"Take a picture of yourself right now. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair, just take a picture. Post that picture with NO editing. Post these instructions with your picture."
(via http://momolikeschoco.xanga.com/716003220/cheeeeeeese)

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