I know a few people that became new christians in the past couple of years. They seem to lose a lot of their personality and adapt to a "generic" christian thought process. I am happy for them beacuse they are/ claim to be happier now. I do miss the people they were though. Has this happened to anyone else?
2006-09-04 22:03:12 · 22 answers · asked by bad_karma_kayla 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
pod people mostly, although I can pretty much tempt them to sin if I set myself to it...hahah
I think most people who grew up with a religion but were allowed to question it end up sticking to it, while those who were never allowed to question the foundations of their beliefs end up seeking solace among people who offer any alternative. A need to belong and be a part of something is what motivated many of those I know who decided to be Christians of the "born again" variety.
Edit: My apologies to the non-rabid Christians who answered this question. My beef is only with those who judge and sermon me while I'm trying to mind my own business...
The pod people I referred are the ones who feel they have to comment on a lifestyle that works perfectly for me. I've heard the message and ignored it but that never seems to work with those types.
2006-09-04 22:12:53 · answer #1 · answered by spindoccc 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Once you become a true Christian, yes a certain transformation within you does take place. Yet at the same time, if you are encountering someone "so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good" we have a problem. God isn't like that. Jesus wasn't like that. God doesn't want us to turn into some kind of robots with a "generic" christian thought process. In the New Testament, Jesus was called the "friend of sinners" because He hung out with those common folks--the rejects of the society. The tax collectors, the prostitutes. He came to show us that hey, you don't have to become some 'super spiritual, super holy' to follow God. That we can be normal human beings with friends and acquaintances from all walks and religions of life and love them as God loves them.
Also, bear in mind that when someone first becomes a born-again Christian, they are like babies in the faith and don't always know how to conduct themselves so yes, sometimes they do go overboard and will try to cut off ties with old friends and people but if they continue to follow God, quite soon they realize that hey, this is backwards. God does want me to love my neighbor (that being in the broad sense, anyone really) as myself and slowly they will start hanging out and loving their old friends like before. Once again, remember that I am talking about a TRUE CHRISTIAN here not someone who was "born-again" and now think they are better than others because people like that do not know God or Jesus. I don't say that, the Bible does.
Hope this helps.
2006-09-04 22:14:23 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I know what you mean. My brother has been a re-born Christian for about ten years or more now, and before he was funny and had a way of making you laugh with most of his antics.
It really did cause a wedge between us at first because he was so serious about everything,and you couldn't talk with him without getting a sermon.
At one point he even told me that I was not giving my all to God and Christ, and always giving me suggestions on my belief and Faith.
I missed my brother, and at times had asked him "Where did that person go?"
I think now that we both understand the fundamentals of Grace and Salvation, he has relaxed a little, I see more of my big brother more and more.
I don't know if it is a Generic way of thinking, but a Belief and understanding that all Christians have, according to the teachings of Doctrine.
Anyhow, he has gained back a lot of his personality and realizes that it is OK to joke around and have some fun with his little Sis, and God will not punish him for it.
2006-09-04 22:21:03 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm a Christian and I haven't lost my personality. That could also be because I'm not as good a Christian as I could be, but I'm still the same me I always was. But yeah, a lot of people may seem more dull than before. I don't really hang out with a lot of church people because they seem pretty different from me.
2006-09-04 22:12:06 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I Agree with smoothsophie. What's wrong with stop drinking, stop smoking, stop cursing, stop stay wake clubbing till morning. It's all sound like a good life, no wonder they all say they have happy life.
If all that they change is a bad habits, I'm happy for them. If they can help quit their bad habit, and start to develop a good habit. What's the problem?
I doubt they are change the personality. and it is sound not like a brain washing to me.
2006-09-04 22:14:21 · answer #5 · answered by Yoseph A 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
darlene has a good example. I think when people first start in it, they're trying so hard to follow this and share it with others, like they've been told to do, that doing anything else--even just fun things that there's nothing wrong with--seems like a sin, when that time could be spent in prayer, Bible study, witnessing, etc.
