Where Do I Begin...

...with everything in this quote that is so wrong it's sickening?

As a life-long person of faith, it has been a long struggle for me to accept that atheists and agnostics - without what has always been for me essential grounding in faith and scripture - can indeed be truly moral and decent and self-sacrificing human beings. But in fact, I have learned they can be, and to a large extent as much as most people of faith. I don’t know if atheism will ever produce a Bonhoeffer, a Sophie Scholl, an Oscar Romero, an MLK Jr, but I have learned through personal experience to accept most nonbelievers as decent trustworthy moral human beings. But this kind of acceptance takes a long time for most normal traditional folks to develop. The same can be said for acceptance of Muslims or Gays. This kind of change takes time - so be understanding! Most evangelicals are sincere, good-hearted, generous, and compassionate human beings - but most have never had much personal interaction with Gays, Muslims, or Nonbelievers. It takes time.

— Ben Self

Ben. Ben, Ben, Ben. What is your definition of "moral and decent and self-sacrificing"? Why do you get to decide the societal meaning or value of those things? Most "normal traditional" folks? Normal? Why thank you. And to equate with Muslims and Gays? To even group the two, a religion and a sexual preference? A choice and how you were born? "Most evangelicals are sincere, good-hearted, generous, and compassionate" - which ones, Ben? If you've never had much interaction with the groups you describe, I can't imagine your circle of acquaintances is anything nearing large, so you're describing, what, the 20 people you know from your church who are just like you? How about all those believers that excommunicate those who leave the church, donate little or no time and money to the less fortunate, perpetuate hate, and implausibly think God cares more about abortion and gay marriage than feeding the poor, even though Jesus speaks pretty specifically on the latter in the gospels?

It doesn't take time, Ben. It takes exposure to different people, cultures, experiences. I get it, Ben, I once lived in a mega church suburb. But now I don't, and now my intolerances have shifted nearly 180 degrees. Very few things make me as impatient as Christians getting the beliefs of the mainstream American Christian church confused with actual scripture. You can't have it both ways.