Unbelievers Undercover at Church (a Time article)

[Anonymous]

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1977701,00.html” class=”bbcode_url”>http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1977701,00.html Time had an interesting interview with the author of In the Land of Believers: An Outsider’s Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church. The author is an atheist who went “undercover” for 2 years by joining a megachurch, and the interview shares some of the insights gained. It was fascinating, and I thought there were parallels for those who attend the church while being unbelievers. Here are a few things that stood out to me (I’ll change “evangelicals” to “TBMs”):

– TBMs seemed invasive to me. I thought of it as an imperialistic arrogance — that they wanted to overpower people. My experience with TBMs was something very different. They felt that they could do something about the eternal suffering of others. I came to see TBMs instead as [having] a kind of empathy. That made me feel like there was something in it I could respect.

– There were some people who seemed to sit perfectly into the picture that I’d always had of TBMs. For me what was missing from [that] portrait was complexity.

– I think that there are some people who are just motivated by the glory awaiting them in the next life, but the experience that I had of most people was that they were very concerned with being good in this life. They wanted to do as Jesus would do in this life.

– The selflessness that I saw there, the willingness to sacrifice, was very impressive to me. But I think there’s [also] a lot of bigotry there that did not strike me as being synonymous with Jesus’ attitude. I think their attitude toward the gay community — love the sinner, hate the sin — is very disingenuous because what it’s like in practice is that they are both repulsed and amused by gay people. To me it’s less important that they come up with a more palatable way of expressing their homophobia than that they get over their homophobia. Their prejudice needs confrontation.

– I regret it in that I think it hurt people I care about. I regret the blitheness with which I participated in religious rituals I just couldn’t bring myself to take seriously.

– Being around people who disagreed with me on almost everything, I had to re-examine every part of what I believed to make sure I believed it for a reason.

[Anonymous]

That is interesting. There’s something to be said for the effort to be aware of & to understand others, especially when they believe differently. I like this quote in the article:

“Once I developed friendships with people whom I cared about, it was easier for me to see the appeal.”

When it comes down to it, love…being loved & loving (caring) makes life most meaningful…& religion is a way to bring people together.

[Author]

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