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Sunday, July 21, 2013

The Apostasy Of Matt Slick's Daughter

I saw Brian Auten link to an article on the subject. The article is by Glenn Peoples. He makes some good points, and I won't repeat all of them here, but I do want to quote one paragraph. First, though, let me quote what he's responding to from Matt Slick's daughter, Rachael Slick:

For a long time I couldn’t have sex with my boyfriend (of over a year by this point) without crippling guilt. I had anxiety that I was going to Hell. I felt like I was standing upon glass, and, though I knew it was safe, every time I glanced down I saw death.

And here's Glenn Peoples' response:

But over time – thanks to the deconversion, that changed. It’s telling that she chose to draw attention to this. Numerous times I have seen people turn away from the faith, not because they became aware of new intellectual reasons to reject it, but because the appeal of remaining in the faith became dulled by the drive to live a life that was not compatible with it (and that number includes “apologists” for atheism). You see something, you want it. But you have this belief that you shouldn’t do it. So, as is human nature, you rationalise. You re-create the world of truth around you and what you want. “Maybe this Christianity thing isn’t true after all…” What changed? The evidence? Nope. The arguments are as good as ever. Your will is what has changed. This is confirmed by the celebratory comment that “Freedom is my God now.” No doubt, and that is what you were pursuing. Christianity hindered you, so bye bye Christianity. As was shown in the study Losing my Religion, and as I commented in a recent podcast about why some reject Christianity, there is a correlation between having sex outside of marriage and giving up one’s religion (usually Christian, in the American context in which the study was carried out). Other factors that correlate with abandoning the faith include drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders and get this – lacking a higher education. But that’s another matter, and of course does not answer questions about the truth or otherwise of atheistic or religious claims. It also makes sense that the time when a young person leaves their parents’ home and out into an environment where a smorgasbord of choices are now available to them is the most likely time that they will walk away. The comments thread at the blog where this story is told is full of the usual and can be paraphrased thus: “Oh, you taught her to THINK? Big mistake Dad, of course she was going to walk away!” Not even close to the mark. It was not critical thinking that sunk this faith. It was desire, as it so often is. The intellectual reason offered is absolutely flimsy, and certainly not offered an intellectually respectable presentation.

7 comments:

  1. I think he's spot on. That statement by Rachel jumped out at me too. Though there were some other things in her story that indicate other issues going on behind the scenes.

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  2. "Deconversion" is such a silly and misleading word.

    "I left Christ because I wanted to sin."

    1 John 2:19 comes to mind.

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    1. "I left Christ because I wanted to sin."

      Exactly.

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  3. On the Patheos.com atheism section, there is a "testimonial" article about her "deconversion".
    One Eastern Orthodox commenter used that "deconversion testimonial" article as a means to bash Calvinism and Sola Scriptura.

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  4. Heck, think of John Loftus...this guy was not only cheating on his wife but having sex with a co worker.

    Moreover, he continued to preach when he no longer believed, so he is a liar as well.

    How can be believe what he says about being a Christian or his real reasons for "deconverting"?

    And worse, he goes on to trash the women he dumped in his book!

















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  5. Thanks for highlighting this important aspect, Jason.

    It's (sadly) quite common for former Christians to abandon Christ for sex.

    Rachael Slick makes so much of her freedom and liberty now. How "breathtakingly beautiful" she finds her "freedom."

    But how free is freedom? It seems to me it's far easier to sin than to stay faithful. It's far easier to give into temptation and enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin than to daily struggle against sin.

    For example, there are many fine pious Christians who have been celibate all their lives. Some out of choice, others because they never had a choice, and so forth. At any rate, I can't imagine it's easy to remain celibate for a guy and, at least from what I've read, for a girl either. But they do so because they love God and trust his word.

    Unlike Rachael. Instead, Rachael says, "Freedom is my God now, and I love this one a thousand times more than I ever loved the last one." By her own admission, she loves doing her will more than she loves God's will. As C.S. Lewis once said, "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'"

    At the risk of sounding cliche and perhaps oversimplifying the matter, true freedom is not the freedom to do whatever we want, but the freedom to do whatever is right and good.

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  6. Morrison, I was reminded of the exact same thing. I remember reading Steve say the following in his post about John Loftus's affair, (the post was "My Life as a Former Sex Slave": Why He Changed His Mind, from October 11, 2006), and his words were, "And, indeed, the real reason for apostasy is often emotional or sexual."

    Assuming Rachael's account is accurate (and unfortunately, much of it rings true for me- personal experience of mine resonates with her account, and her revealing she asked her dad to arrange her marriage as opposed to depicting it in more villainous terms like saying Matt asserted control over her decision lends more credibility to her account), then it doesn't surprise me she is embracing her new god "Freedom". However, she knows as well as anyone that premarital sex is wrong, but is still foolishly rocketing towards her own personal self-destruction if she continues to ignore that conscience.

    That being said, I don't think Matt Slick is responsible for her being an unbeliever, but apostasy is a different matter. Unbelievers can still remain ethical if ethical behaviors weren't taught to them in the most unpleasant way possible- but unfortunately there are people that will become apostates and do so by forsaking everything moral in the name of "freedom," thanks to the overbearing childhood they had in uber-conservative Christian households. They will regret that eventually, and so will their parents. I hope Matt Slick takes it upon himself to respond to what his daughter has said.

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