If you know any "Born Again Christians" in what ways have they changed?

I’m not so sure it’s about how much a person changes, as much as it is about the person being forgiven of sin. It’s called grace. The agony of guilt has been relieved.

This will seem odd to a person who doesn’t believe they are a sinner. Odder still to a person who doesn’t carry extra baggage of guilt for anything. But for those who compare themselves to the purported purity of the Lord, previous unseen guilt weighs heavily by comparison, and is too great for the heart to bear. Grace, forgiveness of impurity is seen as a relief, a shedding of old skin so to speak. A rebirth.

How that all manifests in a persons life is an individual result. I’d doubt that many folk do more than become over zealous about The Good News they just received. But for some, it is the beginning of a long journey of accepting imperfection in the eyes of their Lord, and seeking to become less imperfect over time, mainly by expressing the same forgiving grace to others.

Perhaps I’m mistaken.

I have a friend who isn’t a tenth of the prick he was before he found religion.

Everyone I know who has been “born again” seems to be a far worse person than they were before they learned that God doesn’t think anyone else is worth shit but them.

Hi Patton. I’m curious to know where Christianity teaches that “God doesn’t think anyone else is worth shit but them”.

The Bible I read actually demonstrates the opposite. Since Jewish leaders rejected the Christ, the message was shared with the Gentiles. Even what was considered the worst of them, at the time, being prostitutes and tax collectors.

There are teachings that actually suggest God cares more about the lost souls than the supposed saved ones. A parable about the Shepherd, and how he will leave the flock, and risk life just to find the lost one demonstrates that.

The B.A. guy I know can’t make a sentence without bringing “the Lord” into it.
Talking with him has become a tedious act of tolerance on my part.

After the fairly recent death of her husband, my aunt got sucked into a born again church. The biggest problem I’ve seen from it is that they have psychologically torn her down, only to build her up with Christ. This was a woman who had successfully taught students for over 30 years, and had raised two wonderful children who was telling me that she was never very good at leading, or speaking or many other things (but with the grace of god she was going to succeed at them). She wasn’t allowed to take any credit for her successes and hard work in life, but instead had her ego eviscerated with God being the one deserving all praise.

That is a twisted and sick tactic that is commonly employed by emotionally abusive partners to create a sense of dependency in the mind of the abused. It’s also what cult leaders do. I’m not saying all born again churches behave in this way (although it may be possible—I simply don’t have all of the facts), but I can say that this is happening at her church. Oh and they constantly pressure her to donate as much money as possible in addition to the 10% (pre-tax) tithing.

Most BAC’s quit drinking, smoking, and/ or partying and go to church, stay with the family on the weekends, and replace the bars with going to church. Not always a bad thing.

I only ever knew one person who was a BAC. She was my religion teacher in high school. I didn’t have much self confidence then. I’ll always remember her telling us ” Never let anyone shrink your dreams!” She was a person with an immense joie de vivre . Another lesson involved giving people ” warm fuzzies” otherwise known as positive affirmations. She was a wonderful teacher. I don’t know what she was like before she was ” born again” though.

The one annoying thing about a friend of mine who became a hardcore born againer is that he decided to work with teens and he suddenly whipped out decades out of date slang to “relate to the kids”. He used to talk like a normal person and now he talks like it’s 1987 again and he’s a Valley Girl. I remember being a kid, going to church and hearing guys talk like groovy hippie dudes in order to get me to think they were cool and with it.

He also says corny stuff like if you say “How’s it goin’?” He says “Walkin’ in the light, man. Walkin’ in the light.”

What’s up with this? I see nowhere in the bible that says you have to talk like a cornball once you accept Jesus.

@keobooks okily dokily neighboreeno.

Oh I definitely know/knew a few of them. I see one that I used to smoke weed with when I go into a grocery store because he stocks shelves there. We don’t even talk anymore since I called him out on his self-righteous attitude. It just angers me when someone who womanizes and drinks out alot has the audacity to tell me that my weed habit is wrong without looking in the mirror at themselves and their own vices (yes he still does these things). His attitude that he’s saved and I’m not also gets under my skin. He was no angel before being born again, but he’s even a worse person now, and a self-righteous hypocrite on top of that.

@Paradox25 That is really sad and something I hear all too often. Just because a person is saved, or walks a straight path, they are still no better than anyone else, but they/ we often tend to forget that our daily lives and how we live it, is actuallly part of our witnessing to others.

If you called him out on his nasty attitude, good on ya.

@Paradox25 that made me laugh ! Almost as much as @keobooks’ post. LOL

@KNOWITALL The problem is that he’s not walking a straight path, he still sleeps around, drinks alot, curses, and will not hesitate to fight with someone over the most stupidest reasons. What bothers me the most here is the fact that this guy had the audacity to give me a life review and my flaws, but yet there I am making very good money as a maintenance electrician (making like 5 times his wage stocking shelves), I have no criminal record and unlike him I don’t get into trouble, but yet he’s judging me?

@Paradox25 Because a lot of Christians have a very black and white line between good and bad, he probably realizes he messed up and especially since you told him as well. Any time he says anything negative, I’d quote him a bible verse in return, smile and walk away.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I didn’t say it was in the Bible. I said that all of the born again Christians I personally know believe it. They go around telling people their prayers don’t count because they aren’t born again. They shit on everyone who has even slightly different beliefs (especially Catholics). They say everyone who lacks their specific dogma is going to Hell.

It’s extremely effective evangelism. For atheism, that is.

@Patton I’d like to say that most Christians I know submit to God’s primary directive that our goal is to be holy and love our neighbors as ourselves. Also, humans are fallible, me, you, all of us.

Being saved or walking a Christian path is certainly not easy, it’s very easy to fall back into a secular life and forget for a minute, or a few beers that your life belongs to God and his purposes, not your own.

It’s like when you become a parent and your life no longer revolves around your wants and needs, it revolves around your child. And much like that analogy, some Christians fail to recognize that their lives belong to God and not themselves. Anyone is welcome to PM me to discuss further. #falliblechristian

@KNOWITALL Thanks, but I get enough of your self-satisfied pseudo-evangelism from your public postings.