On religious indifference.

Recently I was doing some work for a family friend, renovating their home. During the work this family friend noticed my crucific necklace and asked me about my faith. I described, in short, how I had come to faith in Christ and that I would indeed call myself a Christian. This family friend looked at me with a kind of condescending look and said "good for you!" and something along the lines of "if it helps you or works for you". Although I am sure that there was absolutely no bad intent behind this reaction, you may understand that it left a bad taste in my mouth, a taste which I have had to endure multiple times in my brief time as a Christian, prompting me to write this article against religious indifference, or the apathy of God.

Now this "good for you!" response felt to me like something you would say when someone tells you that they have become a vegan, or they decided to pursue a different career, or maybe they are purchasing a new car or some other personal lifestyle choice. It shows that a lot of people look at religion as a personal set of beliefs or a personal lifestyle that helps the religious to live a good life and to be content with themselves and their circumstances.

We as Christians, and our Muslim and Jewish acquantances alike, know ofcourse that God is infinitely more important than any lifestyle change, no matter how radical. We understand God to be the creator of the entire universe, whose character is interwoven with the very fabric of reality. We as Christians profess that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, come to earth to save us from our sins. Our Lord Jesus Christ makes incredible truth claims and refutes contradicting positions as a result of these claims. Let it be very clear, that as faithful, we cannot say "good for you!" to an Atheist, Agnostic, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist or any other faith that is not in line with the revelation of God the Father Almighty. We understand that since Jesus Christ spoke the truth, Mohammed spoke falsehood, wether intentionally or not. This does not mean ofcourse that we should constantly be at odds with people of different faiths, as I personally have great relationships with various serious muslims, largely due to the fact that we both understand the importance of God.

As I spoke about in my article "On the knowledge of God", I personally used to view religion in much the same way as this family friend of mine, simply a set of personal guidelines and a crutch for the intellectually weak or indifferent. This is why it is so important to me that we move away from this false perception of religion and to make our positions known and clear to our as of yet, indifferent friends and family members:

I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Under Pontius Pilate He was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.