3 Ways Christians Avoid Responsibility

February 15, 2021

Fundamentalist Christians are masters at avoiding responsibility.

I began picking up on this when I was still a Christian, and then it became abundantly clear after I left the Church.

Here are 3 ways that Christians use their religion and faith as ways to avoid responsibility.

1. Christians don’t live their own lives.

When I was a Christian, I fell into a pattern of thought and action that most other Christians also fall into—operating as if God was a magical genie who was there to grant wishes and control and guide my life. I called this “God’s will” or “God’s plan.”

As I grew older and I began asking more and better questions, I began to analyze the fine line that existed between personal responsibility and trusting God.

On one hand, I was told that God had everything under control. Not only that, he’d pre-planned every day of my life since I was born, and all of it was to be in accordance to what would bring him the most glory (both good things that happened to me and bad things).

But on the other hand, I began to notice that the things I prayed for were actually things that I had direct control over.

• When I prayed to meet a godly woman, I realized that I could just go out, meet one, and ask her out.
• When I prayed for health, I realized I could eat better and hit the gym a couple times a week.
• When I prayed for money, I realized I could do some extra shifts or get a second job anytime I wanted.

It began to seem more and more that the things I wanted and needed I could provide for myself without ever having to say a prayer for them.

Even when I was a Christian I realized that the whole prayer situation was simply a justification for laziness. Many other people who’ve left the faith have recognized this as well. When you mentioned you had a problem and your friend only said he’d pray for you, it’s useless, passive, lazy, and worst of all, unhelpful and ineffective.

When I first had that thought, I admonished myself, of course. That had to be my pride speaking. Living in such a way would be me relying on my own strength, and that was bad!

Further, I’d even been told that leaning on my own strength prompted God to throw problems in my path as a way to humble me and return my focus on him. In such an instance, I was supposed to thank him for my problems and rededicate my life—with much less pride this time.

It’s no wonder most Deconverted Men feel they are behind in life after they leave religion. When you’re constantly waiting for God to advance your life forward, it’s actually a miracle if you get anywhere at all.

2. They blame sin for bad things that happen.

Another way Christians avoid responsibility is to blame bad things that happen on sin.

I attended a private Christian high school in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina struck. After we all returned to school, my math teacher told the class that the hurricane had hit New Orleans because of all the “sin” that happened in the city, and was therefore God’s judgment.

I was a Christian at the time, so I didn’t wrestle with the idea too much. The comment has obviously stuck with me, though. Years later after I deconstructed I looked back on that moment with appalling disgust.

Only a Christian could suggest that a natural disaster that killed many people and destroyed an entire city was due to too many people sinning too much in the same relatively small geographic area. But I guess when you have stories like Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible that you believe are literally true, it paves the way for this kind of atrocious thinking.

3. They use the “not all Christians” excuse.

When bad stuff happens, particularly if it’s something that makes Christians look bad, out comes the age old excuse:

“They’re not real Christians!”

We’ve all heard this so many times that it makes us sick.

This reasoning demonstrates just how fractured the entire Christian religion really is. It makes one Christian’s personal opinion and convictions the standard that all others Christians are supposed to live by. When they don’t, they’re dismissed outright by saying they aren’t real Christians, implying they’ll end up in hell.

Christians don’t realize that if enough people say, “they’re not real Christians” enough times, then it ultimately adds up to no one being a real Christian.

What other methods have you noticed Christians using to avoid responsibility? Let me know in the comments!