Posted by Helen on: 01.22.2008 /
Amy Black sent me an online interview recently. (You can read all our online interviews here).
The purpose of this interview is to give you the opportunity to listen to Amy as she shares her thoughts and opinions with you. We don’t require Amy to defend what she says or prove she’s correct. We don’t consider doing so ‘part of the interview’.
I’d like to post more online interviews. If you’d like to send one in, you can find the instructions and questions here.
What screen name do you post under — so we know you when we see you?
Amy Black
Would you like to share any of the following so we can know you better: your age range, whether you’re married or single, have children, what kind of work you do, what area of the U.S. (or other country) you live in?
I’m a young adult attending college in the southern United States.
What do you like to do when you have some time to yourself?
Read! Read! Read!
Please share with us something you really enjoy about your life.
My funny, loyal, wise friends.
If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about you or your life, what would it be?
I would want the courage to tell my parents that I’m an atheist.
How did you find Conversation at the Edge (or, the eBay atheist blog) and what drew you to post in the comments section?
I followed a link from someone’s Facebook page.
Is this the first time you’ve participated in any online discussions on the internet? If not, could you share with us what other sorts of online discussions you like to participate in?
I love xanga!
Has posting on Conversation at the Edge (or the eBay atheist blog) changed you in any way?
Um…I just got here, so no not yet!
Were you raised going to church and are you currently a church attender?
Yes and yes.
What is your main reason for choosing to be a church attender/not to be a church attender at present?
I attend church for two reasons:
1) to be with a friend I have a crush on
2) to keep up appearances with my Christian family
Apart from church are there any groups you participate in regularly for faith-based, social and/or self-improvement reasons?
no
Is there anything else (outside work and family) which you devote significant time to? Or used to, or hope to in the future? (We understand that for some of you, work and family takes up almost all your time at present)
It took me all summer to write a book! I devoted a lot of time to that.
Please answer the following questions if your beliefs differ in any significant way from this: “Every human being has a “sin’ problem separating him/her from God and the only way to resolve my own sin problem is to believe that Jesus is God and Jesus took care of it for me”.
Has anyone ever called you “lost”? Have you heard or read anything which tells you that some people talk about you like that behind your back?
If they do, I haven’t heard about it.
How would you/do you feel about being called “lost”?
I roll my eyes. It’s quite an insult and very condescending.
Do you feel “lost” in any way — is there anything you’re trying to find, or is anyone trying to find you, as best you can tell?
I used to, but not so much anymore.
Are you aware of any assumptions people make about “the lost” which don’t apply to you?
The lost are materialistic
The lost dislike Christians
The lost fill their lives with drugs and alcohol as a replacement for God
The lost don’t understand the Bible
The lost feel a void in their lives that can only be filled by God
How do you like to describe yourself regarding what you believe or have no belief in?
I’m an ex-Christian atheist. I considered myself a devout Christian until age 19-ish. It took a little over a year for my faith to erode away until I had none left.
What (else) would you like to tell the people who call you “lost” if you thought they were listening?
Not all who wander are lost.
Do you own a Bible? Do you ever read the Bible or look anything up in it? If so, what is your main reason for doing so?
Yes, I own many Bibles. After de-converting, I didn’t read a Bible for 6 months, but my philosophy teacher suggested I read the Bible like literature instead of a holy book to be taken literally. So I did that a few times and it’s been painless.
As best you know, has anything in the Bible influenced you in a good way (directly or indirectly)?
Learning all about the Bible helps me understand my culture because there are tons of biblical references in US society.
As best you know, has anything in the Bible influenced you in a negative way (directly or indirectly)?
The story of Job. That story is a big part of the reason I won’t have anything to do with the idea of god.
Has anyone expressed disapproval to you about your own personal opinion, or use, of the Bible? What would you like them to understand better about you and the Bible, were it possible?
no, not really.
Is there anything I forgot to ask that you’d like to tell us?