2006-09-04 22:34:26 · answer #6 · answered by angk 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's probably because they stop thinking for themselves -- if they ever did. You could make some Buddhist friends. They don't go around telling people of other religions that they'll go to some hell no one has ever seen. They don't invade all their friends with religious spam every week. They don't pretend to know everything. They don't condescend. They have social awareness.
I recommend ditching the vast majority of your Christian friends because they'll always try to force you to think within the small box that makes them feel like they understand everything. I've tried having Christian friends over and over. Some of them are the nicest people I've ever met. But most of them are absolutely terrified of thinking independently because their fear of hell paralyzes their minds. So there's absolutely no way they'll extend that "god-given right" (to think independently) to anyone else. In other words, they apparently think they're wiser than the very "God" who gave people the brains with which to think.
The psychological demise of the Christian mind begins with the passage, "If you believe with your whole heart, mind, and soul, you will be saved." Therefore, Christians try to believe 100% -- not knowing that doubt is merely a healthy aspect of every healthy mind. When they feel doubt, they feel that they might go to hell, so they pretend not to feel the very doubt that every human of intellect does feel. In other words, they're dishonest in an attempt to save themselves even though their own Bible clearly says that liars go to hell. But they can't lie to any god that might exist; that's what they, in their pretension, fail to realize.
If you try to have Christian friends, you will quickly grow weary of the majority of them because they have no respect for any other points of view (though some others are amazingly good people who, as did Jesus, avoid condemning non-believers -- Jesus only condemned the overly religious who thought themselves better than everyone else). Their conceited belief that all nonbelievers will burn in a lake of fire generally causes them to harass everyone around them. Their Bible even says to save some by fear and trembling thereby rescuing them from the lake of fire. Saving people by making them live in fear? What is that? No wonder so many Christians now believe that hell is the life here on Earth. But I don't want to be forced to live in a hell just to try to avoid, by dishonest pretension, some imaginary hell that doesn't even exist if "God" is even relatively perfect!
Christians, please don't send me any messages in response to this! I'm tired of all the spam and unoriginal rhetoric -- no messages at all please. Your own Bible says, "God is love" -- not hatred. So stop all the hating! Stop telling people they're going to burn! Stop condescending to people! Why should your mommy and daddy have been right and everyone else's wrong? There's no reason! There is no reason that you should have been born into the truth and everyone else into a lie! If you actually care about the truth, consider the words of your Savior, that he came to turn you against your own mother and father -- meaning that you are expected to seek out the truth with an independent mind rather than to blindly follow what you've been taught, and that you will not be condemned for doing so! Focus on that assurance. "God is love." Focus on that, and stop the harassment. Then we can all live together, and you will once again have the personality that "God gave you."
2006-09-04 23:03:33 · answer #7 · answered by Jim_Bob_Waye 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe non-Christians were just looking for the trash in people's lives that Christ took out, and since the trash was no longer there, non-Christians didn't know what to think. I hardly think that my own conversion experience made me "generic." Check out the links below and decide for yourself
2006-09-04 22:10:12 · answer #8 · answered by Pastor Chad from JesusFreak.com 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The bible says after we accept Jesus that he send his Holy spirit into us and that changes us towards Gods thought instead of old thoughts that lead to sin. its not a generic copy, its a life that has been changed by God through his spirit and giving them Joy and eternal life, the things that they used to are foolishness now that they have tasted the heavenly spirit of Christ and becoming born again! Hurry while there is still time
2006-09-04 22:07:17 · answer #9 · answered by bungyow 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Maybe they changed their personality because the "old" them sinned a lot. Maybe the stopped going out to the bar, drinking, smoking, cursing, whatever else they were doing that was "sinful" They probably changed habits more than personality.
2006-09-04 22:06:25 · answer #10 · answered by smoothsophie 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