PJay
Well-Known Member
Oh, Dear God did you read this?
I have a confession to make...
- Thread starter mAlice
- Start date
Oh, Dear God did you read this?
mAlice
professional daydreamer
I'm very intolerant. So much so, that I had to put her on iggy. That tolerance thing... It goes both ways, and I'm getting pretty tired of the finger only being pointed in one direction.
We're so doomed.
Why a former atheist professor now believes faith is for smart people
Holly Ordway, a college professor in Houston, no longer believes atheists are smarter than Christians. Her latest book: “Not God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms.”
In Houston, a city prepping against any Ebola threat and making news for a battle between the mayor and the evangelical community over LGBT rights, is a former atheist English professor who now defends the Christian faith.
She says this stew of fear, hate, intolerance, and political unrest is a garden spot for finding faith.
“Houston is a great place to have an Apologetics program [Apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith] because having all this diversity – all these issues – means people are thinking and talking about their faith,” says Holly Ordway, who has a PhD in English and master's degree in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University, in a phone interview.
Ordway adds, “Whether it’s talk about life and death with Ebola, or what people believe and think about homosexuality, they learn that what they believe matters.” Houston is a prime location in America “to learn to hate the sin, but love the sinner,” she says.
Once an atheist English professor at a secular college in California, Ordway admits that she once believed that Christians were a collection of “ignorant, plastic Jesus stereotypes” and “atheists were smarter than Christians.”
Ordway attributes the bulk of her previous prejudice against Christians as coming from her years studying in South Carolina where “every believer I met was in my face asking ‘Have you been saved?' ”
For an academic raised in the northeast, she said, “That whole question ‘Have you been saved’ felt unsophisticated, meaningless and I had this counter-reaction to belief.”
Holly Ordway, a college professor in Houston, no longer believes atheists are smarter than Christians. Her latest book: “Not God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms.”
In Houston, a city prepping against any Ebola threat and making news for a battle between the mayor and the evangelical community over LGBT rights, is a former atheist English professor who now defends the Christian faith.
She says this stew of fear, hate, intolerance, and political unrest is a garden spot for finding faith.
“Houston is a great place to have an Apologetics program [Apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith] because having all this diversity – all these issues – means people are thinking and talking about their faith,” says Holly Ordway, who has a PhD in English and master's degree in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University, in a phone interview.
Ordway adds, “Whether it’s talk about life and death with Ebola, or what people believe and think about homosexuality, they learn that what they believe matters.” Houston is a prime location in America “to learn to hate the sin, but love the sinner,” she says.
Once an atheist English professor at a secular college in California, Ordway admits that she once believed that Christians were a collection of “ignorant, plastic Jesus stereotypes” and “atheists were smarter than Christians.”
Ordway attributes the bulk of her previous prejudice against Christians as coming from her years studying in South Carolina where “every believer I met was in my face asking ‘Have you been saved?' ”
For an academic raised in the northeast, she said, “That whole question ‘Have you been saved’ felt unsophisticated, meaningless and I had this counter-reaction to belief.”
Amused_despair
New Member
Sort of like when someone quits smoking and all of a sudden can't stand to be around smokers.
PsyOps
Pixelated
hotcoffee
New Member
Isn't that like "parents seem to get smarter as we grow older"?
Eventually new Christians become evangelists..... and they can go back around those who are not Christians and show them how it has changed them.
Like Bill W..... the example he led helped others
mamatutu
mama to two
Isn't that like "parents seem to get smarter as we grow older"?
Eventually new Christians become evangelists..... and they can go back around those who are not Christians and show them how it has changed them.
Like Bill W..... the example he led helped others
What do you think of Joel and Victoria Olsteen?
Salvador
One Nation Under God
mamatutu
mama to two
hotcoffee
New Member
They are no evangelists. They are feel good speakers.
What about the Bakers..... I put the Olsteens in that class!
b23hqb
Well-Known Member
Isn't that like "parents seem to get smarter as we grow older"?
Eventually new Christians become evangelists..... and they can go back around those who are not Christians and show them how it has changed them.
Like Bill W..... the example he led helped others
Yup. When I was a young boy, my dad knew everything. When I was a teenager, he didn't know so much. In my early 20's, dad was wrong about everything. When we had kids in our early 30's, I knew my dad was right about everything.
Christians are to be the light to guide others in from the darkness.
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