{"id":36569,"date":"2013-01-19T21:55:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-20T03:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=36569"},"modified":"2021-07-10T21:57:39","modified_gmt":"2021-07-11T02:57:39","slug":"can-a-christian-be-friends-with-an-atheist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christian-be-friends-with-an-atheist\/","title":{"rendered":"Can a Christian be friends with an atheist?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Good day sir,<\/p>\n<p>I am a woman. I have a friend who has morals and beliefs similar to mine. She is a focused, good person. I have known her for about six months now and, though it&#8217;s not long, I feel she is someone I would want to remain friends with. The only thing is she isn&#8217;t Christian. She is very aware of my beliefs and she doesn&#8217;t seem worried or weirded out, and she absolutely respects that fact. She says that her parents never taught her that there was a God and it was something she didn&#8217;t grow up knowing. Basically, she is an atheist. I still talk about godly things with her and she understands and doesn&#8217;t think I&#8217;m imposing my religion on her. Do you think a friendship like this would work out?<\/p>\n<p>Thank you.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>Friendships don&#8217;t impose a requirement of commonality in all things. It means there are similarities in some things. &#8220;<em>Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?<\/em>&#8221; (Amos 3:3). But friendships can cause problems as well. There is subtle pressure to conform all aspects of life. This can be dangerous when the pressure is toward unbelief or wickedness. &#8220;<em>Do not be deceived: &#8220;Evil company corrupts good habits&#8221; <\/em>&#8221; (I Corinthians 15:33).<\/p>\n<p>If she doesn&#8217;t pressure you to go against your beliefs, then your friendship might be a benefit to her to see what Christianity is really about and she might grow to gain the belief that is missing in her life. Just so long as you don&#8217;t let your guard down against being influenced in the wrong way, there is no reason you cannot be friends with a non-Christian who has sensible morals.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Response:<\/h2>\n<p>Thank you very much, sir. My mum told me the exact same thing!<\/p>\n<p>Thanks again and God bless.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Good day sir, I am a woman. I have a friend who has morals and beliefs similar to mine. She is a focused, good person. I have known her for about six months now and, though it&#8217;s not long, I feel she is someone I would want to remain friends with. The only thing&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[184,233,353],"class_list":["post-36569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-atheism","tag-friends","tag-influence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24847,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-do-you-draw-the-line-with-sinful-relatives\/","url_meta":{"origin":36569,"position":0},"title":"Where do you draw the line with sinful relatives?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My husband has a relative that is a practicing Wiccan doing witchcraft and 'spells' and always wears her 'Wiccan necklace' that she's proud of. She was raised to know about Jesus and God. But in her early teens, she got caught up in witchcraft. My husband's question is: is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33792,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-advise-someone-who-claims-to-have-gender-dysphoria\/","url_meta":{"origin":36569,"position":1},"title":"How do I advise someone who claims to have gender dysphoria?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day! I hope you are doing well. I have a friend who's a transgender atheist, though she did not surgically alter her body (since she's barely a teenager). She inwardly feels that she is a he. She has even demanded us to call her by a male name,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35457,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-interested-in-a-girl-but-she-isnt-a-strong-christian-should-i-take-a-chance-on-her-or-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":36569,"position":2},"title":"I&#8217;m interested in a girl, but she isn&#8217;t a strong Christian. Should I take a chance on her or not?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I really don't even know why I am here asking this when I probably already know the answer. I guess I just need a second opinion. You see, I met this girl a while back. I am a Christian and she is also, but she doesn't really live\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32540,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-the-marriage-of-an-atheist-work-is-it-possible-to-have-a-marriage-that-lasts-without-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":36569,"position":3},"title":"Can the marriage of an atheist work? Is it possible to have a marriage that lasts without divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you think atheist marriages can work? And toward Christian marriages: do you still have to make it work, or can you just be confident it will work since the only reason for a divorce would be cheating? I know a couple -- she's atheist, he's agnostic -- and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27526,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-help-my-daughter-see-it-is-not-good-to-be-jealous-of-friends-who-are-having-babies-out-of-wedlock\/","url_meta":{"origin":36569,"position":4},"title":"How do I help my daughter see it is not good to be jealous of friends who are having babies out of wedlock?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am so concerned about my daughter who is in her early twenties and still lives with us. She is a faithful Christian, has kept herself pure, and tries to be what God wants her to be. However, she has seen a couple of her Christian friends choose the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42828,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-interested-in-a-girl-but-i-dont-know-if-she-is-a-christian-or-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":36569,"position":5},"title":"I&#8217;m interested in a girl, but I don&#8217;t know if she is a Christian or not","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I do a lot of theatre in my area and a few months ago I did a show. During this show, I met a girl. She and I had to wait with each other for our cues in the same hallway during one song, so we talked a little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}