Fear of speaking openly about my faith

If the atheists aren't afraid to proclaim their unbelief, then neither should you be afraid to proclaim your belief. If they wish to mock you for it- in a word, accept it. Let them display their hatred, and let your love and patience witness to your belief.

opova said:

So, this isn't so much a problem in real life as it is online... I'm an illustrator, and I have a platform on an art-oriented social media site. I often make status posts giving my thoughts on things or just talking about my day, the usual. But my faith has been on my mind a lot more, and I get the urge to speak about it openly. And my wording when talking about it could be almost considered whimsical, it's so inspiring to me that I talk in a way I never do otherwise.
So, artists come in all shapes and sizes, and most of the people in my circle are atheists. That isn't a problem at all, there is however a small but outspoken minority of these atheists who are very harsh when speaking of God and of religion. "God is a fairytale, like Santa" "Religion is delusion" "God is imaginary and prevents people from thinking freely" (etc etc etc, the usual, y'know.) are not uncommon sentiments.
I know, rationally, that I should not feel sorry for my faith. But the fear of being judged or looked down upon or condescended to in any way, even by one person, is very much still an issue.
Thank you, may God bless you all.

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You are a Christian. When God looks at you, He sees Jesus. Lift up your head, no need to mourn! Rejoice in your eternal salvation, and again I say, rejoice!

Winken / LWS

opova said:

So, this isn't so much a problem in real life as it is online... I'm an illustrator, and I have a platform on an art-oriented social media site. I often make status posts giving my thoughts on things or just talking about my day, the usual. But my faith has been on my mind a lot more, and I get the urge to speak about it openly. And my wording when talking about it could be almost considered whimsical, it's so inspiring to me that I talk in a way I never do otherwise.
So, artists come in all shapes and sizes, and most of the people in my circle are atheists. That isn't a problem at all, there is however a small but outspoken minority of these atheists who are very harsh when speaking of God and of religion. "God is a fairytale, like Santa" "Religion is delusion" "God is imaginary and prevents people from thinking freely" (etc etc etc, the usual, y'know.) are not uncommon sentiments.
I know, rationally, that I should not feel sorry for my faith. But the fear of being judged or looked down upon or condescended to in any way, even by one person, is very much still an issue.
Thank you, may God bless you all.

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So I play games online during my free time. My name has "christian" in it, and my online profile avatar is usually some variation of a man and woman, with a cross between them.

Point being, everyone can pretty easily figure out that I am a Christian.

I too, get the usual responses you listed. I had a guy say "What kind of a mindless idiot believes in some magic man in the sky?"...

To which I responded "Well, I guess me!"

In the end, I simply made a choice, that I was not going to allow others to bother me over it. I simply laughed at their jokes, and moved on.

Now I'm going to tell you what happened to me, but I have no idea if it will happen with you. What I found was that the more people came on there and started getting all bent and hateful towards me, the more people were secretly sending me messages outside of the game, asking me about my faith.

Does that mean dozens of people turned to G-d? Not likely. But who knows what G-d is doing in those situations. I'm just saying the more hate was directed at me, the more people started asking me about my faith.

I think you should let G-d be apart of your social media. You should expect there to be some hate in response. But who knows.... Someone that admires your work, might be interested in your faith. You should think about that, and how it might be worth it.

opova said:

I love this, thank you. Allowing myself to just exist and not worry about what others think is such a struggle for me. I'm only 18, though, and would like to believe this will get easier with age. Practicing patience and love in the face of vitriol is challenging, to be sure, but I suppose there really isn't an option... (and if there is, perhaps it isn't desireable)

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I returned to Christianity when I was 18 (almost three years ago), and it took me awhile to stop caring what others think- but I finally did. The way I see it, I'm trying to get myself and my family to heaven. Everything else- including what others think about me- needs to take a back seat to that.

opova said:

So, this isn't so much a problem in real life as it is online... I'm an illustrator, and I have a platform on an art-oriented social media site. I often make status posts giving my thoughts on things or just talking about my day, the usual. But my faith has been on my mind a lot more, and I get the urge to speak about it openly. And my wording when talking about it could be almost considered whimsical, it's so inspiring to me that I talk in a way I never do otherwise.
So, artists come in all shapes and sizes, and most of the people in my circle are atheists. That isn't a problem at all, there is however a small but outspoken minority of these atheists who are very harsh when speaking of God and of religion. "God is a fairytale, like Santa" "Religion is delusion" "God is imaginary and prevents people from thinking freely" (etc etc etc, the usual, y'know.) are not uncommon sentiments.
I know, rationally, that I should not feel sorry for my faith. But the fear of being judged or looked down upon or condescended to in any way, even by one person, is very much still an issue.
Thank you, may God bless you all.

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Question for you...How it be a problem online when it's not a problem offline/in real life?

I've made a habit of telling christians to establish it from day one that they be
a christian ...whether online or offline.
Once you get stuck in the habit of not mentioning anything about being a believer, attending church, talk about the Lord, talking about whatever christian book(s) you read or have read, listening to gospel music, going to church/and or christian events etc... you making it all too easy on yourself to stay silent.
People either will accept, mock or let you be...we are to be ourselves(christian) just like they be themselves, who voice their opinions, beliefs, theologies or whatever.

