrounds; white, black, wealthy, poor,  and furthermore we – our tiny church – had one of the only food pantries available to the public in Dodge County at the time.

My point is that millions in potential aid are being wasted on overhead because the Christian Church is divided into so many fragments that achieving a worthy net benefit is nearly impossible.

The Fantasy

The Epistles of Paul and the book of Acts called for a unified church, a body of believers made up of different people holding only their faith in common – the churches he described were regional, efficient, and handled squabbling without splitting into a hundred different pieces. What was originally intended is unrecognizable in today’s church and I’ve been sure to point that out frequently at the Bible study I’ve been attending.  In the US Christians make up at least 60% of the population – most of whom believe that they should tithe 10% of their income to their church, the amount of money being raised by Christian churches in this country is staggering yet the potential net benefit of these numbers is far from achieved.

The Challenge

271 churches in Dodge County, GA should be able to ensure that every belly is full and every home is warm instead of  making sure that the church lights are on, the stained glass windows are clean, and the pastor is paid. 271 churches is supposed to be one church – or so I hear. Saying these things might upset a few, especially if you depend on a congregation to pay your salary – but I think that most Christians that have actually read the Bible know that I’m right in this…I just don’t know what anyone is willing to do about it  as the status quo seems to be comfortable and easiest to maintain.

If Secular Humanists had the type of money and influence that Christian churches do we’d be able and willing to do the things they aren’t – unfortunately we are but a few. I  think that poverty is on all of us and when writing something that condemns the lack of action of so many I must now point back at myself and ask why I’ve not done more with the little I have…and so I will.

I discussed the contents of this post with a friend of mine today over lunch, this friend is a pastor and he agreed with me on a lot of these points – it turns out that there are believers that recognize the problems within their faith and that really believe in the charge to care for those in need. I suggested to the pastor that given the opportunity I believe that many  atheists and Secular Humanists would be inclined to work with churches and ministries that were trying to meet these needs, I know that I would be glad to give my time and the funds I could spare to work with a church if I could be certain that the efforts were truly helping people in need. I believe that people who disagree over religious beliefs can work together to meet common goals, I think doing so is something to be desired and I’d like to see our two respective communities work together for the benefit of those around us. The challenge will be finding churches and believers willing to do that.

Discussion Questions: (comment below)

Christians:

Aside from telling me if you agree with what I’m saying here, would you personally be willing to work with non-believers for the good of your community? Would your church?
Also, I dare you to share this with your church or pastor!

Atheists/Secular Humanists/Non-believers:

Would you be willing to work with a church or Christian ministry that focused on feeding and clothing the poor in your community? What stipulations might you put on an organization before committing your time or money?

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