faith and friendship

Can a Christian and an atheist truly be friends?

Before you label me as a wacko Fundamentalist that wants to lock herself in a Christian-only bubble, let me clarify my question. To me, friendship is based on mutual respect, shared convictions, similar interests, and a deep concern for all aspects of the other's life. Of course a Christian can be friends with an atheist and vice versa. There's plenty of non-religious topics to talk about, movies to watch, hobbies to share. You can (and ought to) respect other's beliefs, regardless of whether they line up with yours 100%. And you can even share convictions with non-religious individuals (I know plenty of non-religious people who are monogamists).

So on the surface, sure, a Christian and an atheist can be really good friends as a matter of fact.

But can you be friends with the atheist who isn't just content with not believing in God, but who views religion as a whole as dangerous and believes that the world would be better off without any religion? Can someone demand that I respect their beliefs that are contrary to my own, but then disregard everything I hold dear? Can you really degrade a whole class of people (ie Christians), but then also truly care for the one Christian that happens to be your friend? If you think that the whole lot of Christians are morons, can you still honestly believe that one Christian is bright, intelligent and has anything worthwhile to say?

I think the real heart of the matter is the atheist doesn't realize what he is saying. He doesn't realize that when he tears down a religion as a whole, he's also tearing down that one Christian friend. And vice versa. The fact of the matter is that there is no "general" Christian or atheist. We're not all fundamentalists or militant atheists. But when we attack one anther, we only see black and white. We try to protect our friends by putting them in some gray area that falls outside of all of our generalizations, and then we become blind to that fact that we're really hating on them too.

So it's really not a matter of can a Christian and an atheist be friends. It's more can you profess to hate a generalized class of people and really be able to love anyone at all.