A viral post on reddit featured a user by the name of u/LukasRaynor asking a question in the subreddit “Too Afraid To Ask”, where users are allowed to ask any question they want without fear of being attacked or judged.

His question was simple, yet profound:

This is something I am kinda only realizing now. I guess I ignored it and don’t tell people I am christian, but I, a roman catholic always try to be as good a person as I can be. I try to be nice to everyone else and I try to make sure everyone else is happy. And I can say the same for the other few Christian friends I have.

So why do people seem to hate the concept of Christianity and Christians so much? Genuine question out of curiosity I don’t want to stir the pot with this or anything.

The post quickly received thousands of comments from both Christians and non-Christians all over the world, and their responses were eye-opening to say the least.

I want to be clear, that the reason I am posting these is because I think most people agree that there is an issue with how American Christians in general treat those who are different from them. I know, from experience, many loving, Christ-like Christians.

I firmly believe that when it comes to evangelism, and being a human in general, perception is important. It’s important to know and recognize how the world sees us, so that we can learn from this and grow.

In America specifically, Christianity has a big impact on government and people’s legal rights. This is upsetting for people who are not Christian and do not want to be legally bound by its tenets. Other religious groups, while they have their own values, do not have as much political influence and thus can’t force other people to conform to their beliefs the way Christians do.

Gonna be honest, 99% of all the hate I’ve received in my life (and 100% of the most extreme hate) has been from Christians. In fact, aside from Christians and Muslims, I haven’t had a single negative experience with any other religious person in my life, ever. That’s how disproportionate it is.

I don’t even hate Christianity. I find it fascinating.

…and it seems Christians get even angrier at me when they learn that.

I’ve learned that it’s best not to talk with Christians about Christianity, and I stopped doing it.

The ‘Christians’ in America who are the most vocal and attention-seeking tend to exhibit atrocious values and behaviors completely counter to the teachings of Jesus, which Christianity is ostensibly based on.

This very public and persistent hypocrisy over decades has given Christians a very bad reputation – which is more negative than positive in the eyes of others.

I say this as a person who identifies as Christian.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “there’s no hate like christian love.”

I have been told I’m going to hell and I was not following god’s path for me because I’m LGBT. I hate associating with people who think it’s okay to talk to others like that.

Because I grew up a Christian surrounded by Christians and every single Christian I know is the most mean, judgemental person. I know there are some nice people, but the Christians I know (I went to Catholic school all my life, so there are a lot) actively pushed me away from the religion with their superiority complex for being “more devout than everyone” and thought they were literally being God on earth

Probably because so many of them are utter and complete assholes during the week and pray for forgiveness on a Sunday and then continue to be assholes the next week. I have never met a non judgmental Christian.

While reading these, I hope you came to the same conclusion I did. The biggest thing that is hurting the world from Christians is saying one thing, yet doing another.

Being hypocritical is one of the most damaging things for evangelism. In fact, it’s called out specifically in 1 John (and uses some very strong language:

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

1 John 4:20

Actions speak louder than words. I’ll leave you with this: If people can’t tell that you’re a Christian by your actions alone, then it might be time to start acting more Christ-like to those around you.