I'm about halfway through the series. I haven't taken a lot of issues like science, humor, and games yet, but I shall. The original purpose of the series was to say, yes, we must fight to maintain our faith. Faith by itself will go away if not defended or considered, much like love does. What I wanted to ask you is, what topics do you want me to tackle in this series? What makes it hard for you to believe in Jesus and to love and serve him on a daily basis? I'll use that to think about what topics to address next.

Just a friendly reminder--I'm writing towards a primarily Christian audience for this series. So when I say "we Christians should",  I don't mean to say you're all Christians or that non-Christians should do what I say. Non-Christians are welcome to comment. Keep it civil, all.

Xanga was my first true social network. I had been involved on forum boards when I was a teen, but I had never joined any real social network before Xanga. When I first joined in 2004, I found that few of my friends were really on here. Then I started looking for new friends. I realized that with search, I could find whoever I wanted to befriend. So I looked for people that I thought were interesting, mostly focusing on Christian females. Hey, I'm honest! haha.

However, over time, I realized there were a few drawbacks to Xanga. First, most of Xanga is female, and the male writers often seem more interested in talking to said females rather than other guys. So in the old days, if I wanted to talk about sports or cars or whatever, no one seemed to respond. Second, there is no chat feature on Xanga. Over time, I really got tired of waiting breathlessly for Juanita234325 to reply to my 3 paragraph comment...some 10 hours later.

So, without even really thinking about it, I gravitated towards two other social networks that would balance that out. We'll call them GuysWorld and ChatSphere. And I had fun hanging out on both. I felt GuysWorld helped balance me out and took care of the manly needs Xanga couldn't, and ChatSphere allowed for direct real-time communication with people.

However, I made one small change on both compared to Xanga...or was it small? On Xanga, I really think about peoples' morals or life approach before befriending them. That doesn't mean Christian-only, but it does mean no liars, no sexual deviants (Prude, Proud, and Loud, baby! hahaha) and no arrogant fools. However, on GuysWorld and ChatSphere, I didn't have blogs to read, and so I just befriended whoever. 

It shouldn't have mattered who I hung out with. It's not like I was there THAT often (maybe?!). It was just a hobby! I was just having fun! But suddenly, I struggle with new temptations I never had before, and I think it's because of those two sites. I now have to watch my language more--I'm much more tempted to swear than ever before. Yet overall, my life is better than ever before, so there's no good reason for the extra anger. I tried to think about why..and quite honestly, I think it's GuysWorld, where people have no problem dropping f-bombs. And because of ChatSphere, I'm much less likely to trust that people are who they say they are. I've seen way too many people taking on a persona, and so I am less likely to take words at face value. I feel less honest myself.

Quite honestly, I still can't believe this happened. ME?! Mr. Different? Mr. Smart-and-Independent? Mr. Anti-Peer-Pressure? I let those losers get to me and change me?! I should have gotten to them! Forgive my narcissism, sigh.

So what's the takeaway here in Fighting For Faith? Retreat to a monastery with only fellow Christians?! No, no, a 1000 times no! But we have to be aware that the people we hang out with shape our world view, even when it's  frivolous Internet folk. It has an impact on our morality and quality of life. I'm NOT suggesting paranoia. I'm just saying, sometimes we have to fight so hard for faith because NONE of our friends are fighting for any sort of moral values! let alone faith. And if that's the case, it's time to get some new friends!

Being a Christian is a critical part of who we are. If we don't feel we can express our Christianity with our friends, and we find ourselves being pulled to be more like them, it does not help us maintain who we are. If our friends resent our morals and claim that we are repressed prudes, are they really friends? I love having friends who don't share my views. They teach me a lot! But I also refuse to allow myself to be corrupted by my friends. Non-Christian friends and Christian friends alike have to be quality people who care for others and who attempt to be honest and fair. You may say "But that means you're making your faith more important than me!" But I say, my faith is a part of me. It rescued me from many problems and mistakes. It's not "that church I go to once a week", it's "Those prayers I utter, those verses I recite, that love I receive." Also, why do YOU want me to accommodate you being such a lying, thieving douc...argh, stupid GuysWorld, haha, never mind.

