Why I Left, Why I Stayed Quotes

“One of the main reasons I remain a Christian is because I love knowing that my sins are not only forgiven, but also forgotten!”
― Tony Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“If you don't believe in transcendent experience, you haven't been to the right concert, you know, you haven't used the right drugs, you haven't had sex with the right partner.”
― Bart Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“I have found that there are two conditions that prevent me from experiencing this life as my theology dictates. The first is guilt, and the second is anxiety. Guilt keeps me oriented to the past. It focuses my attention on the things I should have done, and the things I should not have done. Guilt is a burden that saps my energy, dissipates my enthusiasm for life, and destroys my appetite for saving the fullness of each moment. Anxiety, on the other hand, orients me to the future and keeps me from enoying life in the present, because of the dread that I have about the future. Caught between guilt over the past and anxiety over the future, I have nothing left with which to address the present moment in which I find myself.”
― Tony Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“I sometimes wonder how people like Bart, who no longer believe in the grace of God, handle their guilt. Perhaps, as Sigmund Freud suggested, they repress it by burying the memories of past sins deep within themselves. But Freud went on to explain that such repression doesn’t really work in the long run, and that guilt always emerges from the subconscious, sometimes as phobias and sometimes as neurotic behavior.”
― Tony Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“Some people think the theists get off easy by offering eternal life, but in my experience it is awfully difficult to reconcile the death of a child with the idea of a loving God. As a Christian, I knew what to say, but I don’t think my words made much of a difference. What mattered most was just being there and sharing the hurt.”
― Tony Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“Simply stated, even when we know better, most of us feel deeply hurt and offended when we realize the person we are talking to genuinely believes we are doomed to hell. In a real sense, to write someone off that way is the ultimate act of disrespect, effectively negating every good thing they have ever said or done unless they change their mind and agree with us.”
― Bart Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“I get it that we aren't perfect, or sometimes even much good, but I've still never met anyone who was utterly depraved, without even a drop of humanity left. More importantly, I know lots of people who quite obviously do not deserve eternal damnation. I'm not just talking about big-ticket heroes like Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela, either, but also everyday folks who love their friends and family and who most often try to do the right thing. We all know people like that. We all know some little children too, and no matter how badly they misbehave, we wouldn't condemn a single one to burn in hell. So then, why would God?”
― Bart Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“As far as I am concerned, the notion that God requires a blood sacrifice to forgive the sins of humanity is easily the saddest, most hurtful, and most discouraging doctrine ever invented.”
― Bart Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“Among the many important things I don't know about Jesus: whether he was a good carpenter; how he felt about Joseph not being his real father; his sexual orientation; his perspectives on slavery, abortion, and just war; his favorite kind of anything; his sense of humor; his best friend; why he raised Lazarus from the dead but nobody else; what he thought about between the crucifixion and the resurrection; and why he didn't make sure at least one of his disciples took better notes. I mean, seriously, I know way more about Abraham Lincoln--or Michael Jackson for that matter--than I do about Jesus.”
― Bart Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“Nobody becomes or remains good in isolation. We have to help one another grow.”
― Bart Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“Maybe it was because I'd effectively functioned as an agnostic for a few years already, but it never occurred to me that life without God might have no meaning. On the contrary, among my first thoughts after my deconversion was this: Holy mackerel! Evangelizing people to love, justice, and community is going to be a whole lot easier now that I don't have to convince them to buy a whole set of unbelievable Iron Age myths at the same time!”
― Bart Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing

“I've spent the last thirty years of my life telling the parents of gay and lesbian kids that as Christians, the only thing any of us can do is to accept and love our kids unconditionally, just as they are. I am certainly not about to do anything else when it comes to our own son.”
― Bart Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son – An Intimate Dual Memoir of Faith, Family, and Healing