re: #272 Anymouse 🌹

I’m sorry to hear you’re stuck. I guess that’s an opportunity to gamble away all your money in the slot machines in the airport. /s

Thinking about that Pavlovitz piece above, what he’s really doing is saying that the actions of some douchecanoe Christians are what’s really driving people to atheism and away from churches. That’s a pretty shallow take on why a person becomes an atheist, and he’s trying to use us to shame his fellow believers (if you only followed the words of Christ, this wouldn’t be happening). Evangelicals can also justify their positions with the Bible.

There are plenty of douchecanoe atheists as well (for example, Sam Harris). No one makes the argument “Wow, Sam Harris is a real douchecanoe, therefore I’m going to become a Christian because all atheists are like him.”

I think there are two things going on:
1. It might not be driving people to atheism, but it’s driving current members (and offspring of) to essentially being non-practicing and/or non-supportive of the Christian organizations. So yes he is mainly aiming at fellow believers.

2. The moral authority of all Christian organizations is being wrecked by the actions of the “douche canoes”. Which is pretty much what you eventually get once you fail to police your own or provide some consistent vocal dissent to.*

Atheists really don’t have a central document or organization they claim authority through.

* - I have no idea how the membership of the “liberal” churches is going. It might be that they are holding their own since they are more accepting. Or it may be that they are eroding faster since it seems often that the moderates take the hit when the fanatics start seriously poisoning the well.