So unfortunately, I need to cut back on my time at GuysWorld and ChatSphere, perhaps even quit. They are frivolous, fun choices, not fundamental constants of life. I owe them nothing. I can certainly find other things to do with my time that don't make me feel like my beliefs are challenged at every turn. This is a hard post for me to write. It really hurts when you realize that a fun site, and the people who made it fun, are actually doing you more harm than good. But when it happens...you have to let it go. Bad company is contagious.

Note: This post is specifically aimed at people who once were Christian but now are starting to drift away because they see no real value or difference to being Christian. It's not intended to suggest or cast judgment on those who never were. As I said at beginning, I'm writing this more for a Christian audience, although all are welcome to comment as long as it's done in open-minded fashion.

Many people grow up Christian but slowly start to leave the faith over time. They never really hated Christianity. They just thought it a touch unreasonable at times. After finding enough they disliked, they slowly stopped going to church, and just kind of merrily drift along in an undefined cloud of spirituality. They might still go to church if you asked, and have decent memories of Christianity. It's just not for them anymore. And they are really nice people still.

So then, the answer to the question "Can you be a non-Christian and still nice?" is yes. There is no question that many people manage to be very nice despite no longer believing in God, Jesus, or the church--if they ever did. It's tempting to see Christianity as some sort of training wheel. Yes, it taught me to love my fellow man and not to steal when I was little, but as I got older, what did it have to teach me? I learned my lessons and moved on. I've graduated!

However, I think that a few things are wrong with the idea that one can truly be good without God. First, when a Christian decides that God is no longer the arbiter of morality, God must be replaced by something. Is that something society? Well, we all know that each society has its particular strain of sin and wickedness--over time, we'll fall for the same. Call me naive, but I do insist that goodness is more than just meeting the status quo for the miserable era that you happened to inhabit. Is that something you? Ah, better--I do appreciate someone who sets their own intrinsic standards and refuses to be a sheep. It's why my friends often tend to be cultural outsiders--I admire them for their independence and willingness to leave the herd. However...over time, we deceive ourselves. I believe that the natural tendency for most humans is to overestimate their own goodness, and underestimate the power of evil to sound reasonable and even good.

Ordinary goodness can only go so far. I'm reminded of the story of the rich young ruler. He was good by society's standards. He obeyed his parents. He refused to steal, murder, or lie. He was sexually faithful. And yet, his own standards failed him in his greatest area of weakness. He was addicted to his wealth, and anytime his "niceness" came in contact with his wealth, his niceness lost. Is it truly goodness if our best is only doing what is socially acceptable? what is seen by others? what is least risky?

True goodness requires constant recalibration. We drift off to our own addictions or priorities when left to ourselves. A truly wise man or woman realizes this, and gains recalibration from friends or wise books. But all of those are merely reflections of the goodness that is God. I believe that without contact with God, we lose our goodness, imperceptible piece by imperceptible piece. We may not do others harm, but we refuse to do them good. We may not do something overly wicked that would get us tossed in jail, but we feel a well-earned tinge of guilt over certain things...and do them anyway. Oh, some of us are lucky. Most of my vices are hidden due to my shyness and temperament, to be honest. But those closest to me know, and so do your friends. In the end, I don't think it's possible to leave a Christian faith that was truly healthy and maintain the same moral standards. Fight the temptation that it's all the same--that you've already learned your lessons. I'm 29, and it seems I've learned a host of new lessons this year on how many oddly evil thoughts and ideas can come to mind. Without faith, I would be powerless to those passions. So I still fight, weakly at times, but I still fight.

Last time I asked you all if it were possible to identify "wolves in sheep's clothing"--that is, false Christians in the church who pretend to believe in Christ or hold to Christian values, but instead are evil people who will do harm to Christians or the church.

Some of my inspiration for that post is the Internet itself, oddly enough. I know that some people on various social networks I frequent are not who they say they are. They are untrustworthy at best, sexual deviants or manipulators at worst. They have a friendly face to most, but then I see how they really think in a comment section, or they brag about their exploits on IM. As you can guess, the existence of such folk was quite disturbing to me. And I started wondering, how can people be protected? Maybe if I do a post...or if I try to catch them in a trap...or if I...

But you know what? There's no way to catch all the hypocrites in the world. In fact, some of the hypocrites and evil folk may not even realize they are hypocrites, until temptation strikes and they fall for it. And who would want to live in a church where one's motives and heart were constantly tested?! Paranoia about evil is, in itself, an evil. It is lack of trust in God and one's fellow man.

