Do you ever introduce a religious person to your atheist friends with a disclaimer: “Just fyi, she’s Christian”?
Apparently, Christians do something like that when it comes to us.
From the list of Stuff Christians Like: #355. Warning friends that your new friend is a non-Christian.
Why must they be warned?
Because something crazy might happen:
1. Non Christians are loose cannons.
Sometimes people disclaim the arrival of a non Christian just in case they do something wild, like swear. But by disclaiming them it automatically creates a weird tension of us vs. them in the context of a dinner party. And honestly, have you ever not disclaimed someone and then had to go back later and say, “I’m so sorry about my friend Hucklebuck. Honestly, I had no idea he was just going to start punching people in the face. And I didn’t even know he carried a gun. I’ll help you pick out a new cat tomorrow. I should have warned you he’s a non-Christian.”
Or they want to prevent their Christian friend from doing something embarrassing in front of non-Christian company:
… You’ll all be eating dinner and then one of your friends will say, “Can you please pass the salt and did I tell you about the angel that spoke to me last night and helped me find a parking space at the mall today? My savior has a first name, it’s J-E-S-U-S!!”…
Or perhaps they can prepare their Christian friend to go into “Witness Mode”:
… Suddenly instead of acting normal and how they would every other moment of the day, they’ll start using all their fancy seminary words. They’ll start asking awkwardly intimate questions like “are you happy on the inside?” They’ll spend the whole night stuffing tracts into your non-Christian friend’s purse like squirrels before winter…
To the writer’s credit, he isn’t advocating these things, just reflecting on what happens:
[To fix this] I think the first thing is… changing the way we look at non-Christians. Retiring the label and seeing people as, well people. I would love to be the faith that doesn’t label or stereotype. Not in a lose your values, anything goes kind of way, but in an honest, “we’re people trying to love other people” kind of way.
(via Stuff Christians Like)
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]