Christian Hot Take: people who leave the religion are selfish

Breaking down a tweet from the National Next Gen Director of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention

When I first saw this tweet from Shane Pruitt on Twitter, I wrote it off as another broad statement with nothing of substance. After it popped up in my Instagram feed because some of my Christian neighbors seem to agree with it, I felt the need to respond. That is what motivates my writing today.

I would like to break this thought down by highlighting the three “quoted phrases” in the tweet.

“Leave Christianity”

Implicit in a lot of Christian thought is the belief that only true Christians remain faithful their whole lives and anyone who claims Christianity and later denounces it was never a true Christian to begin. Sure, this is supported in some doctrine and could be referred to as the perseverance of the saints or once saved, always saved, but it is a fallacy through and through. There is a logical fallacy referred to as the “No True Scotsman” fallacy and I think the subtext of using “quotation marks” to emphasize this phrase is that No True Christian leaves Christianity.