A.N. Wilson, the British author, has written a wonderful piece on Christianity. He grew up in the church, became an atheist in his 30′s, and has recently come home. He writes:
My own return to faith has surprised no one more than myself. Why did I return to it? … My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known – not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in the light of the Resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.
The Easter story answers their questions about the spiritual aspects of humanity. It changes people’s lives because it helps us understand that we, like Jesus, are born as spiritual beings.
Every inner prompting of conscience, every glimmering sense of beauty, every response we make to music, every experience we have of love – whether of physical love, sexual love, family love or the love of friends – and every experience of bereavement, reminds us of this fact about ourselves.
READ IT ALL: “Religion of Hatred.”
Shane+
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1 Rev. Roger Jan Radley, Ph.D.+ // Apr 14, 2009 at 11:47 am
On Good Friday we walked for three hours–carrying a cross made of 4×4′s accompanied by two vans with elderly and disabled, and a small group carrying crosses and signs reading “He died to take your sins not your mind!” While few joined our small group, many more noticed. Some even gratefully acknowledged our presence (really His) by hocking their horns, yelling “thank you!” or “praise God!”. For some we were an irritation… …for others a reminder and perhaps for some including those who walked, road, or observed–a wake up call! (more to follow)!!!!
2 Greg // Apr 14, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I like the website! How are you?
3 Jim Pruitt // Apr 14, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Thank you for this story. I followed the link to the _Daily Mail_ article. It was very illuminating. A number of ironies to note: on the site this story of conversion to belief was headlined, “Religion of Hatred,” three of the four illustrations with the article were pictures of atheists mentioned in the piece, but no picture of A.N. Wilson. A sad note on the unity of the universal body of Christ is in the comments which describe an England having almost lost its Christian belief entirely in the same words as believers my age often describe America.
I was encouraged in the story that Wilson made the Passion Processional as an act of his own belief, not as an act of evangelism. He recounts–as in the part you quoted, Shane–that it was the actual results of belief seen in the lives of people around him, especially as they faced death, that led him back to the local body of Christ and to a repetition of the resurrection story that quietly and profoundly convinced him. It is cool when we can do both–the procession type activities and the daily living in Jesus.
Love ya,
Jim
4 Joe Daniels // Apr 14, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Excellent testimony. There will be more behind him. John 17:20.
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