A thread to my life-long atheist friends:

When I was a true believer, it all made sense to me. Theology was my kung fu, and my kung fu was strong. I studied Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin. I read the Bible cover to cover 23 times. I had memorized 18 complete books. 1/

Theology was my math. It was how I made sense of the world around me and life as it happened. I was thoroughly educated. I am intelligent. I loved to debate theology. I loved teaching and preaching. My faith was both a thinking and feeling reality. 2/

The caricatures that are created to depict evangelicals are just that - caricatures. They are oversimplifications and rarely match reality. They are not dumb. They are indoctrinated. And when you’re IN, it all makes sense. 3/

If I were still in, I would not only be justifying this virus as God’s plan, I would be worshiping him for it. I would have been extolling his praise because of it. That’s how deep my indoctrination was. The Christian suffering fetish is real. 4/

I know if you have never been a part of it, it’s difficult to understand and easy to malign. But please, have a heart for those who’s entire worldview has been carefully crafted to keep them in the cycle, and deeply engrained in them. 5/end.