On soft-pedaling Christianity

An honest, thought-provoking post from Veronica Mitchell. I'm not familiar with the particular issue she discusses in this post, but the point she makes here applies to all evangelization efforts:

I understand wanting to tell new converts that they don’t need to give up one identity for another. It sounds so compassionate.

But the truth is more stark than that. Choices are not quite so rosy. When you are raised in one religion, choosing to convert to another involves all kinds of loss: a loss of culture, of friendships, of dozens of family traditions. Christian converts make that choice not because they convince themselves that they aren’t really losing anything; they make that choice because they believe Jesus is worth the loss.

Either Jesus is worth the loss or he isn’t. Soft-pedaling that choice does not make it go away.

This really resonates with me. When I was an atheist at a very religious university, people would sometimes try to evangelize by telling me that I wouldn't have to change anything, that being a Christian was all fun and games, so to speak. Not only was that message inaccurate, but it was not compelling.