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- when being a kind, loving, and decent person becomes the goal of faith it also quickly becomes clear that you can be a kind, loving, and decent person without God, faith, religion, or the church. In fact, with so many notorious examples of Christians not behaving as kind, loving, and decent people it can seem that God just makes people worse. It’s a double-whammy. God is both irrelevant and toxic.
- this observation—that some atheists are more loving than some Christians—was calling everything into question. Clearly, this is a shaky and unsustainable way of thinking about God and faith. And yet, it’s the way an entire generation of young Christians now look at the situation. Being a good person is the entire point, and it’s obvious you don’t need God to do that.
- if an atheist is found in the kind, loving, and decent bucket do they need God, faith, and the church? Or is being kind, loving, and decent enough?
I think a lot of us, especially progressive Christians, would say being good is good enough. Let’s leave the good people alone. Especially given all the bad apples in our own group.
- if modern goodness, in the West, is the product of the Christian revolution, then every good person is following the path of Jesus. Every time a person cares for a neighbor or extends kindness on the street that’s the leaven of Christ working secretly in the world.