Mondays are reserved for letters from students and other young people – some scholars, some not -- and I say again, since people keep asking me, that the letters are all real.

Question:

I am a Witch and I follow the Wiccan path.  It always amazes me when I read sites like yours.  You Christians pretend that your religion is correct.  You show your intolerance for others by attacking other religions.  You cannot conceive that people would be happy without your Jesus.  You feel that unless people convert to your religion they are quite unhappy.  Happiness is only what people make it to be not how some religion dictates.  Spiritually Blind?  I think not.  That is just your perception from your twisted views.  And now that I have said that, I will tell you a little about myself.  I used to be a Christian.  I was a good Christian.  I went to Sunday school and everything.  But emptiness is what I felt.  Deep dark emptiness.  I could not even understand "Why?"  I am now a Witch.  I enjoy it very much.  I am no longer sad or lonely.  I have a clear purpose and I am free.  Please write back.

Reply:

I appreciate your letter, but I think you misunderstand what Christianity is about.  You see, your words are all about how much happier you are now than you used to be.  I take your former unhappiness seriously, and I'm sorry that you never got to the bottom of it.  However, Christians worship Christ because we believe He is the Way, the Life, and the Truth, not because He always makes us happy in this life.  It is certainly possible to delight in what is false and to sorrow in what is true; that is why false religions exist.

The other issue in your dispatch is condemnation.  I think this is a red herring.  If you really believed it were wrong to condemn another person's religion, you wouldn't have written a letter in condemnation of mine.  God is always to be praised; that which leads us away from God is always to be rejected; and the human beings whom God has made are always to be loved, as I, in His name, love you.