From “Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What To Do About It” by Brian McLaren
A few years ago I was speaking at a Christian college in the Midwest. In the Q & R, a man who looked at least twice as old as the students was the first to the mic and asked, very aggressively, “Who do you think you are to make up your own doctrines and create your own version of Christianity? Why don’t you just admit you’re a heretic and stop calling yourself Christian?” I tried to respond as gently as possible, but he didn’t appear at all satisfied.
To my surprise, when the lecture was over, this same fellow came up to me and said, “I’d like your email address. I’d like to be in touch with you.”
As a rule I never give out my email address, especially to pushy or aggressive people who are going to send me a barrage of emails with lots of Bible verses and CAPITAL LETTERS warning me of HELL and DAMNATION. I usually tell people they can reach me through my website, and very few go through the effort to do so. Frankly, because of his aggressiveness, I was worried he’d find my contact information and distribute it to others who would join him in a coordinate barrage, because that sort of thing had happened to me before.
But I felt a little nudge somewhere in my heart telling me to take a risk on this fellow. So I scribbled my email address on a piece of paper and gave it to him. The next morning, this email was waiting in my inbox:
Thanks for answering my question last night. Sorry if I was rude.
I have one more question. What do you say to a pastor who is losing his faith?
I am that pastor.
It’s often the case that the people who attack and argue most loudly are doing so to convince themselves. For some, I suppose, it works, at least for a while.