Christians are brainwashed.
This is a common comment I’ve been hearing in discussions with atheists and agnostics lately. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been working to learn more about other people’s beliefs and faiths so that I can increase my own understanding and the cultivation of peace.
Christians are conditioned to believe what they believe. They are trained from childhood. They repeat the same things over and over until it becomes ingrained in their minds. That’s what I’ve heard. So I had to examine myself and my beliefs. Is there any truth to those statements? Am I a blind follower?
I grew up in a small town where Christianity was the norm and there wasn’t a lot of diversity. When I was growing up my parents took me to church often, and I knew that Christianity was important to my mom. My friends went to a variety of churches and some friends didn’t go to any church. We didn’t really talk about what we believed; faith was pretty far down the priority list of topics to discuss.
I got the sense that Christianity was a huge set of rules that you had to follow to go to heaven. I don’t remember ever learning about the life-changing love and grace of Jesus. What I learned didn’t always make sense, and there never seemed to be a forum in which I could get answers - real answers, not the rote “You just have to believe.” I began to feel like I had to turn off my brain when I went to church. I also felt that I had already screwed up enough that I was never getting into heaven, so I might as well live any way I chose. God and I were quits.
For many years I lived life my own way, and sort of forgot about God or religion. There were a few people who planted seeds in me - my Uncle John, a born-again Christian who patiently answered many questions about his faith, several co-workers, and students from an evangelical university. In each of these people I saw something shining, transcendent, and peaceful.
Eventually I married, had kids, divorced. I was living an okay life, but there wasn’t any sense of eternal significance or transcendence. I was a voracious reader and so I read about different faiths, but I kept remembering how there was something different about those people who were truly on fire for God. After trying a couple of different denominations, I settled in at a church that felt comfortable and friendly.
Then I started heavily studying the bible. I found out I hadn’t paid much attention in Sunday School, because stories like Noah and the Flood were all mixed up with fairy tales in my mind. I joined discussion groups, religious debates, and bible classes, and read innumerable commentaries, devotions, histories, and bible studies. I also took college classes in comparative religions and the philosophy of religion. I don’t always agree with what my pastor, other believers, or the church in general believes, but God gave me my mind to think critically about issues and make my decisions on his guidance, not human thought.
From all this study, I have learned that although Jesus’s message of grace and salvation is a simple one, our God and our world is complex. It takes study and thought to truly understand Christianity and how we are to behave as followers of Christ; people can study the bible all their lives and still keep learning new things. That’s why the faith is so misunderstood by many people.
I also learned that doubts and confusion are sometimes a part of my faith. Though I won’t ever fully understand God while I’m here on earth, I can either give in to my doubts and toss out my entire belief system, or I can let those doubts push me to a deeper understanding. And if my faith was all in my head, from the book-learnin’ and study, it would make a lot of sense to give it up when I discover pieces that don’t fit my belief system. It would be easier to conclude that my beliefs are to blame.
But I can’t do that, because along with all I’ve learned over the years, there are also my personal experiences with God. Now, I know that no one can ever prove or disprove to someone else that personal spiritual experiences have occurred or that they are proof of God’s existence. But I don’t need to convince anyone else. The times where I’ve heard God speak to me, the times I’ve felt his physical presence, the times I have seen his work before my very eyes, these are all proof for me. The fact is, since I became a devout Christian, my life has changed for the better. I’m a better person than I used to be. And I see with such an expanded vision, knowing that God has an overall plan for everything and everybody, and the things we do have eternal significance.
For these reasons, I feel assured that my faith is far from the product of brainwashing.
How about you? What has your experience been with religion, faith, and beliefs? How did you come to believe what you believe now?
[...] Don Emmerich [...]