This is a tricky topic, so I’d like to start out with a little disclaimer: I am not one of those people who make scathing statements about how all Christians are nothing but judgmental hypocrites. I don’t believe that at all! I do think that Christianity is a world view that lends itself to judgmentalism fairly easily, however there are plenty of Christians who manage to overcome this. In this post I am referring to the ones who, unfortunately, do not.
In part 1 of this blog post I mentioned the tendency of the extreme fundamentalist sort of Christians to assume some pretty ridiculous things about those who do not share their faith. But few people ever really stop and think about how arrogant and offensive these notions actually are. The basic assumptions can be summed up as follows: “There is no way any intelligent person can come to a different conclusion I have come to. Therefore, any intelligent person who believes something other than me must be morally inferior.”
The obnoxious, cocky, Dawkins/Hitchens/Hawking brand of atheists do much the same thing towards Christians. Their version is: “There is no way any intelligent person can come to a different conclusion I have come to. Therefore, any intelligent person who believes something other than me must be emotionally inferior.”
Both of these statements are obviously ridiculous and judgmental, yet a surprising number of people subscribe to these sentiments. Many, however, do so obliquely: When presented with a blunt statement like the ones above, most people are able to see how absurd they sound. Yet they still cling to these assumptions in a subtle, intrinsic way.
No one has ever blurted out something like “I wonder what sort of moral defects are preventing you from believing in the Bible!” but they’ve come pretty close. I find it ironic how people who don’t yet know I am no longer a Christian just go on assuming that I am. They find no change in me. They find no moral lapses. Yet some (not all, thankfully!) who do know about my beliefs tend to view me through a poisoned lense. They actively search for evidence that I “need God in my life.” I often feel like these people are prowling around me, just waiting for me to slip up somehow so they can shout: “Ha! I knew it! See how depraved you have become without Christ?!” In addition, they are scouring through my records and picking out every time I annoyed or hurt them, and every ugly rumor they’ve heard about me so they can file it all away in the “Proof that she was never a True Christian™ anyway” folder.
But if they could really look at my life objectively, they would find that I haven’t changed. I’m no less moral, happy, or satisfied with my life than when I was as a Christian. Christianity does not have a monopoly on these qualities. (Neither does atheism, Buddhism, or any other philosophy or religion for that matter)
“Moral downfalls” are not what prevents me from being a Christian, just like “emotional weaknesses” are not what prevents Christians from becoming atheists. It is simply a matter of what and how we are able to believe. Unless you can come to grips with the fact that some people are “unbelievers” for intellectual reasons alone, then don’t try to tell me you don’t judge. Because, frankly, you do.
-Monica
