My son, high school junior, wants to be a firefighter. He is taking vocational training and he is a cadet at the local VFD.
Recently, one of the members of the VFD, told him that he must be a believer (christian) of some sort, since he wants to help people. My son told me this.
And before I could spit out any words, he told me how ridiculous this is to him. What a great young man ! Further on, he said this same dude, started ranting about Catholics and their sex abuse, and how evil they are. While the Catholic problem is indeed terrible, I told my son that the lesson here is that a certain % of people from all religions are guilty of this behavior. Atheists & non believers commit atrocious crimes as well.
I started reading the black collar crimes report to him, loaded with a potpourri of crimes by members of various religions....bored him pretty quickly, end of discussion.
Many years ago as a member of the Natl Ski Patrol. I was taking care of a 7 yr old girl who had hurt while skiing (not seriously). I was extremely nice to her and gave her the best care I could. The mother said to me: “You must be a Christian.” I didn’t say anything because I was an atheist. The thought that you must be godly to be a good person is such BS.
the three wisemen were firemen....says so in the bible......says they come from a" far."