Questions

a quote from losingmyreligion.com:

"...I struggled to see any cause/effect relationship between my actions of faith and the actual events unfolding all around me and other believers."

Me too.

Are Christians as a group really any different from anyone else? Within a group of Christians, you have all the kinds of people that you can find anywhere else. Christians have the same struggles as everyone else... some Christians do really well at overcoming those problems, some Christians don't. Same as everyone else.

But our Gospel teaches that those who become Christians are new creations... and are happier, more peaceful, more successful in life than everyone else. This is even held up as evidence of Christ's existence: transformed lives. We can't see Christ, but look at how different Christians are from everybody else.

I think this kind of belief can create dishonesty for people who really buy in to it- ie. I am told so often of the peace and the joy that I have now that I am a Christian, that I can't really see or acknowledge the ways in which I am not peaceful and happy.