Why Do So Many Evangelicals Seem to Fear an Honest Discussion? Why the Trend to Dismiss Rather Than Engage?

Here’s the level of discourse related to a conservative answer to my new book WHY I AM AN ATHEIST WHO BELIEVES IN GOD: How to give love, create beauty and find peace.

… Read the quotes below. What’s with these guys? Please Explain.

“…a load of excrement… I don’t think I’m going to be able to finish this book… dipped in the sauce of clueless heresy.” (Amazon review By strannik “strannik” Campbell, CA USA)

“I am not going to read this book…The title alone drives me a bit batty. ” (DKeane123 Comment Section of Religion Dispatches)

“Frank Schaeffer is… wrapped in an ego trip, inside a deception.” (Ron Henzel Comment Section of Religion Dispatches)

“…nothing more than secular humanism with a christian-based church face.” (Abide Comment Section of Religion Dispatches)

In case you are wondering what kind of book so provokes these folks here’s a quote from the book from Chapter 26:

I was shuffling forward in the communion line, with Lucy in my arms. I was lost in gloomy thoughts, brooding on my past and on my doubts, my failures, and my meanness to Genie when I was young, stupid and so woefully controlling. I was feeling that going to church was a waste of time. I was feeling unworthy in every sense of the word and sinking into a gray depression.

Lucy and Jack are always in and out of my arms in church as they have been since they were born. So I’d actually forgotten I was holding her. (These days I hardly know how to be in church without a grandchild riding on my hip.) With my head bowed and my eyes closed I shuffled forward to the chalice to receive the “body and blood” through a ritual I don’t comprehend and that seemed entirely pointless that day. I was adrift in my melancholy. Then I felt the touch of Lucy’s hand on my face and—startled—opened my eyes.

It took me a moment to remember where I was. Lucy was gazing into my face. She wasn’t smiling, just gazing at me in that straightforward way that only a child achieves: with serious concentration and offering me a transparent “look” that had no agenda. She wanted nothing from me. All I saw in Lucy’s expression was unconditional trust. All I saw was a child who knows me now and who never expects anything but kindness from me. She did not know of my past sins, failings and bitter self-accusing regrets. Lucy was not judging me. I was accusing myself while she was just gently touching her Ba’s cheek, checking to see why my eyes were closed.

Lucy inclined her head and kissed me. This thought crashed into my brain: I am being seen as I’d like to be perceived, not as I see myself. I have seen the face of God.

**

• Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His latest book —WHY I AM AN ATHEIST WHO BELIEVES IN GOD: How to give love, create beauty and find peace

• Available now on Amazon

  

   

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