Andrew Bordoni is a musician and former worship music leader at a church who just came out as an atheist after waffling with Agnosticism for a while. That alone may not be unusual, but there’s one little detail to his story that makes it all the more fascinating:

I married into a massive and very prominent evangelical conservative Christian family. By prominent I mean that some have worked with and are friends with members of the Bush family, Pastor Rick Warren and other important and powerful people in the Christian and political world. Some have been and still are Presidents, CEO’s, Investors, Chairmen, Etc… of big and prominent Christian organizations…

Yikes… that’s gotta be awkward, right?

Turns out it’s not all that bad. His Christian wife has no problem with his lack of belief — ultimately, that’s all that matters — but it wasn’t easy when he finally came out publicly:

Comments ranged from “Why? What happened? You used to be such an inspiration for so many Christians!” to “This is so sad” to “It’s just a phase, you’ll come around” all the way to long emails and messages saying how concerned they were about our Marriage and kids. The strangest thing of all is that most of these comments were meant with the intent of being caring and loving without realizing the implied offense. I witness that a lot. But wow. What a vote of confidence. “You used to be an inspiration…You are lost, it’s just a phase…Your marriage and kids are at risk…”.

So why come out at all?

I could pretend to be a Christian and please many people in the community and in my family just for the sake of making life a little easier and avoid involuntary patronizing and condescending comments and looks, but I refuse to do that. Life is short and when the day comes I will die proud knowing that I lived my life being honest to myself and to others. That is who I want to be for my children and that is how I want to be remembered.

Good for him. You can read his entire piece here. I can vouch for the fact that his wife’s family members are indeed Christians in high places (though their names are probably unknown to those outside of conservative Christian circles).

Maybe by going so public with his godlessness, Andrew will even hear from members of his extended family who are willing to share their own similar secrets with him. At least, that’s how this plays out in my mind.

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