So in fighting for faith, we must put up with friendly fire, I'm afraid. We do our best to remove wolves from the church, to remind people to be smart and sensible. But in the end, there will be casualties. Friends we once trusted may yet run off with the offering or the secretary. A friend is currently dealing with the fallout from an acquaintance who has decided to gossip about all the secrets he learned in Bible study. You can imagine how painful it is to know your secrets you shared in prayer are being told far and wide.

I take some comfort in Jesus' promise to punish those who do such things (Luke 17:1-2). But as some of you so shrewdly realized, there is no foolproof way to remove the wolves from the sheep. We merely pray for God's provision, and must be willing to trust one another...even though sometimes, we will pay dearly for it. A Christian life without having trust and love for your fellow Christians is too miserable to contemplate.

To finish up--some of you have been wounded very deeply by such wolves. I would be amiss not to say I am sorry it happened. I hope it does not seem as if I am casually ignoring those crimes. On the contrary, the church owes you its strength, its peace, its prayer to try to make right what evil people under the church's roof did wrong. May God heal you, and give you peace and strength.

They're the reason why you left the church.
"They" sounded Christian. They knew Bible verses. They raised their hands or knelt at just the right time in church. And then, when you or your friend or the church trusted them, they ran off with the offering...or the secretary...or the innocence of half the congregation.
Is there any way to detect these false Christians? To minimize their impact before they hurt trusting people in the church and drive people away? What do you think?

So, I had an interesting conversation with a Satanist this morning on Instant Message, and...
No, it's not a joke, ha, I did. I didn't know she was a Satanist when we started talking, and we eventually got around to religious topics. We probed each other's beliefs a little bit with questions, then cheerfully said good-bye. It was a little amusing--she grew up Satanist, I grew up Christian. Some of the selling points of our "testimony" were rather similar. Given a change in families, perhaps we would have had exact opposite perspectives, to be honest. Anyway, I tried to do my best not to hide the weak points of Christianity. And it reminded me, I need to have more conversations like this, where I talk honestly about my faith--explaining its weaknesses, but also how I have overcome those challenges and maintained my belief in Jesus, the Bible, and Christians.

When I was thinking about what this month's theme should be, I was sure I wanted to talk about the Christian faith. I know a lot of you are Christians in your 20's, and you're starting to lose your commitment to the Christianity you may have once believed in. Step by step, you're walking away from that faith. And to be honest, that troubles me. I would feel less disturbed about this if I felt you were leaving for good reasons. But it seems more like many of you are just giving up on Christianity, or lack the energy to try to adjust your faith to new challenges. Or, I see a lot of compromise blogging--"I'm a Christian, but it's ok if you..." Such blogging often is merely weak-minded appeasement because the blogger is too lazy or dumb to come up with a good argument, and wants to be seen as open-minded.

Here's a news flash. Unless you fight for your faith, struggle for your values, you will lose them. We are lazy people, trapped in cycles of self-indulgence and anger. We have to fight for our values, or they will quietly disappear. There's a verse in the Bible where Paul tells Titus that older women should be "train(ing) the younger women to love their husbands and children." I used to laugh at this verse. Seriously, women need training in love? But I'm older now, and unfortunately, I see the truth of this verse. Unless we fight, even our love for our family is at risk of being worn away by the struggles and cares of living.

I am not a theologian. But I have grown up in church, read the Bible several times--even memorized much of the New Testament. I will do my best to take on what I see as the biggest obstacles to maintaining a Christian faith. Before I do that, let me open it up for discussion so I know better what the struggles are:
What have been the biggest challenges to your Christian faith?
You can answer as a former Christian or current Christian--and you can send me a message, or e-mail xangagreek@ gmail.com .

Note: This month will be more for Christians than for non-Christians. To save some time and effort, I am writing as if I am writing to a Christian audience, or at least an audience familiar with Christianity. Non-Christians are welcome to ask questions, but this really is intended to focus on the Christian experience. If I feel you are mistreating commenters (e.g., mocking them for faith, or calling something "stupid"), you'll have earned yourself a one-way ticket out of my comment section. Faith is a sensitive topic, and I want people to be open without fearing being sniped by another commenter