The Atheist Who Went to Church

Curious and open to Christianity, Hemant Mehta became the "eBay atheist" when he posted his soul on eBay and began accepting bids to visit churches and then share his thoughts. Some 30 church services later, he's still an atheist. He tells us why, what he does believe in and what Christians should consider when talking to someone with different beliefs.
by Heather Johnson
from Outreach Magazine, March/April 2007

Below are two of the questions and Hemehta's responses:
HJ: Hemant, you're still an atheist, but you say you've learned some things through this experience. And you've wanted others—Christians and non-Christians—to join you as you went through the process of exploring Christianity and its churches. So, what do you hope Christians learn from your observations?
HM: Clearly, most churches have aligned themselves against non-religious people. By adopting this stance, Christians have turned off the people I would think they want to connect with. The combative stance I've observed is an approach that causes people to become apathetic—and even antagonistic—toward religion as a whole. Many evangelical pastors seem to perceive just about everything to be a threat against Christianity. Evolution is a threat. Gay marriage is a threat. A swear word uttered accidentally on television is a threat. Democrats are a threat. I don't see how any of these things pose a threat against Christianity. If someone disagrees with you about politics or social issues or the matter of origins, isn't that just democracy and free speech in action? Why do Christians feel so threatened?
You need to spread the message of Christianity—the message being what Christianity stands for—loving each other, helping the people around you. Those are things everyone can get on board with.
Also, atheists … we're not non-believers. We do believe in a lot of things, but they come from other experiences and other encounters, not necessarily a book.
HJ: What would Christians have to do to change how atheists view them?
HM: Well, for instance, a lady e-mailed me and she said a group of people from her church wanted to do something nice over the weekend. They contacted the mayor of the town and asked if he knew any service projects that they could do. He told them there was an older couple—the guy is a war veteran—and their house needs remodeling. And so they did this kind of extreme home makeover thing. They pitched in, sent the couple away for a weekend to a hotel or something. And they didn't get just church people involved, they invited friends and the couples' neighbors.
So the couple returns and sees what these people have done for them and their house, and they are just overjoyed.
That sort of thing can change views. It had nothing to do with "we're Christians doing this." It was just a group of people doing the Christian thing, just helping these people.
The woman even said they had no idea what the faith of some of the people helping were, what church they attended or if they even attended a church. But the whole point was to do something nice while all these people were together.
And that is the type of thing that is hard to argue with. If that is what your Christianity can do, wonderful! And I can't think of any atheist who would be against that sort of a thing.

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