From a young 17 year old boy to the editor of the S.E.Calgary News:

I’ve been reading the polls that have been in the news lately. Faith is on the decline in the United States and agnostics and atheists are on the rise. What is also on the rise are disillusioned ex-church goers and bitter fist shakers.

Bill Maher’s movie “Religulous” did well in the box office last year and authors like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are becoming increasingly popular writing books like “The God Delusion” and “God is Not Great”. Even in  “Family Guy” the pet dog is an atheist.

As a young guy who has found faith, as a Christian, and a believer of God, I wanted to write a letter to you, the fist shaker, the ex-church goer, the Atheist and Agnostic. It’s a short letter, but I mean it from my heart.

To all Angry at God,

I’m sorry.

You might not have expected something like that from me, a Christian. But I mean it. I’m sorry because as a Christian I haven’t done the greatest job I could in showing you that God is great, that religion doesn’t poison everything, and that Jesus may not look like you think he looks like.

In some ways, I understand. Sometimes Christianity can be negative. Sometimes it makes people more racist, more intolerant, and more judgmental. Sometimes it is thrown into politicians speeches that you may disagree with, or worse, the person that might have hurt you worse in your life might have been a Christian.

I’m sorry.

I believe in the depths of my being, that God is good. That He does love you.

I think you would love Jesus. I really mean it.

If you could have seen Him healing the ear of one of His enemies, or feeding the hungry, or healing the blind. I think if you saw Him in action, you might even like Him.

You might be surprised at how opposite He was to how some people make him out to be.

I know we might not see eye to eye on a lot of things. We have gotten into some good debates before. But I don’t want to debate today. We can later if you need to. I wanted to tell you something first.

Did you know that Christians used to be known for their love? I know that seems crazy with our politically driven message today. But it’s true.

The 300 years after Jesus died was a great time for Christianity. A Faith in Jesus went from a small group of people into impacting millions of people.

Back then if someone had a baby they didn’t want they would go throw them in the woods or outside the city. It was the Christians who went and got the babies and raised them as their own. In those times sometimes people were so sick they were left alone to die. The only people that cared for these people were Christians. As they nursed the sick back to health a common question was “why did you do this for me?” and the answer was “because Jesus loves you”.

People wanted to know what could give someone so much love. People back then were amazed by what Jesus could do in someone’s life. A little different to the gospel tracks you might have gotten on the street.

That’s how Christianity grew so large. It was through love.

I know you may not agree with all my views. But if you saw the sincere love that is cultivated in someone when they have a faith in Jesus, you might not be so bitter.

Maybe if you see less Christians with picket signs and more at the soup kitchens you might change your mind about us.

Maybe if a Christian was the only one there for you when you lost your job, bringing you groceries and praying for you, you might not have such a big issue with religion.

Maybe if your local church opened their doors to you when you needed them, you would feel a little different.

But, maybe you haven’t been seeing that lately.

We really haven’t been doing our best in showing what Faith can do in someone’s life. But from the bottom of my heart I know that God is good.

I’m writing to tell you that I’m going to change. I want to start to show you what God can do for someone. I want to start to show you what Jesus is really like. I want to show you something so beautiful that maybe even you would want to know more about it.

Forgive me.

Thanks,

A Christian