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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I find this to be a very curious post.   I grew up in a nominally Christian home with a family that did not truly understand Christianity.   I became an atheist for more than 20 years before converting and becoming an evangelical about two years ago.   It was the most unexpected turn of events in my life.

Living in the DC area and working in a very secular workplace, never, not once, in my time as an atheist did I feel out of place with religion.  In fact, I assumed that the default was that nobody believed that stuff anymore.  Everyone I worked with openly mocked evangelicals.

I have actually found it much harder when I swung back the other way.   I realized that I didn’t know a single other person outside of my church who believed what I believed now. Yet I believe it as truth and so I couldn’t just ignore it.   It has become core to my identity.      I have since formed a lot of networks through social media and other venues and it isn’t as lonely as it once was.

But I say all this because — I don’t know why you would feel like you need to come to this message board (of all message boards!) to find a sense of community as an atheist.   There are atheists everywhere, and they far outnumber Christians or people of other faiths who take their faith seriously and openly, at least in the DMV (maybe not in other parts of the country though).

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Evangelicalism is one of many forms of Christianity and there is no formal conversion process for it (as there is for Catholicism and Judaism).  Evangelicalism is like atheism in that respect, except atheism is not a religion and thus does not require conversion when deciding to no longer believe in God.

Being evangelical is a form of Christianity that, according to my understanding, requires adherents  to state their religious beliefs openly and to attempt to convert others, including other non-evangelical Christians.  I'd guess that some of stigma you feel comes from other Christians, who seem like atheists to you, but not at all to themselves. [/quote]

I am the original response here.   Just to clarify — yes, identifying as an evangelical is a “type” of Christianity but is not separate from Christianity itself.   However, conversions are not limited to Catholics and Jews.   Having a conversion experience in this context means that you become a follower of Jesus.

Also, becoming an evangelical does not mean either of the things that you mention.  Your comments imply that by doing those things I am saved and that I must do those things in order to be saved.   Evangelicals believe precisely the opposite.  We are sinners saved solely by grace and Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross.   I am not saved by anything I have done but by what He has done for me.    And I get His record through my faith in Him, not by my individual performance, achievement, converting people, or how loudly I say that I am an evangelical.

To the extent that I do those things you mention — and to be fair, yes, I have done them — I do them out of the overflow of Christ in my heart.   It is similar to why I do kind things for my wife — not because I am trying to “earn” her love but because I love her because I love her.   Also, the Bible is very clear that whenever we do these things we must also do them with wisdom, with love, with kindness, with grace, with discernment.   Nothing in the Gospel says “act like a jerk” and Jesus’s life and example was very much the opposite.

Sadly, some evangelicals do a terrible job of living out their faith — just like the Pharisees.

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