A Coffee Conversation.
This week I met a friend for coffee at the local Starbucks. He and I have had a long ongoing discussion about faith. He would consider himself an ex-Christian, having had some rough experiences with how Christians do things.
When we first met a few years ago, he was very angry about all things Christian, the church, God, Jesus, and the Bible etc. Yet in the two or three years since that first meeting, he’s mellowed out to the place of forgiving the church for how it’s behaved.
His criticisms about Christianity and his driving thirst to explore other world religions are an outgrowth of bad personal experiences with the church. He is propelled to seek understanding and dialog – a thoroughly postmodern commitment to tolerance. He has no desire at this point to put a stake in the ground and claim one for himself.
His quest is not one for truth, but for understanding, as if those hairs can be split.
Surely there are questions of truth buried in there, because religions make truth claims and ultimately, one does have to decide what is true. Christianity makes truth claims, and like any world religion ultimately makes claims upon one’s life. What my friend is trying to do is avoid allowing any religion to make a claim upon his life.
Can one really make a decision to be indecisive? Is it intellectually credible to never make up your mind about the truth claims of any religion? He would argue that it’s not doubt, its not even skepticism. It’s not atheism, which is built on belief in God’s non-existence. It’s a refusal, I think, to believe anything.
By not deciding to claim any truth, he prevents any truth claim from having control over his life.
Let me ask you this?
How would you continue this discussion with my friend? What questions might you ask to further the discussion and help foster spiritual thirst?
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Your friend has most likely had a problem with a church and not the church. I have said many times no church is perfect and if I ever find one I will not join it because it then would no longer be perfect. We are all sinners, some of are sinners saved by grace and others are just sinners. Paul said he was the chief of sinners and when he said it he spoke in present tense thus he was not referring to his past life. If, and he is, Jesus is who he says he is then it makes sense to follow him.
First is there a designer to the universe? I spoke to a Doctor once who said he was an atheist. I told him that of all people it surprised me most that he was an atheist. The reason for my surprise was that he understood how complex the human body was more then most and he could think that is just happened with no designer. To that all he could say was “you may have a point.”
I would suggest you give your friend a copy of the book “Evidence Demands a verdict” by Josh McDowell (you can get it through CDC via http://grace-living.blogspot.com/ just enter the name in the book store search box. It is $14.99 there regularly $29.95.
Best wishes and God bless. I pray your friend will see the Truth.
Bill