How to help atheist friend become christian.... Please, Please, Please HELP!!?

Question

I am in High school, an I went to church last week, and the sermon was on witnessing to other people, and how we pass-up so many people who need/want to fing God. My friend is strictly atheist, gets amde fun of a lot, and in the 6th grade I was one of the many making fun by singing bible songs to her, and she got really mad. I ended up saying sorry, and we're friends now. Were both in 10th grade now, and I'm afraid that if I try to convert her to Jesus, then she will get really angry and not be friends anymore...I need help with words or whatever to convince her.... I do not want to meke her mad, but I want to help her.

Answer 1

That's a real good heart in you Jesse, I am proud of you for that. You are a good friend. The most powerful thing you can do (the first thing you should do) is ask God to soften her heart. I think that if you allow God to open her heart, and to give you an opportunity to share in a loving way, your words will go a lot further with her and she won't be as likely to get mad at you. It's just really important that you stick with praying for her, and not lose track with your desire for her to get saved. If you are persistant in prayer and wanting to share Jesus with her, you'll get your opportunity. But it may be that the Lord could send other people along to "sow seeds" of truth into her, and that is a good thing to pray for, too. Just ask Him to send His Holy Spirit to talk to her when she is alone, and for Him to draw her to Himself.

Answer 2

I unquestionably have unquestionably considered this comparable ingredient ensue to 2 human beings I went to college with. i think of that's probable the considered doing something as loopy as acid made him re-evaluate his place in life. For some reason, human beings think of that the significant to a greater powerful life is thru god. i'm particular he remains a severe philosopher and fairly rational, yet there is often the possibility he's conforming into what he believes he's meant to be. I doubt he remains tripping. And the adult males I went to college with that had a transformation of religion are the two nevertheless non secular, nevertheless not as much as they was once.

Answer 3

Don't you understand that this is as unhelpful as singing those songs to her and harassing her in sixth grade?

I'm glad you grew out of that and apologized. Now grow up a little further. Defend her to the people who insult, harass, and make fun of her. Comfort her when her feelings are hurt. Understand that trying to make her conform won't solve any problems, and will make the bullies think they were right all along. (If she were being harassed for being fat, losing weight would help her, but the people who harassed her for being fat would still be bullies, right?) Love her for her, and not what she might become if she does what you want. *That* will help.

Right now, she probably associates Christianity with harassment and hidden agendas. She won't listen. And she'll be right to get angry.

Answer 4

You're not her friend if you try to do that to her. Why would you want to contaminate a rational mind with the myths, superstitions, fairy tales and fantastical delusions of a tribe of ignorant Bronze Age fishermen and peripatetic goat herders? You would be much better off listening to what SHE has to say, and rid yourself of the delusions that have contaminated your mind.

If you're worried about her moral character, or some such, you might want to think about THIS a little bit, and ask yourself whether yu might not be on the wrong side of this issue. Christians make up about 75% of the US population and 75% of the US prison population. No big surprise there.

Atheists, on the other hand, make up about 10% of the US population... but they only make up 0.2% of the US prison population. Now, isn't THAT a surprise? That means that atheists are FIFTY (50) times LESS LIKELY to be incarcerated than Christians. Pretty strange, huh, for a group that has no god-given guiding moral principals?

I can think of only two possibilities that might reasonably be said to account for this disparity:

1. Atheists are of a higher ethical and moral caliber than Christians, and thus are less prone to do the same kinds of nasty things that land so many Christians in the slammer; OR,

2. Atheists are, overall, a lot smarter than Christians and thus, they are less likely to get caught in the course of their transgressions.

It's GOT to be one or the other... take your pick.

Answer 5

I understand that you believe that you have the answers and are simply trying to do what you feel is right, but did you ever stop to think that your friend has the same right to her beliefs as you do? Does your friend try to make you an Atheist? I have a feeling, no. Try to have a bit more compassion for other people who do not share the same views as you, they're usually the most interesting!

Answer 6

Start by accepting her as she is. You can witness to her without saying a word, by living what you believe, and by loving her for who she is. If her heart isn't open to your message, nothing you say will convert her, but if you try to force it on her, it will only cause her to close it even more. When she is ready to hear your message, she will let you know.

Answer 7

Whatever makes you think that you're helping her by nagging her so she converts? You're being too arrogant if you've decided what helps and what doesn't! Leave her alone, or I'll tell her to "help" you set free from religions. You know from HER point of view, it's you who needs help, and yet she's not being obnoxious.

Answer 8

Nearly impossible I agree with answer 1. If you really are a Christian pray for them then.

Answer 9

Show her that Christians can be just as understanding and tolerant and forgiving as atheist are. What a minute, a tolerant christian? No, just go back to doing what all good Christians do and just be glad knowing that you're better than her. On the other hand maybe you might want to speak to her about converting to atheism. The only difference between you and her is that she believes in one less god than you do.

Answer 10

Don't preach, don't convert, don't think of your friend as an atheist and you as a christian. Just be ordinary and love the other person and don't think you have ANYTHING to give her. See her as YOU and without any need for her to change or be different. Don't TRY to do this to teach her by what u are. Just forget about the whole need to convert and witness. And you WILL witness once you do that (it's ironic).

Answer 11

Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority, according to new U of M study
What: U of M study reveals America’s distrust of atheism
Who: Penny Edgell, associate professor of sociology
Contact: Nina Shepherd, sociology media relations, [phone]
Mark Cassutt University News Service, [phone]

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (3/28/2006) -- American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity doesn’t extend to those who don’t believe in a god, according to a national survey by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s department of sociology.

From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing their vision of American society.” Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.

Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.

Edgell also argues that today’s atheists play the role that Catholics, Jews and communists have played in the past—they offer a symbolic moral boundary to membership in American society. “It seems most Americans believe that diversity is fine, as long as every one shares a common ‘core’ of values that make them trustworthy—and in America, that ‘core’ has historically been religious,” says Edgell. Many of the study’s respondents associated atheism with an array of moral indiscretions ranging from criminal behavior to rampant materialism and cultural elitism.

Edgell believes a fear of moral decline and resulting social disorder is behind the findings. “Americans believe they share more than rules and procedures with their fellow citizens—they share an understanding of right and wrong,” she said. “Our findings seem to rest on a view of atheists as self-interested individuals who are not concerned with the common good.”

The researchers also found acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity, but also to one’s exposure to diversity, education and political orientation—with more educated, East and West Coast Americans more accepting of atheists than their Midwestern counterparts.

The study is co-authored by assistant professor Joseph Gerteis and associate professor Doug Hartmann. It’s the first in a series of national studies conducted the American Mosaic Project, a three-year project funded by the Minneapolis-based David Edelstein Family Foundation that looks at race, religion and cultural diversity in the contemporary United States. The study will appear in the April issue of the American Sociological Review.