I wrote a book about leaving the Christian faith that’s been helpful both to Christians and ex-Christians. It’s called “Breaking Up With Jesus” and it’s free to download here.
Comment by: benjamin ady
1 01/22/08 8:20 AM | Comment Link |Amy,
Thank you for sharing. I find it delightful that you are attending church because you have a crush on someone who attends there. I hope that relationship works out for you!
That’s crazy awesome that you wrote a whole book and are giving it away. I just started reading it–first couple pages–and it looks very readable. I’m planning to finish it. And thank you for the intro to lulu.com as well. Looks like a great site.
Comment by: Craig
2 01/22/08 8:37 AM | Comment Link |Amy,
Thanks so much for sharing this with all of us! I find it interesting how the story of Job was key in your separation from christianity. I’d love to hear more about that.
Comment by: cipher
3 01/22/08 1:08 PM | Comment Link |Amy,
Wonderful book. I’ve heard the Assembly of God is pretty hard-core. You have a great deal of courage. It’s wonderful that you’re able to share your experiences so articulately with others who can benefit from your experiences.
Loved the bit about “all those years I screamed at the devil I could have just been using duct tape!” And those Christian films - no sin the average person could commit could possibly be as grievous as the sin of producing films that bad!
Good luck to you.
Comment by: pamhogeweide
4 01/22/08 1:21 PM | Comment Link |thanks amy for letting us know more about you. I love the title of your book, Breaking up with Jesus. Very catchy.
Comment by: Peter Walker
5 01/22/08 4:39 PM | Comment Link |Amy,
Thank you for your transparancy here. I left the Assemblies of God about three years ago now. Jesus and I are in a serious relationship, but that wasn’t until after I broke up with “Buddy Jesus.” We weren’t being honest with each other. And he had a horrible band on K-Love radio. I got tired of going to his gigs and pretending to dig it.
Comment by: karen
6 01/22/08 5:38 PM | Comment Link |I love that.
Congratulations on your book, Amy! What a wonderful accomplishment. I’ll check it out. :-)
Comment by: Amy Black
7 01/23/08 6:34 PM | Comment Link |LOL- good ole K-LOVE. I used to listen to it all the time. If I hear Shout to the lord one more time, I might just go into a seizure!
Comment by: Amy Black
8 01/23/08 6:38 PM | Comment Link |benjamin,
thanks for the well-wishes, but that relationship didn’t work out! I really didn’t like his church and I got the feeling that he didn’t want me to be an atheist, so it wasn’t going anywhere.
Comment by: Amy Black
9 01/23/08 6:44 PM | Comment Link |Craig, (I’ve always like the name Craig)
The more I heard the story of Job over and over it just seemed like God and satan playing games with a human being. It seemed sick to me, like “Let’s push him as hard as we can and see if he kills himself!”
The last sermon I ever heard on Job presented it like “God is God and he can do whatever he wants without giving us a good reason.” After church that day, I realized I wanted nothing to do with the Christian god ever again. It was the last straw for me, so to speak.
Comment by: Amy Black
10 01/23/08 6:48 PM | Comment Link |cipher-
Yep, the A/G is almost as hard core as independant baptists. I was once told by an A/G pastor that I should never go to movie theaters.
Comment by: benjamin ady
11 01/23/08 9:16 PM | Comment Link |Exactly
And Karen–I love the “Not all who wander are lost” too. It’s from Tolkien actually. Here’s the whole quote:
It’s about Strider/Aragorn =)
Comment by: Amy Black
12 01/24/08 9:27 AM | Comment Link |benjamin,
Thanks for including the whole quote! That’s really beautiful.
Comment by: karen
13 01/24/08 12:26 PM | Comment Link |Ah-ha! I thought that sounded familiar. Thanks for writing it out, takes me back to my Tolkien-obsessed days. The fun thing is that I got to go through Tolkien twice, once in high school/college by myself and then once with my kids as we read or listened to the books on tape and then saw the movies a few years back.
Good times. :-) Didja hear that Jackson has been greenlighted to do The Hobbit now?