Thinking Christians VS Feeling Christians

 

October 12, 2020

Today, I’ll discuss a concept that I wish I’d figured out when I was still a Christian. It would have saved me a lot of grief, guilt, worry, and honestly probably would have helped me to deconvert sooner.

I didn’t arrive on this concept sooner because as I described here, I stupidly assumed that everyone in my church was on the exact same page. Once I deconverted and was able to objectively look back and analyze my years spent in the Church, I was able to nail down this concept.

Let’s get started.

In general, you can divide Christians into two groups: Thinking Christians and Feeling Christians. Yes, I understand that this is overly simplistic and Christians can be divided in other ways, but those two categories are useful for many reasons.

Here are some characteristics of Feeling Christians:

• They tend to be much more vocal worshippers.
• They tend to excel at outreach.
• They tend to form strong connections and relationships with others.

Here are some characteristics of Thinking Christians:

• They tend to be much more interested in apologetics and hermeneutics (interpretation of Scripture).
• They tend to view evangelism as a strategy rather than a personal connection.
• They tend to ask more questions about their faith, and expect a solid answer from their pastors or mentors.

Problems arise whenever Christians in both groups believe that there is an Ideal Christian who embodies characteristics of both groups. Usually, there is at least one or two people in a church who come close to being an Ideal Christian, further convincing everyone that such an archetype does, in fact, exist.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” and comparison is precisely what then begins to happen.

• A Thinking Christian will see a Feeling Christian bawl his eyes out during a worship song. The Thinking Christian will wonder if he’s doing something wrong because he isn’t responding similarly.
• A Feeling Christian will listen to a Thinking Christian defend their faith using apologetics, history, and Greek translations of the Bible. The Feeling Christian will then feel he is not smart enough because his faith is mostly based on the positive emotions he has when he experiences the Holy Spirit.
• A Thinking Christian will hear a Feeling Christian’s salvation testimony about finding God because of a deep, moving spiritual connection with God, or perhaps he even claims to have heard the audible voice of God. The Thinking Christian will then think he is missing something because he came to accept Jesus based on evidence and logic.
• A Feeling Christian will see a Thinking Christian break down their Bible reading into preplanned, actionable sections to complete the entire Bible in a year. The Feeling Christian will then feel guilty because he isn’t that organized with his own reading. In fact, he prefers to spend his quiet time listening to music and worshipping instead.

Both Thinking Christians and Feeling Christians will continue to approach their faith in the ways that make sense to them while simultaneously making the opposite group feel insufficient, lacking, or “less spiritual.”

I was a solid Thinking Christian. As a result, I struggled to feel meaningful emotions while listening to worship songs. I constantly had to experience my faith in concrete ways. I led my Bible studies by teaching facts, evidence, and history rather than discussing how being a Christian should make you feel.

This comes down to a matter of personality. Everyone is different and responds to things differently. But the Church does not usually acknowledge these differences; it expects sameness and a constant striving toward the impossible Ideal Christian archetype.

When it comes to deconversion, I believe that Thinking Christians are far more likely to eventually leave the faith. Much of the Christian experience is based on the Holy Spirit, which sometimes is just a bit too intangible for a Thinking Christian. He’ll often feel disconnected from God. In addition, he is also more likely to seek out facts, science, and evidence that eventually disprove his beliefs. He is also more likely to consider it important to follow truth wherever it leads him, even if it means admitting his religious beliefs are wrong.

When a Feeling Christian is experiencing doubt, sometimes all it takes is a powerful worship service or a well-timed sermon to ignite a stirring in their heart and end their brief spiritual depression.

Does this mean that Feeling Christians will never deconvert? Of course not. But when they do, it’s often much more tragic and painful. A Thinking Christian will likely consider his years spent in the church as an intellectual failing. A lengthy mistake. A Feeling Christian will experience a broken heart and wonder what all those deep, meaningful spiritual connections really were.

Whichever category you once belonged to, it doesn’t matter now. Rather than being an object of comparison for the other group, we can now come together post-deconversion and help each other heal.