Understanding 'Christian Lite'

[Dobermonster]

Probably more so than fundamentalism and 'average' Christians, I find this difficult to understand. My best friend (and to some extent I think my brother as well) fits into what I would call 'Christian Lite'. She will tell you she is a Christian, but doesn't read the Bible, doesn't go to church except occasionally (though has said that she thinks it's important), drinks and does some drugs recreationally, doesn't have any particular sexual restrictions except what is her own preference. From what I can see, Christianity has little to no influence in her life . . . except when we're actually discussing morality. Then it's "Well, as Christian . . . ". Don't get me wrong, I make no judgements on her lifestyle (it's pretty well on par with my own, which is why we get along), and I don't really care. I just don't understand the discrepancy. I've asked her why she considers Christianity to be true, and apparently it goes back to an emotional/spiritual experience she had as a teenager. Wouldn't (and didn't) convince me of it's truth, but to each their own. But why accept it as true, and then pretty well ignore any of its most widely accepted tenets? If I was convinced of it, I'd be pretty damn determined to live my life as Christianly as possible and study its teachings.

My brother probably wouldn't quite describe himself as Christian, but from what we've discussed, he's fairly apathetic about spirituality, heaven and hell, without discounting it completely. If the supernatural and after-life were still a possibility in my mind, then it would be something incredible and significant to be explored and investigated in depth. Apathy following atheism I understand. Apathy while still believing in the spiritual realm seems illogical - at least without serious consideration.

No doubt everyone here knows someone who would fit into this category . . . thoughts?

[Recusant]

In the case of a person who has had a spiritual experience like your friend, it could be that what they experienced was of a nature to lead them to believe that the god which revealed itself to them is benevolent. That is, as long as they didn't do anything really vile, the god would be understanding, and not petty and vindictive. So even if some Christians believe in a petty and vindictive god, the person who had the spiritual experience knows that the Christian god actually isn't that way.

One should not discount the human capacity for rationalization, either. If a person wants to live a certain way, and really doesn't see anything wrong with it, I don't think it's that hard to convince themselves that a truly loving god sees things the same way, no matter what the fire and brimstone crowd say.

[AnimatedDirt]

Probably more so than fundamentalism and 'average' Christians, I find this difficult to understand. My best friend (and to some extent I think my brother as well) fits into what I would call 'Christian Lite'. She will tell you she is a Christian, but doesn't read the Bible, doesn't go to church except occasionally (though has said that she thinks it's important), drinks and does some drugs recreationally, doesn't have any particular sexual restrictions except what is her own preference. From what I can see, Christianity has little to no influence in her life . . . except when we're actually discussing morality. Then it's "Well, as Christian . . . ". Don't get me wrong, I make no judgements on her lifestyle (it's pretty well on par with my own, which is why we get along), and I don't really care. I just don't understand the discrepancy. I've asked her why she considers Christianity to be true, and apparently it goes back to an emotional/spiritual experience she had as a teenager. Wouldn't (and didn't) convince me of it's truth, but to each their own. But why accept it as true, and then pretty well ignore any of its most widely accepted tenets? If I was convinced of it, I'd be pretty damn determined to live my life as Christianly as possible and study its teachings.

My brother probably wouldn't quite describe himself as Christian, but from what we've discussed, he's fairly apathetic about spirituality, heaven and hell, without discounting it completely. If the supernatural and after-life were still a possibility in my mind, then it would be something incredible and significant to be explored and investigated in depth. Apathy following atheism I understand. Apathy while still believing in the spiritual realm seems illogical - at least without serious consideration.

No doubt everyone here knows someone who would fit into this category . . . thoughts?

As I've often stated...most atheists I've met and am friends with make better "Christians" than us Christians.

[Ali]

The "Christian Lite" (lol about the name) types that I've met are usually the ones I understand the best, actually.  One of my dearest friends fits pretty well into this category.  From what I can tell, she really only takes the positive aspects of Christianity (charity, forgiveness, love thy neighbor, stuff like that), and uses that to try to help her be a better person and belong to something bigger than herself.  I think it makes a kind of emotional sense, even if it doesn't totally make rational sense.  I can't understand how someone can look at the more hateful aspects of the bible and think that improves their life or the world in any way, so it's the Fundamentalists that I struggle with. 

[Sweetdeath]

I've met this kind of people time and time again. Either it's the 'jesus said feed the homeless' type of attitude, or the fundie extremists. I haven't really met an in between.
I always figured though; if you want to be a certain way, and go to food pantries, shelters, whatever-- just do it because YOU want to. Who cares about some dude some jesus from a story thousands of years ago. I simply don't get that.

[DeterminedJuliet]

I was probably what you'd classify as "Christian lite" from ages 12ish-20ish. Under 12 I was completely indoctrinated by Catholicism and from 20-22ish I was agnostic before coming to a pretty certain lack of belief. I considered myself a "Christian Humanist" for some time. I liked the idea of using "Jesus" to bridge human subjectivity with "God's" objectivity (ohhh, how I've changed).

For me, I think, the largest issue was just a matter of not really knowing that lack of belief was a real option. It's very prevalent in society that you need to believe in "something". I mentioned here before that my husband was the first self-proclaimed atheist that I ever really got to know. All other atheists, for a long time, seemed to be comprised of militant, angry,  guys (not a fair assessment, but that's what I thought -- not the most appealing demographic to a teenage female.) I think being able to identify with a real person that I actually liked helped a great deal.  

[Sandra Craft]

One should not discount the human capacity for rationalization, either. If a person wants to live a certain way, and really doesn't see anything wrong with it, I don't think it's that hard to convince themselves that a truly loving god sees things the same way, no matter what the fire and brimstone crowd say.

Most of the religious people I know, Xtian and otherwise, fall into this category and I probably would myself had I ever managed to convince myself the supernatural was real.  It seems to me a very natural compromise.