Time for a Rewrite

Dear Bob

  I'm reading your book entitled, "Beyond Belief".  I don't normally read books, but my boss has asked me to have a go at it and give him my thoughts.  I wanted you to know that I appreciate your humanity and candidness, although, as a fellow author, I thought you might appreciate the heads up.

  Your first chapter doesn't accomplish what I think you had hoped.  If I understand you correctly, you had hoped to establish in the mind of the reader your authenticity as a believer before your deconversion.  I know how costly it can be to make changes once a book has made it to print, but it may be necessary to change the bulk of chapter 1.

Your account of life as a Christian reminds me very much of a man who attended one of my book studies a year ago.  I had asked the group a question about their faith, and the gentleman proceeded to tell us all about the many acts of kindness he had done for the less fortunate in his life.  It was a very awkward moment, and as the group leader, I really didn't know how to handle the moment.  You could almost feel the tension in the room.  It seemed quite out of place in a setting of supposed believers to hear about this man's accomplishments and wonderful acts of kindness.  It flies in the face of what we generally understand as the Gospel itself.  Believers typically speak little on what they have done, and make much of what Christ has done for, and in them.

I appreciate how zealous you were for the Christian religion.  In the balance of your life, perhaps you have done more good than bad.  I am glad of your accomplishments in the political arena, and your contribution for humanitarian efforts globally.  I believe you were committed to your cause so intentionally that you neglected your own family. 

On the outside, you would likely have convinced me had I been your friend, yet somehow, reading it in print, it becomes so painfully obvious that the religion your served so passionately, holds little resemblance to the Christ I know.  Hearing about your achievements, your attitude towards your first church and neglect for your family seem misplaced at best for someone who is trusting Christ.

I get it though.  I really do.  I get how you might have really thought you were in the club.  When my wife met me in 1992 she asked me if I was Christian.  You see, she wanted to marry a Christian man.  I told her I was a Christian, not as a lie, but because I really thought I was.  At the age of 19, my life hadn't been nearly as religiously successful as the life you have lived, but I truly believed myself to be among the people of Christ.  Reading your chapter reminds me so much of what it was like to think I was a believer, even though I had yet to come to truly know Christ.

I have one more short item that may be of assistance.

On Trust

I'm not sure if you are really trying to speak to the Christian community or not.  If you are,  then you will likely hope that they would trust some of what your are saying.  There is one glaring aspect of your testimony that inhibits people of authentic faith from lending you their trust.  Although likely not by intention, you unwittingly insult them.  You describe your pilgrimage as, "the honest account of one person's journey from faith to reason."  Life Beyond Belief, Bob Ripley, Page 28

  It is after all your story and you are allowed to phrase it however you want.  It is common practise among atheists to insist that us Jesus types are unreasonable.  I don't expect anything less from most atheists, but given your past, I rather expected something more.  If you would like to enjoy the trust of the believing community, you might entertain the notion that faith is not without reason, and neither is faith an exclusive thing to Christians.  I know atheists who think that extra terrestrial life must exist in the universe, even though they have never seen such creatures.  (Oddly enough, these individuals claim to be people of reason)

We both know I'm not God.  I don't know the complete truth about what has happened in  your heart over the last 50 years or so.  I do however know what it's like to be self deceived.  That may or may not be your case.  What I know for sure, is that as a believer, your first chapter fails to gain my trust, and I really see little evidence of a life having ever resembled what I know to be the life of a new creation.

      

PS - If you ever consider reading one of my books, have a look at Chapter 7 of The Edge of His Cloak.  It ties in to this topic quite significantly.