Wednesday, January 28, 2004
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Wednesday, January 28, 2004 |
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Atheists all around us By JOHN HATCHER Many in the religious community begin to jump up and down when folks talk about Christians who are practicing homosexuals. But I think I can point a finger (yes, point a finger) at someone worse. It is a Christian who is a practicing atheist (CPA). There are more CPAs attending church every Sunday than the world could ever imagine. In fact, some of them are attending temple on Friday night. According to Webster’s Dictionary an atheist is a person who believes there is no God. Madalyn Murray O’Hair was a genuine atheist. She’s the one who led the legal process to take prayer and Bible reading out of government schools. She was not only a practicing atheist but an atheist indeed. I am not talking about the O’Hair kind of an atheist. The CPA attends church, often regularly. He can even be a member of a Sunday School class where the Bible is taught faithfully. He will even open his mouth and sing “To God be the Glory.” The CPA, upon examination, will confess that he is a Christian. He will confess that he believes the Bible from its genuine cowhide cover to cover. He will make every effort to bring his children to church and want to involve them in the church’s children and youth ministries. As far as doctrine, he will affirm the deity of Christ, his virgin birth, his sinless life, and his resurrection. He will for sure attend Christmas Eve service and make sure his children have new clothes for Easter. He will want his funeral to be conducted by his pastor, priest, or rabbi. He will want appropriate religious music to be sung and played. Because of his regular attendance at the house of God, his family may even request that his funeral service be conducted at the church house. But, that’s about as far as his faith goes. In reality, he is a CPA (no offense to all you Certified Public Accountants). His wife and children will tell you that husband and father is a Christian Practicing Atheist at home. The children will remember him more for the can of beer he holds in his hand or the remote TV control he holds in his hand than for embodying the life of Christ in his own life. The wife will remember him more for his insensitivity to her needs for affection than for living out the Biblical mandate for husbands to “love your wives as Christ loved the church.” From the office, his fellow workers will wonder about all the platitudes from the pastor at the funeral service because they never could remember the first time he mentioned Jesus or the Bible at work. When a Christian Practicing Atheist leaves the church, he leaves his faith. His faith never directs the management of his home. He successfully compartmentalizes his faith. Faith is a church thing. But a sincere reading of the Old and New Testaments testifies that faith is more for outside the church than inside the church. Jesus talked about one’s faith acting while one is on a journey (The parable of The Good Samaritan). To become a practicing Christian, one begins to take note of what Jesus said and apply it to everyday living. One needs to let Jesus become another resident in his home. One needs to allow the reading of the Bible to become a common event in the home rather than rare exception. One needs to bring home the pastor’s message for further thought and application, rather than just the pastor for Sunday lunch. I fear that Jesus would find within our own churches those “hypocrites” he also discovered around the Jerusalem temple, some of them high ranking religious big shots. If you self-analyze yourself as a CPA, then repent and let your faith flower wherever you step your foot: in the grocery line, at the gas station, with fellow employees, and especially at home with the dearest people in your life. John Hatcher is pastor of Outreach International Center, 1091 South Jeff Davis Drive, Fayetteville, Georgia 30215. 770-719-0303
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