{"id":5197,"date":"2016-09-14T09:28:42","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T15:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=5197"},"modified":"2016-09-14T09:28:42","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T15:28:42","slug":"a-less-lonely-way-to-lose-your-faith-isaac-anderson-at-the-atlantic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/09\/a-less-lonely-way-to-lose-your-faith-isaac-anderson-at-the-atlantic.html","title":{"rendered":"A Less Lonely Way to Lose Your Faith: Isaac Anderson at The Atlantic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"ia.001\"<\/a>My friend Isaac Anderson has an article in The Atlantic<\/em> called \u201cA Less Lonely Way to Lose Your Faith<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0and it\u2019s well worth your time to read. Isaac profiles a community of un-faith in the Kansas City area called Oasis. They gather on Sunday mornings, sing songs, listen to talks, hold\u00a0children\u2019s programs, and to find friendship and belonging. Sounds like a church, right? That\u2019s the idea.<\/p>\n

This is a fascinating phenomenon to me: religious-like weekly gatherings for people who don\u2019t (or no longer) believe in God. I hope you\u2019ll read the article and share it around because I think there are lessons to learn here about what it means to be human, and the longings we all share.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s test your instincts. What part of the country\u00a0would you expect to find a full-on atheist church service? I\u2019m from Kansas. We spend our lives perpetually behind the times, so I just immediately assume anything new comes from the coasts. New York or L.A., right? Or at least some highly secularized region of the country? Not so. The rise of these types of gatherings happens where churches are most active. In fact they are linked to areas in which there is a sizable local\u00a0presence of evangelical Christians or Mormons<\/a>. The bible belt is ground zero for atheist churches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe data suggest that \u201cevery percentage increase in evangelical Protestants in a county increases the number of nonbeliever organizations by approximately 1 percent,\u201d the study authors wrote. Of the eight Oasis fellowships now meeting publicly, all but one are located in the American Bible Belt or Mormon Corridor, regions in which faith and public life are deeply entwined.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another lesson to learn here is that these groups are not typically hostile toward Christianity or any sort of faith. This struck me as important for evangelicals to know.\u00a0Play word association with most people, and their snap response to the word atheist would likely be Hitchens or Dawkins\u2014strident atheist with a bone to pick with organized religion. The group Isaac describes is more like the religious sans religion. They are looking for community and ritual and support and growth but they don\u2019t want to fight about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelen Stringer, 34, the founder of Kansas City Oasis, occasionally invites speakers from religious communities to discuss a topic related to their faith traditions. \u201cWe want to build bridges,\u201d she said. \u2018Not throw bombs.'\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One last thing. Out of all the motivations that draw people to gatherings like this, members of Oasis seem to be looking for community. They want a place to belong. For example,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sunday after Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were killed by police officers in Baton Rouge and St. Paul, and five police officers were shot by a sniper during a protest in Dallas, Timothy Leyrson, 33, showed up at Kansas City Oasis for the first time. He wore black Dickies trousers and a paisley bowtie, and sat on the corner of a bleacher near the door. After high school, he\u2019d quit going to his Assemblies of God<\/a> church, he told me. I asked what had brought him here.\u00a0Everything in the news, he said\u2014the hostility, the racial violence. After that, he said, he needed some kind of positive community experience. \u2018And this seemed like a good place to start.'\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thought provoking stuff from a really good writer. I hope you\u2019ll take the time to read the entire piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend Isaac Anderson has an article in The Atlantic called \u201cA Less Lonely Way to Lose Your Faith,\u201d\u00a0and it\u2019s well worth your time to read. Isaac profiles a community of un-faith in the Kansas City area called Oasis. They gather on Sunday mornings, sing songs, listen to talks, hold\u00a0children\u2019s programs, and to find friendship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1600,1599,1601,491,1524,687,1603,1602,1382],"class_list":["post-5197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-atheism","tag-atheist","tag-christopher-hitchens","tag-church","tag-community","tag-isaac-anderson","tag-oasis","tag-richard-dawkins","tag-the-atlantic"],"yoast_head":"\nA Less Lonely Way to Lose Your Faith: Isaac Anderson at The Atlantic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My friend Isaac Anderson has an article in The Atlantic called "A Less Lonely Way to Lose Your Faith,"\u00a0and it's well worth your time to read. 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