By GodlessGrrl O ne of the things that annoys me tremendously is when a devout Christian claims to know and understand my reasons for leaving Christianity better than I do. Image via Wikipedia I've gotten this a number of times, and I've seen Christians do it to other apostates as well. It's always puzzled me. After all, I am the person who has lived my own life, not anyone else. It would stand to reason that, living in my own skin and my own head, I understand my motivations, feelings, experiences, and so on better than anyone else possibly could. I have never understood how anyone could be so unabashedly arrogant as to presume to know me better than I do. It simply isn't possible. So I've had a difficult time understanding how any Christian could insist that they "know the real reason" why I left, in contradiction to my actual reasons. What's particularly mindboggling is to hear a believer assert my motivations without actually hearing anythin...

By Godlessgrrl -- Step One: Shut. Up. And. LISTEN. Image by NuageDeNuit via Flickr I t's simple. Just shut your mouth. Shut your mouth, and open your ears. Resist the urge to preach, moralize, evangelize , or pass judgment on what they have to say. No, you don't have to agree with them, you don't have to like what they're saying at all, you don't even have to understand it - just LISTEN. LISTEN to what they're saying to you. Listen to where they've been, why they feel the way they do, what their frustrations are. Listen to the reasons why they reject your religion, and don't try to excuse it away with words from your holy book, or preconceived notions your church has taught you, or conclusions to which you've already leapt (about people you don't know at all). So just shut the hell up. Close your Bible, put away your tracts, stop hollering about your own moral superiority, and just LISTEN. Ever wondered why atheists are so "angr...

By GodlessGrrl -- Dedicated to proselytizers everywhere, especially of the Born-Again Christian stripe. Image by V31S70 via Flickr H ey proselytizers! Ever been confronted with a stubborn unbeliever who just won't listen to your witnessing? Pump up your efforts to convert them by adopting these 10 simple steps! With this guide to witnessing technique, you'll have them eating from the Lord's hand in no time! Step 1: Don't actually listen to them. You're on a mission: your job is to spread the Good News. You should be concentrating on leading them to the Lord, not enjoying the pleasures of a chat with another interesting human being. Don't quite talk to them - talk past them. Don't take anything they have to say seriously. It doesn't matter what they bring up: their personal history, their own opinions, logical arguments , probing questions - an unbeliever just doesn't understand God the way you do, so they don't know what they're ta...

By Godlessgrrl -- M issionary dating is a term used in evangelical Christian circles to describe a tactic certain believers use to win new converts. It involves a believer becoming romantically involved with a nonbeliever, with conversion of the nonbeliever being a priority goal for the believer. A quick Google search of the term returns well over 100,000 hits on the subject. Peruse a sampling of them, and you'll find that the majority of sites addressing the topic are Christian sites discussing why missionary dating is a bad idea... for Christians. Interestingly enough, I have yet to come across a page or site that has anything to say about the impact of missionary dating on its non-Christian victims. There's plenty out there about the damage missionary dating can do to Christians who do it (it can cause backsliding, violation of one's own convictions, doubts, stress, and so on), but nothing on what it's like for someone on the receiving end. No word or though...

By Godlessgrrl    Happy Heathen    Dear "Persecuted" American Christian: L ast week while doing some research for future blog posts, I noticed that many of you feel that you are persecuted for your faith. In this letter I thought I'd explore that belief, and write an open response to your perceived victimization at the hands of your alleged oppressors. Image by loswl via Flickr It's very true that your brothers and sisters in Christ who live and work overseas are often subject to real hardships for practicing their faith. Missionaries in North Korea and China face censure and death, Coptic Christians in Egypt are isolated and marginalized, Laotian church workers are regularly arrested, and so on. It should not be denied that religious persecution takes place, that it is devastating to the cause of international civil rights , and that it needs to be curtailed wherever possible. It should not be denied that Christians the world over have been the...