When I joined Christian Forums at an age so young it's not permissible anymore, my mom made the effort to give me a detailed warning of the dangers those who self-identify as Christians pose, and instructed me to never give unguarded, unearned trust to anyone here. She had no experience with CF and was not making an indictment of it or of any specific members, or being derogatory towards Christians; she simply wanted to equip me with ways to protect myself from harm. She does have ample experience with the methods frequently used by those who aim to prey on and exploit others; with socializing with strangers on the internet; and with human nature from having lived for 30+ years longer than I. She used to be an attorney with the FBI and DOJ and often focused on human trafficking and sexual abuse cases. She was aware of the
decades of serious allegations of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse by Southern Baptist leaders years before the crisis became public knowledge, just as she had been about the Catholic sexual abuse scandals. She knows that predators often choose positions that will gain them trust, such as being coaches, teachers, Boy Scout troop leaders, or religious adherents. A wolf masquerading in sheep's clothing poses a significantly higher level of risk than an undisguised wolf. Her warning wasn't exclusively about the insidious potential threat of predators, but maintaining sensible safeguards to my heart and mind from attacks to my faith, to me as a person. She knew what I didn't at the time, that Christians don't always behave as Christ instructed, that adults don't always act with the maturity of their years, that bullying isn't confined to youth and Christians aren't immune from being the perpetrators or the victims of it. I've fended off predators but have not been as successful at shielding my heart. I've actually never been hurt by an atheist or agnostic, on here or in my daily life where I'm surrounded by them on a campus that is predominantly nonreligious, which isn't to say they're not capable of inflicting damage, just that none ever have. But I have most definitely been hurt by other Christians, far more than I could have anticipated even with her warning.
Ironically, I'd logged onto CF with the express intent of making a thread about the teen section, and including in it the importance of giving such cautionary advice to new young members when I got distracted by the thread about atheists being dangerous. It went up during the final week of the summer quarter at my school, so I didn't have the time to actually respond but I did read the article. I got in a workout from shaking my head! I actually thought it was intended to be satirical at first because it feels so hyperbolic, but then I read about the writer and was dismayed to realize it's not. The writer begins with a falsity, that there's no polite way to articulate his grievances with atheists. He sets a belligerent tone that is polar to Colossians 4:6. Instead of letting his speech be gracious, seasoned with salt, to know how to answer everyone, he wrote a salty diatribe maligning all who are atheists. He then proceeds to do precisely what he's accused atheists of - loudly, nastily, unapologetically and in-your-face bullying them, making ignorant statements, and in the process of doing so inciting danger by striving to convince his readers to regard atheists as hostile enemies who pose an existential threat. He shows not one morsel of charity or recognition of their worth as people who, according to his own beliefs, to his own choice of words, were created by God in his image, and as such possess "infinite value and dignity." He deals with none of the problems he lists with compassion, in a loving and sacrificial way, stating that such tactics don't work with bullies. Perhaps he thinks that because he himself is a bully. After berating atheists for what he perceives as their selfishness and amoral egocentricity he ends the article with a plug for his book, making it evident that the true agenda was self-promotion.