Jesus be our example to follow, he too experienced being mocked, shunned, spoken evil of etc...He stayed in continued koinonia with his heavenly Father...so should we.

There are other artist forums/communities online...and offline.

opova said:

So, this isn't so much a problem in real life as it is online... I'm an illustrator, and I have a platform on an art-oriented social media site. I often make status posts giving my thoughts on things or just talking about my day, the usual. But my faith has been on my mind a lot more, and I get the urge to speak about it openly. And my wording when talking about it could be almost considered whimsical, it's so inspiring to me that I talk in a way I never do otherwise.
So, artists come in all shapes and sizes, and most of the people in my circle are atheists. That isn't a problem at all, there is however a small but outspoken minority of these atheists who are very harsh when speaking of God and of religion. "God is a fairytale, like Santa" "Religion is delusion" "God is imaginary and prevents people from thinking freely" (etc etc etc, the usual, y'know.) are not uncommon sentiments.
I know, rationally, that I should not feel sorry for my faith. But the fear of being judged or looked down upon or condescended to in any way, even by one person, is very much still an issue.
Thank you, may God bless you all.

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I get the impression people respect me because of my faith.

You can ask how they are certain God doesn't exist. When they claim evolution, ask them about origin.....man came from apes, apes came from etc....eventually they will say they believe that some rocks turned into what we see today (great great great grandpa was a rock).

"Freely thinking" is a subjective view. In the Romans point of view, they "freely thought" more than the Aztecs. In the Aztecs point of view, they "freely thought" more than the Mayans.

The point is, in each of these "freely thinking societies", they don't remove "God"...they just substitute it with ANOTHER God. You cannot remove "God"...you can only substitute.

Matthew 6:24:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

opova said:

Well, I speak about it relatively openly in real life. What I've found is that most of the stuff people say online, they wouldn't say to your face in a million years. I think the internet desensitizes people to a degree, and makes them think less about what they're saying.
You're definitely right about the comfortable silence.. I generally don't bring it up unless it's relevant to a conversation (i wear a gold cross at all times, I don't know if people notice/think about it though) so people may say stuff in my presence not knowing I'm part of the group they're talking about. That's usually when I bring it up People are just miles more agreeable face-to-face than they are on the net.

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You only need to pity them. John 12:35 says the one who walks in darkness doesn't know where he is going. This is how Jesus felt in Matthew 9:36.

opova said:

So, this isn't so much a problem in real life as it is online... I'm an illustrator, and I have a platform on an art-oriented social media site. I often make status posts giving my thoughts on things or just talking about my day, the usual. But my faith has been on my mind a lot more, and I get the urge to speak about it openly. And my wording when talking about it could be almost considered whimsical, it's so inspiring to me that I talk in a way I never do otherwise.
So, artists come in all shapes and sizes, and most of the people in my circle are atheists. That isn't a problem at all, there is however a small but outspoken minority of these atheists who are very harsh when speaking of God and of religion. "God is a fairytale, like Santa" "Religion is delusion" "God is imaginary and prevents people from thinking freely" (etc etc etc, the usual, y'know.) are not uncommon sentiments.
I know, rationally, that I should not feel sorry for my faith. But the fear of being judged or looked down upon or condescended to in any way, even by one person, is very much still an issue.
Thank you, may God bless you all.

Click to expand...

You should never be afraid to be who you are! I know in this world there is a lot of hate, but i think that it is about looking at it with a balanced view.you can't change other people, like other people can't change you. Mutual respect and knowing not to cross other peoples lines is the key.

Often this sort of thing becomes a power battle where people loose their minds in the name of the ego instead of love and respect for one another.

Often we don't think rationally when we believe something, the heart has a life of it's own and we want to be right, and we want everyone else to have the same view as us, but is that really fair?? If we want other people to be like us, how is that giving people the right to choose freely?

I am not a fan of preaching to others because i feel everyone has a right to be who they are, but that does not mean we should hide who we are either or not have conversations about what we believe in, but sometimes i just feel it is a matter of stepping aside, laying down our ego, and understand when to fight and when not to, when to be the bigger people and turn the other cheek. Knowing that not all will respect our view, like we don't respect their view either, and feeling when to speak and when not to, and that is a very, very, very thin line.

Find people who have the same views as you, that is my advice. Don't talk to the people who have harsh views on faith, it will not lead anywhere other than a battle of power. Find people where you are not afraid to speak what's in your heart and where you can support and respect each other.

opova said:

That's a fantastic angle, I've never considered it. I would love to be able to challenge somebodies perspective or make them just a little more open going forward. Your ability to remain so light and positive is very uplifting.

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I pray that you are far more positive and uplifting than I am.

opova said:

most of the people in my circle are atheists. That isn't a problem at all, there is however a small but outspoken minority of these atheists who are very harsh when speaking of God and of religion.

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May I suggest that you create another online identity for yourself. Use a different throwawy email account use a different computer, make it totaly separate from your work account.

This is simple so if an online troll trashes this account your work site isn't affected.

Then you can experiment with Christian art, articles etc.
Look up the wintery knight site and check out why he uses an alias.
check out sites like reasonablefaith for logical arguments and adam4d.com for cartoons.