Wesley United Methodist Church

For the first eighteen years, I was raised in a Christian home with loving parents and a wonderful life. My beliefs in God were there from the beginning and even though some people might suggest that my belief system was a matter of my geographic location, the second eighteen years of my life would go against that theory. I was the "third type" of atheist...basically I lost my faith because of the bad examples of Christians that seem to be so prevalent in the world. I gave up the idea of "God" and came to the conclusion that "Christ" was a myth and ranked up there with fairies and unicorns. I took great pleasure in fighting with the "Bible-thumpers" and showing them that they didn't know the history of their faith, or the contradictions that I felt were quite evident in the Bible. I also had the satisfaction of pointing out that even though they gave lip service to Christ, they sure didn't act like him. Where was the compassion of the Christians, and where was God in the midst of all this suffering. How could they justify that what they were doing was so against the very thing that they preached.....so I was an Atheist for eighteen years, until I met a like-minded person who exemplified the Christian ideal, and I met a Christian woman (my wife) who made me take a second look at the Bible and the Christian life. It took me three years of "getting to know God again" and re-reading the scriptures to admit that I am a Christian and to fully come back into the faith. I still get very upset when I see (and hear) other "Christians" adopt a non Christ-like attitude. I have since put God first in my life through the salvation of Jesus Christ.

I straddle the fence in understanding the Faith that I have come to love and the Atheist argument against God, Jesus Christ, The Word, and Christians. I believe that I went through that time so I could better bring the word of God to a person that has questions about Christianity and also bring about a since of compassion and humility that I believe more followers of Christ need to adopt.